| Welcome to the Order of the Parallelogram's Library, our Book Club, our Meeting Place|
Once upon a time I worked with an amazing group of girls, all quite different, but bonded by friendship and our rather dismal work environment. Our group became further bonded by reading, becoming closer through shared fictional worlds, and beloved characters in common. We began to refer to ourselves as the "Parallelogram" because of the way we were organized on our work row. Later, while many of us were reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix we found the circumstances of the book to be in shocking parallel to our own situation at our place of employment (aka: the evil empire). This gave us strength and a source of amusement that helped us better work through our more frustrating days. We discussed the books we were reading, laughed with each other, went to see the film versions together, and it was great! We had always talked about starting a book club, but never ended up doing anything official...
As we all left our former place of employment, we found ourselves growing more distant by necessity and circumstance. I thought of doing a book club as a way to bring us back together, reading and discussing books (as well as life), and so the first Order of the Parallelogram was born. Unfortunately, it was born on Facebook, which didn't seem to be a place too conducive to getting a book club off the ground. Later on, I was struck again by the idea...but this time I expanded it out, inviting more lovely people into the world of the parallelogram... Because really, all of us, no matter how different, no matter how far apart, are somehow in parallel. Books are something that unite us and help show us those parallels, so I thought the name still fitting.
| How It Works |
This will be a casual, easy breezy book club where we will read one book per month and have various discussion posts dedicated to our chosen book. No one should feel obligated to participate in every single discussion, nor to read every single book if they have too much on their plate that month... Participate if you can. This should be fun, not a chore. This club is just about reading and talking amongst each other about what we've read, which can lead to amazing discussions about all sorts of things, and can keep us all bonded no matter where we live or how far apart in some respects our lives take us. This club is about books, but it's just as much about friendship; building up old ones, and finding new ones as well.
| Book Selection & Other Fun Stuff |
Toward the end of each month, there will be a suggestion post where members can suggest any books they are interested in reading with the group. All genres are welcome. Variety is the spice of life after all. After that, there will be a poll posted where everyone can vote on the book that most appeals to them at that time. There may also be other fun polls regarding the books we are reading. In addition, I would encourage members to post any reviews/recommendations of other books they are reading that they think their friends in the community might enjoy as well. If any member feels inspired they can also post creative contributions concerning the book being read... Some ideas: A casting picspam (photos of the actors & actresses you would cast in a film version of this book), a soundtrack/fanmix (a post with uploaded songs and perhaps cover art inspired by one of our book selections that the others members can enjoy), fanart (art of any kind inspired by the book), short fanfiction (stories written by members inspired by the book). Members can also post news links to articles that pertain to the subject(s) of the book we are reading and might make for interesting further reading if they know of any. None of these are requirements, just some fun ideas that anyone can post about if they feel so inclined.
