A novel idea

Book clubs in the city are devising ways to make book reading and discussions unconventional and fun

Two teams, in colour co-ordinated outfits, stand on opposite sides of a table, debating which assigned superheroes amongst them will be sent for a mission to tackle Ultron from invading Earth. Other patrons of the restaurant look on as the book club, which goes by the name T. A.R.{who}.D.I.S., discusses Civil War, by Mark Millar.

Book clubs have had a reputation for being sit-down affairs over tea and snacks, but three city groups are trying to make the sober affair a fun-filled experience. “All our meets have a theme,” says Niddhi Shetty, a member of T.A.R.{who}.D.I.S. — the named derived from Doctor Who and the TARDIS time machine—book club. “With the Civil War discussion, we ensured people dressed in red if they supported Iron Man and blue, if they supported Captain America.”

Another city-based book club that enjoys using themes to set the mood of the discussion is the Bombay BYOB Club, or the Bring Your Own Book club. “With our meetings, we choose a theme and then everyone reads multiple books centred around it, for the discussions,” explains Jayanti Jha, the co-founder. Last month, the theme chosen by BYOB was books written by female authors. “I’ve never chosen a book because of the author’s gender, but someone in the group observed that they rarely read books by female authors. It was fun because someone brought a Virgina Woolf book, someone brought a young adult book — it was all very diverse and interesting.”

The Broke Bibliophiles’ Bombay Chapter, on the other hand, believes that having a theme can be stifling and choose to have freewheeling discussions instead. “We want to keep our meets open and unrestricted,” explains Nirav Mehta, one of the core members of the city chapter. The meets are generally held over weekends and in city eateries. An anonymous Facebook user, who used the moniker Broke Bibliophile, founded the Broke club. It was two months ago that regulars on the page decided to form a book club and meet up to discuss books, fortnightly. The highlight of the meeting is a book giveaway that Nirav usually hosts. “I buy two books at a time,” he explains. “And I decided to give one away at the meetings.” The group comes up with new ideas on how to decide the winner of the giveaway.

The T.A.R.{who}.D.I.S. too has giveaways, but of a whole different kind. Members of the club put together merchandise and bookmarks centred on the theme or the book of the month. “Next month we plan to pick a book around cricket, so you can expect a lot of merchandise around it,” says Sanaya Fernandes, one of the co-founders of the group. “Our only rule is to not make fun of other people’s book choices. Step out of your comfort zone and choose a book someone else enjoys — it might surprise you.”

Sanaya and her club are known to have some of the wackiest themed meetings for book clubs in Mumbai. Niddhi talks about the time the group chose 50 Shades of Grey, an erotic romance novel that is revered and scoffed at alike by readers. “We read the book, marked out all the appalling writing bits and discussed it. We couldn’t have discussed the appalling bits sober, so we had a drunk meet. We had a few pints of beer and we discussed the book,” she laughs.

Thanks to their presence on social networking websites, the book clubs say that they gain more attendees for each meet. “We see at least two to 10 new people at every meet,” says Jayanti. On the flipside, Nirav explains that while the event pages on Facebook see registrations by hundreds, only a handful turn up for a meet. “We once had a meeting in IIT with 500 RSVPs, but about 30 turned up.”

The Broke club is currently flying high after having received a mention from American Gods author Neil Gaiman on Twitter. Members of the group started a hashtag on the social network, imploring the author to visit India to promote his new book. T.A.R.{who}.D.I.S. too caught the attention of author Anuja Chauhan recently, when they live tweeted their meeting discussing her book Those Pricey Thakur Girls. “It quickly turned into an ask-me-anything session with Anuja,” gushes Sanaya.

The clubs believe they can co-exist. “They’re book clubs, not some sort of competition. As long as you read, it doesn’t matter where you do it. That’s the whole point of book clubs — to read,” adds Niddhi.