Hey Friends!
I am taking sign ups for my first Bitter End Book Club. I am aiming for an analog experience here where there are no screens involved and you just read a book and write/receive some letters and postcards. Here is my announcement on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DXfDUDplmCq/
Long story short: The book we are reading is Stoner by John Williams which has been equally hyped as “the perfect novel” and “overrated. I have an opinion, but I want to hear yours. Sign ups are happening right now and will continue for the next couple of weeks (nicely while I am out of the country). I am charging $30 (through Venmo), and that gets you three packages from me.
How It Works
I send the first letter with introductory and biographical information. Included in that first letter are two (or more) postcards already addressed to other members. You write your thoughts, favorite lines, opinions, etc, on those postcards (and send me a photo of the text!) Drop those in the mail by the due date. You then receive a second letter from me with more postcards that adds some context and questions and highlights some of the things members are sending to each other. The same is done for the final letter.
The point of this is to get us off our phones and away from our screens. Read the book physically. Send and receive actual paper mail which you can read with a cup of coffee during the summer mornings before or after you read the text. Keep a pen by your side, take some notes. Record some lines. Hold the artifact in your hand and then send a note to another living human, skipping the digital world which has taken us over.
It may sound silly and like a lot of work (especially for me), but I think this kind of thing is important. Books are written with love and they are written alone, but the power of the written word is the ability to communicate our lives and our feelings to others. So this is something that I want to do.
Anyway, send me an email at [email protected] if you are interested or have some questions. Thanks for reading!
RSR