What is Book Club?
Mentor High School’s Book Club is an extracurricular that is dedicated to providing students at Mentor High School a great time consisting of analyzing and discussing all different genres of literature. The club will be soon be opening as the 2024-2025 school year commences with its first meeting on Tuesday, September 17th in A-Wing Room 101. Last year, the first meeting consisted of members introducing themselves, their favorite books, and different forms of media. It will likely follow a similar path for the 2024-2025 school year. The club will also vote on deciding a book to read together! That’s right – members of the club research different genres and books they are interested in and they’re allow to present what they think is fascinating for the Book Club to read for the next couples of weeks, and then they take a vote on different member’s opinions and decide.
What’s the Schedule and Format of Book Club?
Members of the Book Club try their best to meet every other week to discuss a book. On average, they spend two weeks reading half of a book, and then they come in to discuss it. They write their thoughts, feelings, predictions, thematic/symbolic interpretations down on index cards and share it with the group, and a discussion begins on each point listed down by a member. After that initial meeting with a book, the members are then given another two weeks to finish (or not depending on how long the particular book is, which sometimes generates a third meeting of discussion) the book and then come in for discussion. Once that discussion has concluded, they research books and genres and what people might find interesting in general, and then the cycle continues. Book Club was able to finish five books in the 2023-2024 school year and hope to accomplish a similar amount this year.
What are the Benefits of Reading?
People who don’t read out of school might be hesitant about joining a book club, however reading in general can positively impact a person’s life. One of the reasons why books can make you more knowledgable is that it simply opens up more exposure to new cultures and ways of living. One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read was on a subject I had no real knowledge about. The book was called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It depicted the culture of the Igbo people in the 1890s while the rise of colonialism was taking place and expanding into Africa. It was a fascinating book compiled with subtlety and nuance, and it created some views for me on the world. Books like that can really further and expand your viewpoints and there’s multiple books out their like Things Fall Apart that can inspire your thinking and it’s truly amazing when you experience something like that from reading.
Books are also just generally entertaining in general. Books can be analyzed and simple words and phrases might be hiding a deeper meaning rooted in symbolism which can be great if you ever thought about re-reading a novel. Books might not allow you to perfectly picture a scene as perfectly as a television show or a movie, but that is in actuality, a benefit. Books allow you to create your own interpretations and visualizations of scenes in your own head, it allows you think and artistically design an image in your own mind based off of the words you read, and that is one of the reasons why I find reading books so unique and special.
Why YOU Should Join the Book Club
I joined Mentor High School’s Book Club in the 2023-2024 school year and it was overall a beneficial experience. I’m the type of person who reads occasionally. If a book is widely praised or if it’s assigned for school, I’ll read it. However, I’m the sort of person who likes familiarity and didn’t really have an initiative to expand my horizons. Book club gave me that initiative. It was the first time I ever read a mystery novel, and I was heavily rewarded for that. I’ve read two more mystery novels since last year. Books clubs also give an incentive to finish reading as you’re rewarded with a fun discussion at the end of them.
We managed to read five books last year: Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, Small Favors by Erin Craig, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – a very diverse set of books. We hope to accomplish that again in the 2024-2025 school year. We hope to see you their Tuesday, September 17th!
