It's Time to Fall in Love with Books Again

For many of us, the ushering in of fall feels much like a second New Year’s Day. There’s a sense of new beginnings in the air as life seems to shift. Children head back to school; we trade swimsuits for sweaters; pumpkin spice starts to make sense. If your summer was filled with all things, well, summer, autumn is the perfect time to shift your mindset and fall in love with books again. And what better way to do that than with a brand new book club?

According to the New York Times, about 5 million Americans belong to some type of book club. One of the earliest semblances of a “book club” began in 1634 when a woman named Anne Hutchinson, traveling by ship to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, gathered a group of women together to analyze weekly sermons on board. Although the group was disbanded, Hutchinson continued regular Bible studies in her new home. Fast forward a few hundred years to 1926 when a gentleman named Harry Sherman established the Book-of-the-Month Club, delivering current literature into homes and making community reading and subsequent discussion easier and more accessible. In 1996 Oprah announced her book club and since then book clubs have been led by the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush-Hager, Gwyneth Paltrow, the Today Show and Good Morning America, just to name a few.

So, why have book clubs been a thing for so long and what good reasons do we have to throw a book club into our new fall routines? Because the benefits of a book club are plentiful:

• A book club can open your mind to new experiences and new ways of thinking. You will inevitably be exposed to books you may not have read on your own and the ensuing discussions may help you see things from a different perspective.
• A book club reinforces your commitment to reading by holding each club member accountable to the chosen book. And we all know the number of benefits of reading regularly could fuel many, many more articles.
• The group interactions you receive, even from an online book club, are a great way to reap the benefits of being social: decreased stress, sharpened cognitive skills, increased levels of happiness… just the tip of the iceberg.

And how to bring this book love into your life? Attend one (or all!) of the three adult book clubs each month here at the New Berlin Library, find a common group online, or gather a few friends and check out one of our book club kits to get the discussion going. Then fall in love with books again.

Sources

Minnpost.com

bookriot.com

HBR.org