Archive for the tag 'book club'

A Book Club for the Homeless

Mark K November 14th, 2009

Last summer, I learned about a book club for the homeless, founded in Boston.  Peter Resnik, a downtown lawyer, made it a habit of cutting through Boston Common on his way to work. Each day he would see a homeless man named Rob and they began having daily conversations about jokes, sports, and eventually literature.  Peter loaned a book to Rob, who in turn shared it with other homeless people. Before long, a book group was created, with members meeting each Tuesday to discuss stories while snacking on doughnuts and coffee.

The meetings are described in an Boston Globe article by Jenna Russell:

When talk flows at the book club, the dynamic that emerges is pure and powerful.  The members are equals, linked by what they read and respected for their insights.  Their discussions…are both a stimulus and a respite for people used to staying focused on survival – where to sleep and how to stay dry – rather than the themes and symbols of fiction.

This description very much appealed to my own sense of what a book group should be about – that the group should use the literature as a stimulus for discussion and sharing rather than something that needs to be critiqued and dissected.  I sent an e-mail to the group and received a response from Ron Tibbetts, a Beacon Hill church deacon and longtime homeless outreach worker.  Ron has created a nonprofit group, the Oasis Coalition, and has replicated the idea of a book club for the homeless.  I offered to donate copies of my book Still Blinking and he wrote back, accepting my offer.

The books are now in the mail and I look forward to hearing about what kinds of interesting discussions the stories might generate.  Ron says that the idea of a book club for the homeless is spreading across the country and that he plans to set up a blog to keep people informed of the progress. I’ll share that information on this blog when it becomes available.

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Real men read books

Mark K February 3rd, 2008

I was told men don’t like to read. Men aren’t very good at getting together unless it involves competition, bloodshed, or gambling spoils. Men don’t do book groups.

So I joined a women’s book group.

It was great. The women read the books. They got together monthly. They talked about feelings and had deep discussions.

There was only one problem – they didn’t always get around to actually discussing the book.

That’s when I came up with Men Who Pause.

I would prove the world wrong. Men, I knew, really did long to come together in ways that didn’t require icepacks, peace treaties, or taxidermy. They could gather, using literature to stimulate good conversation.

Each month we would choose a theme with a corresponding book and movie. We would meet and talk about ideas which the book and movie inspired. Men are good at what the child psychologists call parallel play – two little boys can’t jump in a sandbox and have a heart-to-heart, but give them a toy truck, a couple of sticks, and some dirt and they know exactly what to do.

No one knew what to expect. The first film was Grizzly Man and the book was Into the Wild. The theme amounted to: “If you make a really bad decision out in nature, you will probably have an unfortunate experience at one of two ends of the food chain.” Discussion questions were assigned. One member spoke for many, smirking as he dismissed these stories about “two idiots who had it coming.”

Each month, it got a little better – the discussions were deeper and livelier. There was only one small problem: Unlike the women, our members seldom read the book.

We tried “dumbing down” the curriculum; read one chapter, use Cliffs Notes, just read the dust jacket. Some showed up with brand new books, then offered strong opinions, quoting liberally from the first three pages. Leadership was questioned; rotating leadership was instituted. It appeared there might be torn rotator cuffs and mayhem after all.

Then came the successes. A former nonreader admitted that he had now become a book-finisher. During a Jack Kerouac discussion at a San Francisco bar, we were told by young hip women that it was cool to see old guys talking about books. A stranger at a restaurant, overhearing our discussion of The Catcher in the Rye, offered a fifteen-minute monologue about a guy he once knew named Holden.

Then last summer, we planned a campout and only three of us showed up. After dinner, we sat around the campfire and Ashwin cautiously pulled a never-before-shared manuscript from his backpack. He proceeded to read incredibly personal, painful stories that he’d written about his childhood in India. Patrick and I sat in the dark and listened in awe.

We still have a lot to learn about how to do this whole book group discussion thing. But I’m confident that pages, chapters, and someday, entire books will be read. And discussed.

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