English Book Clubs

Dear readers,

I would like to inform you about two events of our Language Exchange Programme: the English Book Club and the Silent Book Club, both open to the public.

The English Book Club has been running for about a year and a half now. We are a group of 10 members meeting once a week in a hybrid setting: university students meet in person in a room opposite my office, external guests can join us through an online platform called Kumospace.

Each session is divided into two parts: the first 30 minutes are dedicated to the book we are currently reading, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. We have a reading schedule and members have to read a certain number of chapters per week. During each session, we discuss the assigned reading material and its content and I answer any questions may arise. Any members who have not managed to read the chapters before a specific session can choose to join us in the second part to avoid any spoilers.

In the second part we organize various activities, for example a quiz or reading a short story or text. Texts are selected through voting in class or polls in our web page, an online group on the Goodreads website. Some time ago, we read “Marionettes, Inc” by Ray Bradbury during the session and we have just started listening to the first chapter of an audiobook available for free in YouTube, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

Last but not least, we are working on the production of audio material for an episode of our university podcast. The idea is to record two or three dialogues from famous books (for example, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz). We are now in the process of selecting the dialogues and then we’ll assign roles and try to record the dialogues on a file, which will then be sent to the organizers of the podcast. We hope to be able to publish our episode at the end of March, just before the summer semester starts.

The Silent Book Club is something completely different: members meet (for the moment, only online) and chat for about 20 to 30 minutes about any books they have been reading. Then the silent reading session starts: each member picks up their own book and starts reading quietly. An hour later, they come back together again and each member tells the group about their reading experience, paying attention not to reveal any spoilers, in case others are also interested in reading that particular book.

The Silent Book Club can be very helpful for those who are not in the habit of reading and want to develop it as a new hobby or also for people who lack motivation and discipline for reading. A well-structured and social event like this can provide you with a wonderful opportunity to socialize, discuss books and literature with other members and find the time to read your own books.

I would like to thank the London Silent Book Club on the Meetup website for allowing me to host a separate session for our students. For the moment, due to the fact that the winter semester has ended and we are now in the exam period, there are no students attending it, also because it was advertised just a few weeks ago. We hope that more students will join us when the summer semester starts in April. The idea is then to organize a session in presence outdoors at the same time of the current online one.

Both groups are open to the public. If you are interested in taking part in any of them, please contact me through Facebook or at pecchia@hs-nordhausen.de and I will give you the necessary information and weblinks. For the moment, The English Book Club takes place every Tuesday at 6 pm and the Silent Book Club takes place every Friday at 7 pm.

Poem

Hi everybody,

here’s a poem that I wrote a long time ago. I hope you like it:

LIFE

Life is real.

I can see it in your eyes,

when you cry

without hope.

I can see it in your face,

when you smile

with so much joy.

I can feel it in my heart,

when I hear

nothing but the cry

of a hopeless child.

Do we understand the meaning of life ?

Do we shout for fear ?

Do we laugh for joy ?

Do we really care

for our children,

for their future

in this cruel world

full of demons ?

Am I a demon ?

Life is real,

too real,

so real that sometimes

I want to put an end to it,

but I can’t,

because if I do it,

I will lose the only thing I have.

We must live !

We must live

to teach and to learn,

to hear and to talk,

to laugh and to cry,

to stay and to walk,

to love and to hate.

Hamlet said

that the question

was to be or not to be.

I think

that the question

is to be,

full stop.