KOCHI: Reading a book over a cup of coffee is a euphoric experience. Then how about a discussion on books over a cup of coffee by voracious readers? If this is interesting for you, ‘An afternoon with books’ is your destination. The meetup is organised by Book Club, an initiative started by Rani Subramanian, Harris Ali and Nikky Khalad.
“We started a group on Facebook called Reading Racoons, which was intended for children. The group helped the parents in selecting books for their children. Later the Senior Reading Racoons was started for the parents who are passionate readers. The members are voracious readers,” says Rani.
Nikky is Rani’s friend. However, the other members of the group were unknown to them. So Rani and Nikky planned for a meetup. “Meeting and discussing books in real rather than on a virtual platform turned out to be special. That’s why we planned for a meetup in March, 2018. However, the only one who turned up was Harris,” she adds.
After the initial meeting, the three decided to hold a meeting once every month. They weren’t bothered about the number of people who turned up, all they wanted was an intellectual conversation.
When the thought of converting the group into one of serious readers, they started a WhatsApp group called the ‘Book Club’. “The members have different tastes. Some may be fans of fiction, and others for historical books and Malayalam literature. So the speciality of the club is that when we conduct meetups we get so much knowledge from each member. We gain information about subjects we may not be aware of. Now we are looking to widen the base,” says Rani.
The group also conducts book exchanges. But the founders have made an exciting rule too. “Those who cannot lend, cannot borrow too. Everyone who lends their book have put forward the most popular books. Everyone comes to the meeting and discusses about the book they have read. That gives a wider perspective on each book and subject.”
At a time when the reading habit is getting extinct, groups like ours will be a bliss for passionate readers, says Rani. ‘An afternoon with books’ will be held at Café Coffee Day, Kaloor, on Saturday (July 13) from 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm.