3 hours ago
Showing posts with label Literary Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literary Society. Show all posts
I am not very far into my re-read of the book yet (Jane just got to Rochester's house and hasn't met him yet), but to give myself a little inspiration, I created a Jane Eyre board on Pinterest! I don't think I've actually used Pinterest for years, but this situation called for it. I found a lot of interesting things to bookmark, and thought I would share them on my blog today.
Jane Eyre's Home - To start this off, I found this blogger's description of visiting Charlotte Bronte's home really fascinating, and the pictures added a lot to my understanding of the landscape she probably had in mind when she wrote Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre Literary Dinner - I remembered seeing a literary dinner idea in the past, and a little googling led me to this gorgeous Jane Eyre literary dinner. Their decorating really matches the mood of the book!
Jane Eyre Ambience - Need a little music to play in the background while you read? I found this Jane Eyre Music and Ambience playlist, and also this playlist "for Jane Eyre and Rochester slowly falling in love".
Close Reads Analysis Of Jane Eyre - I am planning on listening to this podcast as I finish each set of chapters. The gang over at Close Reads is basically the only reason I ended up liking The Great Gatsby, and I'm curious to see what insight they have on Jane!
Jane Eyre, The Comic Book - I found this Jane Eyre graphic novel and requested it from my library - I thought it might be fun to see how they adapted the book to comic book form.
Jane Eyre Cardamom Seed Buns - Several years ago I read a great book called Voracious, which included recipes inspired by works of literature. When I was working on my Pinterest board, I remembered that book and looked up the author's blog - and what do you know, I found the Jane Eyre recipe! I don't seem to remember the seed cake/buns/whatever-they-were in the book, but I'm sure I'll get there.
Jane Eyre Seed Cake - On a similar note, here is another seed-related recipe.
Beauty And The Beast, Jane Eyre, and Rebecca Help Us Decide Whether A Jerk Can Change For The Better by Faith Moore - You might have caught my post yesterday about the princess book I read - well, I was poking around on the author's website and saw this post about how Jane Eyre and Beauty And The Beast relate. I remember not loving Rochester last time I read the book, but I thought the author of this article raised some really interesting parallels between the Beauty and the Beast story and Jane Eyre. Spoiler: Moore doesn't think Rochester is a jerk, not a true jerk. You'll have to read the article and tell me what you think. This article also helped me understand my more lukewarm feelings toward Jane Eyre - I've never been as drawn to the moody-man-who-is-changed-because-of-a-woman storyline. Give me Prince Charming instead, please. But we'll see if my opinion changes as I read this time through!
I had such fun putting this Pinterest board together that I'm considering doing one for the next classic book I read! What's your favorite classic?
I binge-watched Gilmore Girls on Netflix a couple years ago, and I just couldn't pass up a themed day like this at a coffee shop no less. So a Gilmore-Girl-loving friend and I went to check it out! For those of you who couldn't make it - the free coffee was black, and though I love black coffee, my friend and I upgraded to a latte. They had a "Luke's" sign out front; a sign reading "No Cell Phones!" (since Luke hates cell phones); Lorelei coffee quotes; and all the baristas dressed in plaid, aprons, and backward hats like Luke. We waited in line for 40 minutes (it was a long line) and discussed Rory's relationships (Team Jess!). It was a great way to spend the morning.
So, in the spirit of Gilmore Girls and Rory's love for books...
Today I am going to talk about how to start a Literary Society - because a couple months ago, I started one!
What is a Literary Society you may ask? According to my definition, a Literary Society is like a book club, only there are no assigned books - you just get together every month or two with your bookish friends to talk about what you've been reading and maybe get some recommendations!
A couple months ago I was listening to The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - which is a great audiobook, by the way - and I thought, why do we not have Literary Societies anymore? Why can't bookish people get together every now and then and blurt out all their bookish thoughts? As a busy mom, I like the idea of a Literary Society much better than a book club - because I'm pretty sure if I started a book club, I would rarely make it through the assigned chapters before the meeting, and I'm pretty sure other busy women would have the same problem. This way we could read what we like and just meet up to talk about what we thought, which is much less pressure than a book club.
So, I threw it out on Facebook, and before you know it we had our first meeting over coffee and cheesecake. It was everything I wanted it to be, and one of my goals for October is to get our next meeting set up!
We are still working on a name. It's hard to top The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society. I'll keep you posted.
If any of you are interested in starting your own Literary Society, I have a few suggestions...
Invite a bunch of people.
Some of your best girlfriends may or may not be readers, so my suggestion is to put it out there for extended acquaintances and see who is serious enough about books to join! We had five of us at our first meeting, and several more who will probably come this next time. Some ladies I knew well, and some I didn't know very well - but talking books will help you get to know someone better pretty quickly!
Don't be snobbish.
If you're the type who only reads high literature or classics, make sure you don't make someone feel silly if they like popular fiction - or vice versa. Focus on making sure everyone feels welcomed and validated for their reading choices. One thing that I've learned is that not very many people read, period, so choosing to spend time on books in general gives you something in common!
(Note: Be welcoming of all kinds of reading choices, but do use good judgment too - our group is full of Christian ladies that I know well enough to trust not to be recommending something inappropriate or racy. If your group is more mixed you may need to set a guideline for discussing racy or controversial books to respect each other's convictions.)
Set up your Society plan.
Our group decided to meet every other month to give us time to get through books between meetings (we're all busy moms), and we are all going to read The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society at some point, since it inspired the group. Our group has kept it pretty casual as far as guidelines go, but depending on the mix of personality, politics, and faith, you may need more structure or discussion guidelines. I'd say to keep guidelines as simple as you are able, whatever you decide on as a group, and make it clear that everyone is to be as respectful as possible to each other.
Make it fun!
If meeting at The Cheesecake Factory doesn't make a book club fun, I don't know what does, but I'd love to hear your ideas on ways to make meetings interesting since our Literary Society is still in the early stages!
Have you ever been a part of a book club or Literary Society? What was your favorite or least favorite part?
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