It’s hard to find other people around you who have the same or similar interests. For me, my heart goes out to reading and writing, and I hardly ever have someone to discuss it with. I have one friend who is a big reader, and she even writes for another magazine, but we are very similar when it comes to our thoughts on books, so it’s not the same.
For a very long time, I’ve had to read alone and rely on Tumblr for posts about other people’s thoughts on literature, and even that’s not the same. I want to read the same books and have discussions about it and be with a bunch of strangers who also read the same book as me.
Luckily — it’s almost as though someone heard my thoughts — I found a book club. An online book club, but a book club, nonetheless. One of my all-time favorite human beings from Freeform’s Shadowhunters, Alberto Rosende, created an online book club, and everyone is welcome! He created an Instagram account, @rosendereads, where we have our live streams and talk about our thoughts on whatever book is being read at the time.
As of right now, we have read six books, which believe it or not, many people don’t actually do that. One of my favorite parts of this book club is that there are people from all around the world reading the same book and sharing their thoughts. We are all learning from each other and pointing out things that maybe not everyone who read the book noticed. In fact, on Twitter, someone even created an account (@rosendereadspdf) to share the PDF’s of the book we currently read in different languages for all readers.
The other good part is that anyone can join whenever they want. I joined in late, so I missed the first book, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, but I still watched the live stream, so I could be ready for the next book.
Two of the six books we have read I had actually already read before — To Kill a Mockingbird and 1984. Alberto picks out some books and gives everyone a heads up on which ones to buy or borrow from a library. Every Saturday, at 12 p.m. EST, there’s a live stream, and we discuss what we read that week and plan out what pages we will read for the following week.
There are all kinds of discussions during the live stream. We have touched on the topics of totalitarianism, racism, family, death, forgiveness, the list goes on. Sometimes, we have discussions that are not even on the books, but we are still learning something from each other. This book club consists of a group of people who love to read and talk about it with other people. Alberto brings a variety of people together for one common thing, and it’s all around very enjoyable and welcoming.
Don’t worry if you occasionally miss the live stream either, RosendeReadsPDF and RosendeReads via Twitter will always keep you updated on what happened and what will be happening in the following weeks. This past Saturday, we all talked about Tuesdays With Morrie (which I wrote about previously) and are now moving on to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
If you feel like joining a book club to discuss various novels with a diverse group of people, you are always welcome to join!
