By Emma Kacur, Staff Writer
The new Trinity College Book Club is bringing back ‘reading for fun’! As university students we might feel burnt out by the hundreds of pages of academic literature we have to read for our courses – but that doesn’t mean we should give up on reading outside of the classroom.
Whether you haven’t picked up a book in months or your shelves are stocked with well-loved literature, the Trinity College Book Club presents an opportunity to get involved in a casual community space and engage with people, literature and creative writing. With the heavy workload of UofT students in mind, this club won’t function like a traditional book club where everyone reads the same book and then discusses it. Instead, it aims to create a community of book lovers and be a central hub for all things books and writing related.
Throughout the next semester, they will be hosting informal coffee chats that are themed with a genre. In meetings featuring everything from science fiction to romance novels to popular series such as Harry Potter, people can discuss authors, books, tropes and more in their favorite genre. Of course, as club organizer Alex McLean points out, everyone should feel free to branch out and explore new books by joining a coffee chat about an unfamiliar genre.
While these meetings were originally intended to take place in person at the library at St. Hilda’s, due to renewed covid restrictions they will likely take place over zoom for now. The book club will be offering reimbursements for coffee and snacks to those in online attendance.
Later on, the club plans to host an array of exciting events, such as creative writing workshops and writing contests. This will be an excellent opportunity for aspiring writers to rework old drafts and create new works, as well as for new writers to gain their footing in creative writing and brainstorm their first stories.
A potential collaboration with the Trinity book sale is also in the works. Currently, the club is hosting a giveaway, where you can submit a book review on one of your favorite books to win a gift card to a local bookstore. Attendance of events is open to everyone, but the club plans to open up applications for member positions later in the winter semester for students that are interested in helping plan events.
Students should look out for details and news about these exciting upcoming events on the club’s instagram account @trinitycollegebookclub.
