Hey reader,
It has been a minute since I was on here, and I have no excuse other than I wasn’t feeling up to it. I am back now and hopefully I’ll be regular with my posts, but I am not making any promises.
I am not sure if you are aware but I do run a bookclub, Books and Banter , and if you read my 2019 Year In Review then you know I promised a blog post with more details about the club and how one can be a member. So let’s get into it, and maybe I can convince you to join us. 🙂
The Genesis
On the 25th of December of 2018, my friend Cynthia asked if I would be up to a weekend readathon to help clear our current reads. I love readathons and readalongs so that was an automatic yes. She had asked 2 of her other friends, Mimo and Paulyn as well, and that marked the start of a reading group, a solid friendship and an even higher tbr. Shortly after we grew in number. A friend here, another there, all brought together by our shared love of books and strong opinions (both in books and life). Let me tell you, you need to hear Jen talk about her love for African Lit, or Lynn and Merie who will go down swinging for YA. Ask them for recs, you will love them!Romance and New Adult? Well let me introduce you to Liz . Michelle will have you camping at her page, lover of poetry and she writes too! Then there is Pi Thrillers and Crime Fiction, a fellow Follet fan with the best recommendations. Nish will give you Literary Fiction recs, then we have me, with my classics and Historical Fiction. What a group we made!
After a year of bonding through tons of books and heaps of banter, we realised we had one thing,(besides books), in common: HUGE TBRS. Now here is the thing, it’s been said that buying books and reading them are two different jobs and the 11 of us were(are?) a testament to that. We needed a way to tackle them, that was fun and engaging to ease up the daunting piles we have, and there Books and Banter was born.
Who We Are
Our Instagram will tell you that “we are an eclectic book club focused on reading our tbr” with emojis too! But what does that even mean? As seen above we read differently and we have even bigger tbrs so we needed a way that will have us clear that pile of books and read more. Most of us, if not all, had tried the conventional book club way where we read the same book each month and meet up to discuss it after and couldn’t hack it, so that wasn’t an option here. That’s where we came up with the idea of prompts. Each month we have a prompt and read a book, or two, from that and throughout the month we share our thoughts and opinions on the books we are reading. At the end of the month we have a wrap up post where we give final views and recommendations, and all of these things happen online.
The idea of prompts helps us read from our bookshelf and is always a great way to get recommendations from others. In some cases we find ourselves reading the same books and this prompts a readalong or buddy read and in others we read completely different books.
It is also a great way to discover new genres and authors, or try something completely out of your comfort zone.
2020 Monthly Prompts
- January – Fiction
- February – Gifted Books
- March – Femme March
- April – Russian Literature
- May – Asian – Pacific
- June – Short Stories
- July – Classics
- August – African Literature
- September – Thriller/ Crime Fiction
- October – Horror / Paranormal
- November – Non-Fiction
- December – Romance / Poetry
How To Join
Like I mentioned, we are a purely an online book club so all you have to do is follow us on instagram over at booksandbanterbookclub , join in the prompt and share your reads by tagging us. That’s it. Everyone is welcome and it is not mandatory to participate on the prompts, you can come just talk books with us.
If Books And Banter sounds like a club you’d want to be part in, join us! We are light on the chit chat and heavy on the booktalk and we would love to have you!
Are you part of a book club? Tell me a little about it
Until my next post, stay safe!
29/04/2020 at 10:07 am
Bug! I love this and I and I absolutely love you!
29/04/2020 at 10:40 am
Thank you. I love ya too! ❤️