What I’ve Learned About Myself From Literati Book Club Subscription

Literati sent me a 3 month subscription to their book club in exchange for 3 blog posts. As always, these are my honest thoughts on the service & subscription.

related: Literati: Pros & Cons + Literati Book Club: “Klara And The Sun” + My Thoughts

I’m nearing the end of my trial run of the Literati Book Club so I’m wrapping up with my thoughts on the service & how they worked for my reading life so far.

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I should read outside my comfort zone more often

I think book clubs should push you a bit. I’ve really appreciated that I’ve read outside my normal genres. This is always a tough one to juggle for me. I’m sure many of you can relate.

I’m an adult with responsibilities. I want to read but there are only so many minutes in a day. Do I spend my limited reading time on books I know I’ll enjoy or try something a little different that I may not like as much?

Reading daily is a great habit

Making reading a daily habit is a great idea that I’d like to keep up. I think it does work best if you can find a specific time of day to consistently do it. My schedule fluctuates from day to day so it was hard to find a rhythm. One day I go into work late so I’d read in the morning but then the next day I go in earlier so no reading time until I get home that night. Or I’d be so busy getting everything done for the next day, I’d forget that I need to read the day’s selection.

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Book genre & style mattered way more than I thought it would

I had never realized how much the content of a book influenced how I approached reading it.

My first book, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, could be described as literary science fiction (maybe? I’m actually quite terrible on the nuances of genre). This novel tells a story though. When I reached ‘my’ stopping point for the day, I have something to look forward to for the next day.

My ‘complaint’ for this particular book was it only had 6 large sections to it. I’m the type of reader who reads to the end of a chapter before stopping. The sections in the book were far too long to do that. Therefore I was left stopping at odd points.

My second book, Ghostland by Colin Dickey, is a non-fiction book. The biggest plus for me was the basic formatting of the book. There were 4 major sections to the book consisting of 3-5 chapters each plus introductions, etc. That basic formatting made it incredibly easy to figure out the daily reading. Just read a chapter!

My biggest con for this non-fiction book was there was no overarching story to ‘look forward to’. Each chapter focused on a different place & bit of history. I had to push myself to pick the book up since there wasn’t a “story” I was missing. [This probably ties into the fact that I’m not a huge non-fiction reader normally.]

Reading with others was way more tricky than I thought

Part of Literati’s appeal is the book club aspect. You have this space to talk about the book with others people when you have the time.

Maybe it’s because the books I read didn’t generate great discussion questions/topics/ideas for me. Maybe it’s the fact that my social anxiety is ridiculous (yes, even online). I didn’t contribute much to the discussions. I did however enjoy reading through what others had posted (I am a lurker at heart).

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My final selection is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Fantasy is closer to what I normally choose to read. Here’s hoping that this allows to me to feel more comfortable with jumping into discussions online.

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