It’s America in 2020. We’ve been stuck inside for weeks.
Life, as we know it, has shifted considerably very fast. There is a new normal afoot, and even those of us bookish introverts, highly accustomed to living in our own heads for weeks at a time, are starting to go a bit stir-crazy.
Solitude was a lot more fun when it wasn’t a government mandate.
There are a lot of ways to pass the time during a quarantine, some of which are healthier than others. But you can’t do much better, in our opinion, than to start a virtual book club. My own book club held its own inaugural Zoom last night, and I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. Our pick was Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow, so there was plenty of discussion material, too.
Here are some other reasons to start your own Quarantine Book Club.
Reading is known to lower stress, alleviate depression, aid sleep and improve self-esteem.
Socializing is known to boost our overall wellbeing and mental health, not to mention our immune systems.
We need the distraction. Often our news feed acts as one long freeway accident, an almost-magnetic force pulling our eyes in its direction. We’ve got to learn to look away.
Hold onto a sense of normalcy. Reading is normal. Talking to your friends is normal. Book clubs are normal. In these highly abnormal times, normal feels great.
Get inspired. There are so many inspiring stories out there — stories that we need to be reading. About overcoming. About resilience. About the heroes and helpers in our midst.
Discuss something other than the pandemic. Even those of us who do already socialize on Zoom or FaceTime these days often default back to news of the virus when the conversation lags. Did you hear about…” “Did you read about….?” Having a set subject matter means you can discuss something other than the pandemic for a while.
Have a great excuse to check in on each other. Listen, we need each other right now. Having a thing that you have to discuss — well, that’s just the excuse many of us need to reach out. Once a month, you are guaranteed to get your eyes on people you love.
See people you almost never see in real life. In a regular book club, you are hemmed in by so many factors — chief among them, geography. I’m just not going to be willing to drive more than about an hour to get to someone’s house. With a virtual book club, you can ask people from different cities, from different states, even from different countries to join up. Someone’s in Sweden? Or the military? Or bed-ridden? No problem!
So are you convinced, or even just intrigued enough, to start up a virtual book club? If so, feel free to download our little starter kit. It’s a step-by-step guide to getting the most of the experience.