On World Book Day, we are joining the movement of inspiring people of all ages to read.
Here, our very own Peter Moss talks about why he set up the Open Awards Book Club and the impact reading has on him and the book club members.
"We first introduced the Open Awards Book Club during the first lockdown of 2020 but this fizzled out post lockdown when things started to return to 'normal.'
Early in 2023, in a staff survey, many people asked about reintroducing the book club. We did this in the spring of 2023 and a year on, we are still meeting. Attendance varies from month to month but there is a core of about half a dozen regular attenders.
When we restarted the book club in 2023, we all made suggestions for possible reads and a survey was created listing book choices and giving a little information about each one. We vote at the end of the month for the following month’s read and we can add other book suggestions at any time.
We always have interesting discussions in meeting. We talk about the book in question, other books by the same author or similar books by other authors. We then tend to have tangential discussions about other books, films of books and then we have conversations on topics totally unrelated to novels. For example, in a recent meeting we talked about one of the books we haven’t yet chosen to read 11.22.63 by Stephen King. The title of the book is the date (in American format) of the killing of JK Kennedy. This led to an interesting discussion about other famous dates: 1066, 1215, 1666, 1812, and back to books with 1984.
Reading is a form of escapism and our members agree. Teresa Wilson, a Open Awards employee and Book Club member says 'I have enjoyed reading since I was very young going to the library with my mum every Saturday morning, selecting 5 books at a time. I enjoy reading because books takes me to other times and places and my imagination can create the worlds, places and people in the stories. I really like being part of the book club and discussing books with others who love books, it has opened up other genres for that I would never have considered reading before.'
It's encouraging to see the Book Club go from strength to strength and I would encourage anyone who enjoys reading and is thinking about joining a Book Club to do it.