Nobody Panic - How to Start an Online Book Club

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

Part 1 of this week’s book club special is all about how to start a book club without actually seeing anyone. And it’s so easy! And fun! Stevie and Tessa look at how often to meet, where to organise everything, what to talk about and why being a Book Dictator is never a good thing. Also find out why Tessa’s mum got kicked out of the village book club after just one session.Recorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive Productions.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Follow Nobody Panic on Twitter @NobodyPanicPodSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Nobody panic. That were too jaunty, as we've been described in the Times. I think lean in. Absolutely lean into it. Welcome. Come on in. You're looking for a jaunty old time.

Then we, you guys. Also, I would like to say that in the lovely article in the Times, it didn't say we were too jaunty. It just said jaunty. And I think that's a great description. Listeners, new and old. We've been in NME. We have been in The Guardian. We've been in the Times. We've been on the mail on Sunday. We've been in the evening standard. We're having the time of our lives. We've been in everyone's quarantine podcast roundups. May I just say we're absolutely thrilled. Couldn't be more thrilled. And hello to anybody who's come via any of those. If you come via the broadsheets, then come on in. Welcome.

NME was a very cool one. I discovered after 15 years of, I think, quite publicly calling it the National Music Enquirer. I didn't think press statements. I was really getting the word out. Because, you know, it felt like a sort of small. smug thing just to be like, oh, I actually know the correct name. And I don't know how I got it in my head that it was National Music Inquirer, but boy, was I committed to that fact. Honestly, if it had been a million, millionaire, who wants to be a

millionaire, a million pound question, that, like, I would have said without a shadow of a doubt, it's called the National Music Inquirer, and I'd have lost all my money. Anyway, it's called, it turns out it's called the New Music Express. I'm devastated. At phowing to HMV as his master's voice all the time. It is called that. I know, but just like, I would never call HMB. Oh. You wouldn't.

Did anyone ever come with you to his master's voice? No, I had no friends, Tessa. I can't imagine why. I know. Today, though, so we've got a bit of a special situation this week. Because we are going crazy, we've decided to do two episodes this week. And it's Tessa's idea, excellent idea. We're doing a book club special.

Number one, which is today, how to start your online book club. And then on Thursday, we're doing books, book recommendations and books to pop in that book club. With best-selling author and friend of the podcast, Andrew Hunter Murray, he of ostentatious, of QI, of No Such Thing as a Fish. And he has written an incredible best-selling thriller called The Last Day. And he's on Talking About It, and he's just dream really being lovely. And that's on Thursday. It's relentless content. Oh, and then, also, tonight.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh, guys. So if you're listening to this on Tuesday morning, saddle up, because tonight we're going to be running the Nobody Panic-only-Connect Zoom quiz. A number of people, seven people. When I said that nobody in my family wanted to play Only Connect, wrote in and asked if they could play. And for those seven, here it comes.

I'm going to be playing the sort of Richard Osmond from Pointless Character, well, I'll just be sort of saying facts about the words. for Tessa uses. It's a pointless only connect mashup like one of those universe crossovers like when the Avengers pops up in a different

you know different film so if you can imagine that but in a quiz and on Zoom and it'll be happening in my living room and your living room it'll be that guys so join us this evening

ready for the Zoom quiz check out the ID at Nobody Panic Pod that's where we're going to put it up on our Twitter feed I'll be there Stevie will be there. Hopefully someone else joins us. Right. Before we get into how you can set up your own online book club, which as I've been reading about it, I mean, I was very much like not, not

vibing setting up my own, but I was like, I'm going to give it to give my advice to the people. That's fine. I want to do it. It sounds really fun. And just as relaxed or pressured as you want to make it, i.e. very relaxed. Yeah. I've never been in a book club. Have you, Stevie? No. Never, nothing asked. No, no one's ever asked me either. My mum was kicked out of the ladies' one in the village. Why? Bad behaviour.

And I think suggesting, I think saying that the book choice was bad. They'd been running for a long time and then she was allowed to go to one and it was suggested it maybe wasn't for her. And then my dad is, in the last year, my dad formed a gentleman's one in the village. the gentleman word meaning only male as opposed to a sort of velvet smoking jacket experience. But it made me genuinely quite jealous. So I'm really excited about this. Yeah, it's going to be right. Before we get into the tips, though, each episode of the podcast,

we'll have to talk about what adult thing we've done this week. And what adult thing have you done this week, Tessa? Well, I sort of took my own advice about attempting to do family Zoom. for Easter and we managed to do my immediate family who are all living separately to each other and then my auntie's family and my cousins and we all managed to get on Zoom for the Easter Treasure Hunt and then I we couldn't get Grandma to understand Zoom but I managed to FaceTime her and then I held her up to the camera on my laptop so everyone could so she could see everyone and everyone could see her and then she did her treasure hunt. That's amazing. You've been

the sort of technical director. Yeah, I had to be the technical director of the experience, so I wasn't really, and I would just chime in occasionally to help people out when I could see that things are derailed. But I felt so, I was really impressed with the family effort, basically. And also, if it's any help to anybody, if you can't get Grandma on Zoom, can you get her on FaceTime and then hold her up to the camera? Good questions. Questions for the masses. Grandma's treasure hunt though does consist of things. It was about things around the garden and you had to guess where they were.

All her clues are honestly, so my uncle's called Lee and she'll be like, who's married in and she'll say, oh, you'll know this one, Lee, you'll know this one. And then it'll be like honestly, like an offhand comment Lee made in like 1984. Everyone just sits there like blank face being like, how is anyone supposed to get that?

Anyway, it's the highlight of my year. And I'm so glad I managed to do it. So that was, it took a lot of pre-production. But we really pulled it off. Well done. What's yours? I froze some grapes. I googled it because I was like,

it seems like you just put the grapes at the freezer, but there's always something else to it. There isn't. You just put the grapes in the freezer. We had grapes that were going off. And I was like, well, I don't want to eat a whole thing of grapes. It turns like you have to take them off the little branches. Understood.

Yeah. Yeah. I've frozen some branches. Yeah. It's been a great week for me. I think that's absolutely fantastic. What I've also heard you can do with frozen grapes is you can put them into, to cool a drink down. Oh, that's a good idea.

So you can put your frozen grapes into your wine. So I had read that you did that with frozen grapes. One summer, I was like, I wonder if it will work with anything. So I put some frozen peas in my drink. Now, they will defrost very quickly. So quick. You just got pee wine. It was so disgusting.

It's actually very difficult to find out. adult things in these unprecedented times, I will say. I would counter that by saying, just getting through the day is, you know. Let's talk about book clubs. So we've already said, so you, well, neither of us have been in one. So we are so well placed to teach you how to run your own. But what, to be honest, as with many episodes of this podcast, I have done some deep diving. I've done some deep diving.

And Tess has written down two words. That's right. What are the words? Do you want to start with your two word tip? Yes. This is a tip for everyone, actually. I sometimes write notes to Stevie in my WhatsApp. So I remember the next time I go to Messenger, they'll be there.

And I sometimes send them by accident. This one was the word audio question mark. And it was just a note to say that listening to audiobooks is reading. Like you have still taken in the book. I think there's such a thing at the moment of people being like, oh, I didn't read. I read the audiobook. You're like, yay, yes.

like you're just taking in a story however you wish to take it in like I think we're really good at you know making people feel lesser for not enjoying physically holding a book and so I think if you're immediately like oh I don't want to be in a book club because I don't like to read or people will say like oh that's not the right if I didn't read it on the audio book or things like that's like no way yeah or worse you feel like you can't even say that you listen to it you have to be like yeah I read it and then you just feel horrible guilt and like everyone is so much more intelligently, whereas intelligence has got nothing to do with whether you wanted to read it or listen to it. Yeah. Who gives a shit? People take it in information in different ways. And so,

yeah, so many people are like, oh, I've heard people whisper to me, like, I didn't actually read it. I had it on audiobook. Like, why is that? That's reading. That's reading. Why is that a shameful secret? So I was just saying my number one thing was like, let pop that down. And so if you're, if you don't feel like you love books or you're like not, you know, I think there's a lot of, I think you're use the word shame, but I think there's a lot of that sort of wrapped up around reading that if you weren't sort of Matilda as a child, you're like, oh, I'm somehow like lesser than everybody else I'm not a bookworm. But I think like they're just stories written by other people. Wow. Very profound. So profound. I know. I'm glad you said that tip because my,

my first thing was that with lots of, um, as with all projects that I would like to embark upon, the name is the one thing that is my stumbling block. I need to have the perfect book club name. So that would take me about six or seven months to a year to come up with the perfect name. There's like a pun on an already existing book, taking a book title and turning into a book club name. And what my tip is, ignore it. Literally call your book club. Stevie's book club, unless I'm not involved, in which case, don't. I didn't even know you had to do that. Can you give him an example of a good title? Fully booked. Cheese lover's book club names. Aguda book club. Okay. Hey, good booking. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't even know we had to do that. So that's a, you know.

Look, you don't have to, but I think, I think if I may take from that what they're trying to help you with is that it's nice to have a book club. You're like, okay, book club, that feels a bit overwhelming as an idea because it's like, uh-huh. And so what's the, but if you can narrow it down to be like, it's specifically, we want to read these sorts of books or specifically these are the people that are in it. Start off with like a little bit of identity. Yeah. And I think that identity is what will help you get it. If you're like, oh, here's all my friends who I know all really love this particular genre. Or here's a group of people who I know have never read a Jane Austen book, you know. Me, for example, I've actually never read one. Oh! I know. Dreadful, hey? No. No, not dreadful. Just like, I've not, I've not, I've, there's loads of authors that I haven't read, because you can't read every good author. I know, but I do feel like I should have done it. You know what? Pop that shame down.

Pop the shame down and also you maybe, rather than should, just be like, you could. You'd like it. I even did my GCSE English Literature on North Anger Abbey. Right, now we're going to it. I hadn't read it. Got an A-star

because I learnt the phrase free indirect discourse and just whanked that about. I did a module in my degree, my English literature degree on North Anger Abbey and I haven't read it and I got, for that module, a third. So... That's because you didn't use the phrase free and direct discourse.

To this day, not sure what it means, but boy, did I litter that essay in that exam with it. My second and first proper tip is, like, a good way of doing an online book club is you need to, like, a central hub. And apparently, I see. Goodreads has really good, um, it's basically, it's similar to doing like a Facebook with closed group. But if you hate Facebook, then you can go on Goodreads and then also you can set questions and have different message threads for different books. and post like author Q&As of the book that you're currently reading or do you know what I mean like things like that okay next next tip is pretty much you touch up Donat Choy and come up with define a purpose for your book that you don't actually have to have one it could just be we just want to read more fun books great but um you might want to come up with like a couple of like maybe three little bullet points so for example a good one would be like we want to make sure the books are diverse we want to make sure we read books by women and men we want to make sure that we read these kinds of books or is going to be like a horror genre book club or a sci-fi or, you know, fan fiction, whatever. Just so that everyone in the group knows what sort of things.

So then you don't get Debbie Coates, Tess's mum coming in halfway through and going, why are you recommending these books? Because it's all written down for you. We all know. Exactly. These are the rules. Yes. And not to have like a million rules, but to be like, we only do fiction or we only do non-fiction or we want to read these sorts of things or, yeah, give yourself nice and I think.

otherwise it can if I had to choose a book for book club I would feel so sort of panicked about that and I think once you narrow it down to be like okay it has to be in this you know you narrow your fields down a bit more it feels less overwhelming to be like okay these are the sort of things we're going to be yeah when like when someone because I did the thing at the end of the year where like I wrote I put on Instagram all these so actually if you're interested in my book recommendations thrown my Instagram at stevm the SSFive and I've got a little highlights thing and it's got like all the books I read last year that I

liked, I really, really liked. Basically, I should have just said my favorite book, so that's a lot easier. But loads, I've been getting loads of messages being like, start this one, don't really like it. And you're like, oh, well, I don't know, I like it. What do you want me to say? I'm sorry. And then, and then occasionally they'll be like, I pushed through and it was, I was all right. You're like, okay, great. And I love those messages. I'm not saying I don't like those messages, but I mean, it makes me feel really bad for having recommended the book. And it's like, no, so if, yeah, so if you do have like, those rules then there's not really a bad,

there's never a bad book recommendation for book club because if there's a bad book that means that like everyone hates it then you can all bitch about it, it's fine and then it's kind of like a fun that's still a really interesting discussion. Absolutely and I think you have to step away from that element of like autonomy of like, is people going to like this book? It's like you didn't write it, you just chose a book like you don't freak out And I know it's because I'm in a film club

where we choose a film once a week. It used to be a live thing and now, of course, it is happening over Zoom and so you have to choose something that's on Netflix and we all press play at 8 o'clock and then we debrief afterwards. But, and then you choose who's going to pick

the next time by this sort of random number generator thing online. Thrilling. When it's my turn, honestly, I panic night and day for seven days. I would hate that so much. Right? And so it's, It's thrilling for the other ten times that it's not me choosing. It's someone else's choice.

And then my one, I make myself sick with nerves about it because what if everyone hates it? What if it's a bad choice? You know, and it's such a dumb thing because when I watch someone else's film, I don't judge them. I'm just like, what an interesting film? And I've enjoyed them all.

And even if it's not something I would ever choose myself, that they are totally separate to my feeling on the film, you know? Yeah. And always the discussions are really interesting. You've just got to try and separate. yourself from that like, you know, how you don't judge anyone else for their choices. Like, don't get yourself completely worked up. Which is why maybe one of the rules, and I think this probably is a rule of book club anyway,

but it's just like make sure that the suggestions that people are giving. And you can use like an online, that was another tip. Like an online service, like SurveyMonkey or Google forms to submit suggestions. Because I think having some sort of poll as well is good because then it's, it's, it's democracy, guys. Yeah. It's not like just a book lord who's like this one. And everyone's like, oh, book lord.

Oh no, definitely a new person every time. Every time, yeah. And everyone can like maybe contribute to a list and then it can be selected at random, which one goes first. Oh, that's a nice idea. There's lots of websites like pick at random.com where you put the list in and then the computer, yeah, generates which one. So then you can kind of, or, you know, you can just like get someone to pick it out of a hat or point or whatever.

but then it's just a bit more kind of friendly. Yes, that's a lovely idea. I hadn't considered that. Take the pressure off, you know? Take the pressure off a little bit more about Goodreads. Because if you've got a Facebook, if you wanted to kind of do it on a Facebook page, if you want to do it on a WhatsApp thread, that's so fine.

But I think people tend to prefer, from what I've seen, having dedicated hubs because we all are in too many WhatsApp groups, as it is. We don't need any more. So Goodreads, basically, you can, It's a group that members can join on the group landing page. You can put your description. You can keep track of members.

You can also moderate discussion. So if you have, it's not a book lord, but you have like a discussion moderator. That's quite good because then I googled good questions to ask her to book club. And so it's like, are there like 40 questions? And it's all like, you know, what did you like most about the book? What did you like least? Did you find it realistic? Like, were you emotional at any point?

Basically, all the kind of obvious questions, you can kind of put all them in there as well. It also allows you as well to, when you're kind of looking, free books and stuff, you can earmark some that you would like to then recommend to everybody else, which I think is quite nice to kind of keep it all in one place, because I'm constantly on Goodreads, because it's a really good, like, review site for books as well. So you can kind of use Goodreads to pick your 10. But what I'm once saying initially was that to make it clear that no one has read the book that they are suggesting, because then it then it's nobody's fault if it's bad, because it's just like, well, I was recommended to me, you know? Yeah, I think that's

such an important rule of book club that you choose something that you yourself haven't read and therefore, you know, it's not, then it's not that pressure of you presenting your most loved treasure to the group and everyone be like, I didn't like it, it's just like a book you've, you've written. Don't put your own self-published book, your own e-book into book club. No, terrible idea. Absolutely not. And also, I was looking at how often you should meet because that's the thing. I'd be like, every week or something. And then it's like, well, it's not enough time to read a book. But you don't have to have read the whole book. You can meet up, like, when people are halfway through as well. That's quite fun. So you can have something where,

if it's a long book, people say, like, every six weeks is quite good. If it's like a medium-sized book, then every month, then you can also, if you have, like, a good read hub or a Facebook group or a WhatsApp chat or whatever, then you can have, like, at midpoint, you can have, like, a little forum where it's like, don't go in here if you don't want spoilers. Such a good idea. And you start each message with what page you're up you're up to. So people can just stop reading if they don't want to. But if they do, then they can be like, oh, yeah, I thought that was like this rubbish. Oh, I hope it doesn't do that or whatever. That's so nice. That's quite nice. I think what really book club is just

about forming a sense of community and like do it, you know, joining in with people. Because so often even if you loved a book, if you read it on your own, you sort of just get to your own end and you're like, well, that's, that's done. Yeah. I've completed that and then you put it down. It's nice to be able to, you know, and sometimes I'll have have to go and tell whoever I'm with or a member of my family and be like, sorry, can I just explain this bit and then I'll have to tell them the whole plot and then I'll get to it. And then I remember, this is a dumb reference, but I remember when Sirius died. Oh my God, from the Harry Potter franchise, everybody listening.

Yes, when Sirius Black went behind that curtain, I was, however old, I was 14 or a teenager. and I, I, 14 or a teenager. And I was sat at the top of my stairs, sobbing, like sobbing. And my dad, I had to just be like, just try and understand it. And I had to tell my dad, like, who everyone was. And I remember shouting like, he was going to be happy. Like this. He was going to live with him.

You know. And so. It's so important to have people who have been through the book with you and to, I don't know if anybody is a fan of Game of Thrones or everyone has even heard of it, but in the books, this terrible red wedding scene, there were various, like, locked forums on the internet to, in order to protect people, people with the book readers were so good about, like, protecting people from spoilers that they locked all the forums. and there was basically like a quiz to get in to like see if you'd actually think and then once you were in everyone was like welcome wasn't that a terrible terrible bit of the book I think it's so nice to be able to share those experiences with with other people yes the amount of times I've read a book and then my boyfriend's been like oh I'm gonna I'm gonna read that but he doesn't read it for like two months and by that point I've lost I want to tell him all the things but I can't yeah and then

when he is reading I'm like oh yeah that that that was good because I've sort of forgotten it yeah yeah in the moment you want to be like ah You know, you can't see us, but we're both sort of shaking our hands around gesticulating. Like that's where you want to be able to share with somebody to be like, oh my God. You know, even Stevie's been live streaming a book she's currently reading that I believe she's put down now because she hates the stop. You've had to pop it down and you know what? There's no shame there. You popped it down.

It wasn't for you. But she was keeping me abreast of what was of the plot and I felt like I was there. I felt really bad because it was with it. If anyone's interested it, it's Mark has. Haddon the porpoise and Mark Haddon wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and I haven't read any of his other books and started reading it within 40 pages there was such a massive twist that I screamed aloud in the in the house and I couldn't say to anybody because my boyfriend's going to read it so I couldn't be like oh so I just did like an Instagram story

out of pure need being like oh has anyone else read this book like what's about the twist and then loads people were like oh yeah cool I'll buy it and then 40 pages after that it became a completely different book and I hated it and then I was like oh my god I've just inadvertently got everyone to buy it. Ah! So then I had to go through all the messages and be like, just so you know, the book got really shit. It's become like a weird Greek myth book,

and I'm not really into that. But if you're into that, that's fine. And I'm so stressed about the responsibility of having done that. Whereas if I was doing a book club, I could just sort of do that and we could all talk about it. And I probably would have continued to read it because I would have been like the sense of community and also been interested to talk about it with other people.

I've read about six or so books since lockdown began, and all of them I've just been, you know, putting them down. Like, it's, I'm thinking how much I would like to be able to talk about them with somebody and how excited I am to start this, this book club. And so I think, yeah, set whatever time frame you think works for you. If you guys are all ploughing through books and you haven't got a lot on, by all means go week to week. Otherwise, maybe every month is more sort of achievable and start it over Zoom and everybody can be in with their, you know, get a drink, get a, have a little sit down, see everybody.

It's like a lovely social It's social. It's that. It's probably the most human thing in the world just being able to You know, talk about something altogether. I read this little tip and I just thought it was funny Because I just don't take this the wrong way, but I just thought it reminded me of you. And it said that book clubs can get very heated But as the leader of your book club, you need to take things in your stride

And for those who disagree offer another option So another option on the list that they can do Like a bonus read. And then if you have two mini book clubs going so all the people who've read book A can chat, all the people who've read book B can chat, that's still fine. For that, I'd say one portion of the book club, quite stressful for the leader,

but then you can go back to your normal list after that. Also, I'd personally say that that is a very nice way of doing it. I'd just be like, well, if you don't like it, just sit, sit this one out and then come back, you know? How could you dislike a book enough to not want to join the book club? Surely you want to talk about it? I think a lot of people, there are certain books that a lot of people don't want to,

don't think is appropriate to read or don't like Oh, I see. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I understood. Like, for example, there was a, someone did a tweet the other day, which was, is there a book? I think it's Lauren Bravo, friend of Nobody Panic Podcasts. She said, is there a book that a guy could read or a girl who would mean that you, it's like a deal breaker,

you would never go out with them? And I was like, I don't think that, apart from like the game by Neil Strauss or whatever's name is. I don't think there is one. And then someone said, American Psycho by Braties-Nellis. And I was like, oh, I really like that book. I didn't say that. I thought it in my head. And then I was like, oh, that's so interesting that so if there's a book

club and I was like, for example, let's read Bray Sinella's a book by him. He's got terrible opinions as a man and a lot of people find his books very misogynistic. And who knows, I just like that one book. I haven't really read a lot by him. But if I suggested that, that could cause a debate. And then it's like, oh, wow, do you want to, you know, say, oh, okay, we won't read it because some people might want to. So you can kind of, you might have to mediate a little bit. That's so interesting, isn't it? Because I don't think there's any time that unless somebody said, because I wouldn't mind if someone had read the game, we could talk about it. I think the issue is whether they then love the game and think the game

is the greatest work of literature. I've read the game. Just quickly, anyone who doesn't know, the game by Neil Strauss is basically a book that shows men how to pick up women and it's like the pick-up artist's Bible. Bech. Quite hardgoing, if I'm honest, and if I may, poorly written. It's very boring. But yeah, it's very interesting whether you'd even not want to read a book written by somebody who turned out to be, you know, a bit of a bad guy or, or whatever. And I think that's the sort of one of the themes of, um, Nanette by, uh, can you enjoy the work of, you know, great artists who turned out, who were absolute dickheads, you know, and do you, if you continue to immortalize and to say

their work is amazing. Um, but I think can you still read it, you know, like, should you still read it and be, and at least, because I think there's a difference to listening to a There's a difference between I think between like enjoying and loving and playing at a disco, the songs of Michael Jackson, and reading a book by somebody who wasn't a good guy and at least understanding what it is and appreciate it and at least knowing what's in there. Well, I think also it's something that you can talk about because everybody feels very difficult and you can set that as one of your rules like, so what, you know, if somebody comes up with it with a suggestion, everyone's like, oh God, no, it's like, okay, well, why? And that's very interesting to, because I've definitely done things like I read, um, uh, I read Lelita. knowing that I don't, I know what the plot is, I don't agree with it, I think it's gross, and also he, the writer is a, is a, ugh, but I read it out of interest. But then at the same time, like, I don't think I'd read Mind Camp.

If our theme was like problematic books, you know, should we read Mind Camp? Oh my God, I'm not answering that. I'd say no. But it's a good question though, isn't it? It's a very interesting. It's a question because I think everybody has their own, everyone has their own experience and you take that experience to the art that you consume. So you just have to make sure that everyone's happy with the list.

And so when you see that book list, you know, you can maybe post a little blurb of the book underneath each, you know, so it's not just like a list of book titles, do a little bit of research. And then you can kind of, if there is something that you find problematic. I think it's so fine and so valid to be like,

oh, I don't know if I can read that. But can I, like, Bob out, or can I read like another one and I can just like tell you about that. Or do you know what I mean? And I just read Bar Bar The Elephant while you're all doing mine count. and I'll just pop in with my opinions. Yeah, I think that's it, isn't it? It's just deciding, like, if you're a group of people who want to read problematic,

controversial work, like, then that's the theme of your book club, and you all know it. If you're a group of people who want to read, like, current, your themes are like, they have to be current, they have to be published this year, they have to be, like, good, fun reads, like, these are our themes of our club. And so I think it's just, like, knowing, like, so someone doesn't, you know, so they're you don't have, you know, de-coats getting kicked out of the book club because she was like... Suggested mind-camp. She didn't get the rules of whatever this particular book club is.

It's not to say that she was inherently bad at it. It's just like, this is what this group want to do. The rules of the one my dad is in are that they had to be, you had to have not read it, and ideally nobody else in the club had read it. And hoisted by his own platard, somebody did a book that he had read and loved, and everyone fucking hated it. So don't fuck with the rules. Don't fuck with the rules.

Yeah. And he let slip that he'd read it. And so you're like, no, damn to rules. And also exactly what you're saying about thinking you could cheat the system by being like, oh, everyone's going to love this,

wink, wink, wink. And then everyone honestly hated it. Anyway, so no one has to have read it. Ideally, it was a modern one. It had, there was a word limit on it. So no one was presenting like infinite jest or any sort of like massive tomes. And they all had to be, yeah,

they were, current bestsellers and they had to be available in the Wallingford Bookshop. Good, that's good stuff. And what they do is they meet, I think, every two months and whoever has chosen the book and they just go in order, I think there's eight of them, there could be more. They go in order on whose choice it is, and then whoever is book it is hosts it that week in their house. And they do a food and drink spread that is themed to the book.

Oh, that's so great. Maybe you could do like a Zoom background that's themed to the book. So I think if you, it's just on Zoom. Yeah, lovely theme background. A little homage in your appearance, perhaps. And, no, too much. I already regret that sentence. I quite love it.

Maybe it's optional. Optional. And then maybe the host says, like, this is the menu if you would like to get it yourself, perhaps. And then everyone can sort of suggest bits in the, you know, food that they eat in the book or whatever. And then you sort of have to do it yourself,

but at least you've talked about it. that idea, you know? Yeah. You have the enjoyment of like, oh, that would be nice if this was real, you know, element to it. We haven't even talked about like where you do it, but I think, I think it's safe to say just any, like your favorite, like, FaceTime, Zoom, what's our video call, anything. Exactly. Wherever, wherever works for you, wherever you can get every, the most people. Zoom is probably the best because you can get, you can have a lot, a lot of people and if someone's got a Zoom pro account, which someone will, because everyone knows who works, has a Zoom pro account, don't they?

So, nab theirs. And just because they're hosting it, doesn't mean that they're the actual booklord. You're still the book lord. Who's the book lord? The person who's running the book club. They're the book lord. But like a benevolent booklord of democratic values rather than, you know, a President Trump-like booklord. Who's just showing videos of how great their books choices are.

But yes, well, hopefully that helps. I feel when we said that we do this, I was a bit like, I have no idea how that would work. but I can see how it would work now. It's actually quite nice. Yeah, and I think for me it's about taking, my main takeaway is like taking off that pressure of like, what if you choose a book wrong or what if your opinions on the book are wrong or whatever, and being like, it's okay, any opinions is an opinion. Like, that's what the discussion is for?

And if everyone just enjoyed the art and was like, I love it, five stars, you know, there wouldn't be, what's the point in making art? Yes. It's about, you know, it's about discussions and opinions and whatever that wonderful sentence was about you bringing your own experience to art. Please do share this about. Make your own book clubs. Please do tweet us if you have a set up at your own book club.

I'd love to hear about it. It's at Nobody Panic Pod, where you'll also find the Zoom ID for tonight's Only Connect quiz with Tesson. And me just really there for moral support with a little Tesla face on a flag. Just wave again. I might make one. Anyway. Can you wear a nice shirt and tie like Richard Osman?

I'll dress like Richard Osmond. Yeah, I'll dress like Richard Osmond, 100%. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. If you are in Book Club, please let us know and tell us any books

that you've loved in Book Club, any that caused a real forora. That's what you want. You want a little bit of debate. You don't want everyone to go like, yeah, I really liked it. That's boring, you know? On Thursday, we've got quite a lot of good

recommendations of books that are a little bit, like, you might like it, you might not like some elements of it, you might be interested by, so like, just causing a little bit of, you know, a fizzle. A bit of free sign. Hopefully there's something in there to, like,

get your teeth into to be like, oh, what a great discussion we had about this. You know? Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. And I guess just have a lovely rest of your week, you know? Yeah.

Have a fantastic time in isolation. Hope it's going okay for you. Hope it you're hanging in there. The highs are high. The lows are low. And that's lockdown, baby. All the better for doing this podcast, if I'm honest. Truly, it's been my lifeline.

Yeah. Every week, we say it and it sounds more and more true as it goes on. We certainly seeing it quite flippantly and now there's a real edge of like, Don't end. So also I'm on Twitter as well. I'm at Stiviam. The S is a 5. Tessa.

I'm at Tessacote. I'm also on Instagram at at we pray love. But yeah, do like, subscribe. Give us a review. That's nice. Oh, we'd love a review. Yes, do reviewers.

Thanks are really happy. Unless you hate it and then don't. And have a, do you guys, have a lovely, a lovely week. And we'll see you on Thursday. Yeah, see you on Thursday. Okay, I'll see you tonight. Okay.

Bye.