Well hello there, fellow book lover! The ReaderCon is almost upon us! I do hope that you join us next Saturday, 18 August, for this annual book-ish get-together. It's one of the few events in the metro where you get the chance to mingle with other bibliophiles!
Anyway, I'm doing this weekly meme a day early as I suddenly found myself with a pocket of free time tonight. This week, it's all about book clubs!
Are you a part of a book club? If yes, what made you join one?
Yes, I am! Actually, I'm a member of 2 book clubs. The first one, Flips Flipping Pages (FFP), is one that I'm a member of since 2009. It's a Shelfari-based book club. I think I've been a member since 2007, lurking in the threads and then finally deciding to attend their meetups. It's a very active group, with the members participating in online discussions and then meeting every month to discuss a specific book.
The other book club is a new one, which was started by Orly, a good friend who's also a member of FFP. It's so new that it doesn't even have an official name yet. So far, I've attended two discussions—one on a Shakespeare work ('The Taming of the Shrew') and another on a biography of a former first lady (The Rise and Fall of Imelda Marcos). You can click on the titles for my posts about these meetups.
FFP is much bigger than the other book club. Some of FFP's meetups can pull in as many as 30+ members. So the monthly meetups can be a riot! The other book club, since it's a new one after all, holds more intimate discussions, allowing ample time for the members to interact. Nevertheless, the meetups of both book clubs are not to be missed! They're just so fun!
What’s your favorite activity that you have with them?
Why, the monthly meetups of course! With FFP, you just don't know what to expect in a book discussion. It's always interesting to hear everyone's thoughts on a book. Most of the time, the assigned moderators even come up with pre-discussion activities in line with the book. During the first time that I moderated (The Hunger Games), I had the attendees participate in a game of paintball.
There are also lots of non-book-ish events at FFP. To name a few: bowling night, food trips, surprise parties, beach outings. If you want to check out FFP events for 2011, click here. For 2012, I've posted some of the pics below from our past events.
FFP book-ish events
January
The first month of the year is when FFP members discuss their best and worst reads for last year.
Here I am with Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, my best read for 2011.
That's Gege, the founder of FFP.
February
This month is all about George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.
Me, hamming it up again
A pre-discussion game with my team mates
By our reactions, you just know that we're winning. LOL!
March
I moderated Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth during my birth month.
It's the perfect book to discuss over high tea!
Me, explaining the details of a card game for the book swap
April
This month is all about graphic novels, as we discussed Craig Thompson's Habibi.
Honey, the moderator, showing how to make your own comic strip
May
This month is all about Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss.
Here's the group about to do a meditation exercise before the discussion.
A poolside discussion! Woot woot!
June
Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo was the book of the month.
During the discussion
July
Wayfarer-ed members during the discussion of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One
With R, who moderated the discussion
Best photographer and moderator ever IMHO
Thanks for some of the pics I used in this post, specifically the ones with myself in them.
FFP non-book-ish events
January (1)
The kids of ATD during our outreach program
We brought them to Museo Pambata.
Sana, one of the admins of FFP, holding that awesome book that she authored
Each of the kids got a copy! Thank you, Sana!
January (2)
Bowling night!
Don't let this pic fool you.
I'm no good at bowling.
February
Pampanga food trip!
A whole day of eating and eating and eating
Of course, we have to find the time to visit a bookstore.
March
We attended a surprise birthday party for Iya.
Just look at Iya's book-ish birthday cake! Love!
Some of the FFP peeps with the birthday girl.
Effortlessly fabulous Iya is the one standing in the middle.
April (1)
A lot of FFP members are creative, often participating in bazaars and flea markets around the metro to showcase their products.
Shani makes these wonderful solid perfumes. Look closely; some are quite book-ish!
My favorites are Sherlock, Everdeen, and Arrakis.
Marie sold her wonderful handmade hats during the same event.
April (2)
An impromptu out-of-town trip
Here's the gang at Gege's fabulous Bali-inspired summer house.
The requisite jump shot at the beach with some of the peeps
It looks like I was sucker punched!
(Picture courtesy of Dianne)
Oh my! It seems that I've uploaded tons of pictures already! And I haven't even mentioned the several instances of casual meetups. What can I say? Book clubs are a whole lotta fun.
15 comments:
Wow, the FFP has been very busy! :) Book clubs truly are the best. :)
Is there any chance of a joint discussion between FFB and TFG? :)
Sure, Monique! Why not? Looking forward to it.
I love the photos! I have yet to attend one of your discussions too. One day, one day. :)
Also, yes to the joint TFG and FFP discussion, Monique! :) Let's plan that one time. :)
Thanks, Tina! You're more than welcome to join us during one of our discussions.
The Ready Player One discussion looks ace! I have to agree with you (only based on the photos). But all of them look fun. Actually, any book discussion is fun, no?
Yes, I totally agree with you on that, angus25!
I love it that you guys really go all out on book club meetings and stick to the theme. The attire, the food, it's the works! I remember your post on the bookmarks you had made for your meet up. Those were really cool. I specially loved the Hunger Games ones, being a fan of the trilogy. What does Sherlock smell like by the way? And Everdeen? As in Katniss Everdeen? :)
I really do wish, I could come to a bookish event someday.
Hello, Tin! Thanks for your wonderful comment!
Regarding the solid perfume, hmmmm... I'm not really that good in describing scents. Sherlock though has this clean scent but it's still very manly. And Everdeen was inspired by Katniss!
Hahaha, you may remove the "25" from my name (it's my ancient WordPress username, and when I created it, I was inclined to add the number to any username I had in mind).
By the way, my housemates asked me if I know Orly, and they told me that he/they discussed that rare book about Imelda Marcos. I remember reading about that here before, so I showed them the post. They also know most of the people in the group photo. I thought it was an FFP discussion, and reading this, I got curious about the new club. Is it also based on Shelfari?
Hello, Angus!
Oh, the new book club isn't based on Shelfari. It's an informal company-based group. Orly is from Aegis People Support and most of the members of that club are from that company as well. It started out as a group that discussed Shakespeare. The Imelda bio was the first non-Shakespeare book that they discussed.
And yes, Angus, you're more than welcome to attend any of the FFP discussions! Looking forward to that!
I was going to ask if they are from that company. It looks like my housemates are talking about the same people. This is so ... Cloud Atlas??? Hahaha! Thanks again!
What a fun and awesome book club! You guys sure know how to put quality in life! I'll have to check out Shelfari (to get to FFP) sometime. --Thanks for sharing ..this post put a smile on my face ..seeing friendship at work! --btw, will have to put The House of Mirth on my tbr. :)
Hi, Jinky! You're very welcome to join us!
That one with A Game of Thrones is epic... although the sword is quite challenged in length. Haha.
Hi, readplaydream. Hahahahahaha. Yes. So unfortunate!
Post a Comment