SUMMER BOOK CLUB

Opening this weekend!

Happy Spring, fellow book lovers!

The sun is sitting low in the sky as I write this, the birds are singing sweetly, and the delicious smell of a thousand flowers is wafting over to me on the patio.

Every year I have a mini-eucatastrophe of my own when I see the blossoms come out again for the first time. How did I forget that grass could be so green? How did I survive all winter without the cheery faces of flowers greeting me on my morning walks? I feel like Frodo on Mount Doom, forgetting the taste of strawberries and cream. I guess winters in the PNW will do that to you.

Anyways, I promise that my ramblings have a point (as do my references). I am coming to you today with some very exciting news. After a lot of discernment and waiting for other things to fall into place with my schedule this summer, I have finally chosen a book and a schedule for the Love of Literature summer book club! Your feedback was so helpful in giving me the motivation to actually do this. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of people that said they would be interested. I sincerely hope you can join!

(P.S. This book club idea might not interest you, and that is totally fine.¹ I will still be posting free content about great works of literature for you to enjoy!)

If you are interested in this idea, read on for all the details. But before we get into the practicals, here is the book we are going to read. This summer’s book club read will be…

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien!

I have been aching to re-read the trilogy for the last few months, and I can’t think of a better way to journey through Middle Earth again than with all of you!

This particular book club will be exploring the themes that Tolkien was aware of and/or would have agreed were present in his book.² The discussion questions will be geared towards certain themes, but also with a mind to the reader’s own unique experience of the novel. In other words, I am hoping this will be a process of discovering the richness of the stories together, rather than me simply telling you what to think about his works. ☺️

Details

Start date: June 23

End date: August 31

1. Registration will open this weekend (Saturday or Sunday) — keep an eye out for a second post from me.

2. Sign ups will be in the form of paid, $5 monthly subscriptions

   1. IMPORTANT: The paid feature will only be activated for the duration of the book club and then deactivated after, so please sign up for a monthly subscription, not annual. I don’t want you to get stuck paying more than you had hoped. If you have pledged an annual subscription, I will continue to send out reminders before the start date so you have time to adjust your plan if you wish. This means the overall cost for the book club will be between $15-20.

3. When you sign up, you will receive exclusive access to the following:

   1. Reading schedule (pdf form available)

   2. Weekly subscribers-only post with discussion questions (participants can share their answers in the comment sections)

   3. Exclusive subscriber-only chat so you can continue the conversation about the book and share LOTR memes to your heart’s content

*Participants are responsible for obtaining their own copies of The Fellowship of the Ring (it is recommended but not necessary that you purchase the edition which contains Tolkien’s forward in which he talks about his dislike for allegory).

That’s it! It’s pretty simple. Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope that as many of you as possible will join us! The more the merrier in this fellowship. :)

As always, happy reading!

Maddie

1. P.S. Whether or not you are interested in signing up yourself, if you think others might be interested this, please feel free to share this post to help me get the word out!

2. Basically, this book club is going to be led from a Christian perspective (even if not explicitly). That doesn’t mean other views aren’t welcome, as long as they are respectful of and true to the intent of the author!