An Asynchronous Book Club Experiment
Imagine holding a fresh book in your hands. You open it. The first blank page. The blank margins when you roam through the book. The space of possibility is magical. But: a book is not experienced in those blank spaces.
In book clubs we try to fill those spaces metaphorically by talking and exchanging about what we collectively just read. At their core, book clubs are a testament to the power of shared narratives. As individuals come together to dissect the pages, they embark on a collective journey, weaving a tapestry of thoughts, emotions, and perspectives. But Book Clubs as we know them mostly do that one hour a month, with your individual version of the book, synchronously.
So what if we could use those empty spaces and embark on this journey, step by step, thought by thought, collectively, yet in our own time, by passing a copy of the book from person to person?
Let’s find out together! Let’s use the margins to get a conversation going!
Here’s How It Works:
- You register by filling out the form below.
- You receive a book by mail that has been read by someone already and has their thoughts in the margins. Sometimes, you will get a fresh addition to the Library. You will be their first reader in our circle.
- You read the book. Write your comments, ideas, thoughts, questions in the margins of the book. Share thoughts and ideas. Add to existing comments. Turn the book into a written conversation!
- When you finished the book, you send it back to our Headquarters
- Once we receive your book back, we will send you the next one.
- The book that you just read now goes to someone else and inspires their experience with the book.
What Does It Cost To Participate And To Ship?
Participating in the Conversations itself is free of charge.
We will also take care of the costs it takes to shipping the book to you.
Please keep in mind, though, that you have to pay for shipping the book back to us. That means, for every book that you get you should budget the costs it takes to send the book back to FRANCE.
We try to keep shipping costs to a minimum. Some countries offer a reduced fee for sending books within a certain range of dimensions and we try to match those. However, we cannot take any guarantee that this applies to every book that we send.
We will send the book in a cardboard box that should allow you to reuse it when you send it back to us.
Rules:
How often you get a book:
- You can get a book once a month.
- You can take as long as it needs you to read the book. If it is easier for you to work in deadlines, we can set a deadline and ask you to send it back in time.
- You receive the next book once we receive this book back.
- You can pause or end the shipments anytime you want.
What you can do with the book:
- You can write in the book, highlight text, put Post-Its or other scraps of paper in.
- Use the book how it allows best for your flow! Love it, hate it, talk about it, dream about it!
What you should pay attention to with the books:
- Please treat the book with a bit of raised care. The more we all pay attention to how we use the books, the longer they can circulate and the longer the conversation continues.
- Please keep all text readable.
- Only use a pencil or fine line pen.
- Do not use dark coloured highlighters
- Do not write over any printed text or over other people’s comments
- Use Post-It Notes when possible and fix them at the top or the side of a page.
- Do not glue or tape them in the book. Fix them with paper clips if they don’t stick.
- Leave space for other people to join the conversation
- If you tend to have big hand writing, better use Post-It Notes.
- And don’t let your pets read the book. They tend to leave paw prints.
Register Here:
Have A Recommendation To Add To The Library?
Any Questions or Ideas?
Please provide Name and Email, if you want us to answer. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.