Student News Desk: East Book Club helps Spartans showcase love of reading

October 23, 2024

Lincoln Public Schools understands the importance of quality journalism to help inform our community and shine a light on the people, programs and events that make our school district unique. Student News Desk is our ongoing effort to promote excellence in journalism and public education. We select a story written by student journalists from our high school publications classes to be featured on the Lincoln Public Schools homepage and social media each month. Congratulations to Avari Wischhof of East High School for being selected for October!

Written by Avari Wischhof, East High

Lincoln East’s Book Club began their second year as a club with new aspirations and ideas on how to enhance the book loving culture among Lincoln East students. With a rocky first year, the club decided to start fresh and establish an inviting environment for young readers. The club meets every other Tuesday in the library at 3:05pm after school.

With only two meetings under their belt so far this year, the Book Club’s initial focus is on letting the members explore their literary passions through reading their choice of a novel, and encouraging the participation of various activities to get to know one another and explore a deeper understanding of their book. This month’s genre is fantasy, and each member is encouraged to select a book within this genre. The club then comes together to discuss memorable moments in the story.

“Instead of having everyone read the same book, we each read different books in a genre,” Book Club president, Kashish Nagia, said. “That allows us to have people read what they want while still being contained.”

This perspective differs from a typical book club in which each member reads the same book and then discusses it together. However, this system works better for East’s book club because of the decreasing population of book readers.

“I think these days, not a lot of people read books,” vice president, Jihye Seo, said. “But book club really helps you know that there’s other people out there or just being able to read any books that you might like and then you can discuss it or you could talk about your favorite characters. It’s more 40% book, 60% social.”

The social aspect is indeed something that is valued for the Book Club at East. An activity that the members can participate in is called a tea party, which is where the members meet up, get some tea and snacks, and discuss the various books that they are reading. This allows the members to feel connected through their love of reading and share their differing perspectives.

“This year, I think I’m just excited about adding all the new people because they’re wonderful new readers,” Seo said. “They’re just contributions to how diverse of a reader we can get.”

Another activity that the club participates in includes something they refer to as “Buried Book” where members can read books that haven’t been checked out from the library in two or more years. The members are also expected to design book review posters once they have completely read their book of choice. This way, they can promote or share their opinion of their book to others.

Book Club is an outlet for passionate readers to meet new people, discuss their feelings about books, and produce creative material inspired by literature. If this club sounds interesting, make sure to check it out in the library after school, every other Tuesday.

---