Reading and sharing impressions about the books is the motto of the book clubs, which are expanding across the country and are the theme of the program. Reporting Paths today (27). Although it was already a trend, many digital influencers took advantage of the wave of online events during the most critical period of the pandemic to create book clubs on social media and get closer to followers.
This was the case of journalist and professor Tatiany Leite, from the project go read a book. She says that she already had the plan to give free classes on classics of Brazilian literature on her internet channel when social distancing gave strength to literary sprints (joint readings). That’s how she decided to start a book club. The meetings take place on YouTube and participants help choose the work to be discussed in the month. Tatiany says that she has already had many positive returns from “people who didn’t read much and became avid, passionate about reading”.
With approximately 350 thousand followers, lawyer Pedro Pacífico gives reading tips on Bookster profile with the intention of stimulating the formation of readers. He started with a website, then made a YouTube channel, a podcast and, last year, decided to open the Bookster book club around the world, which unites a passion for books and travel. “It’s a way of showing that reading doesn’t have to be a solitary activity. It could be something shared. And it’s really good, when it’s shared,” she says.
It was around 2010 that Brazilian publishers began to encourage the creation of reading clubs in bookstores with the aim of increasing book sales. “I think people started to participate, saw that it was really cool and created their own clubs”, says Juliana Leuenroth, one of the creators of read womenone of the biggest phenomena in this matter.
Juliana and her friends Juliana Gomes and Michele Henriques answered the call of the English writer and illustrator Joanna Walsh who, in 2014, launched the hashtag #readwomen (read women). They created the Leia Mulheres club in São Paulo and it didn’t take long for them to start receiving messages from people interested in replicating the idea in their cities. “When we saw it, it was in every state,” she says.
Iasmim Ferreira and her friends enjoyed the challenge of getting to know more about the books written by women and started meeting in the central square of Nossa Senhora da Glória, in Sergipe’s sertão to exchange ideas about the texts. During the period of social distancing, club meetings Read Glory Women were online, but since the beginning of the year the meetings have taken place in person again. “It is an open space to welcome different audiences, children, the elderly, the lovers who are in the squares, the daisies and street sweepers who pass by doing the cleaning”, says Iasmim.
Many clubs strive for diversity in the selection of works. O Decolonial Readings is dedicated to the discussion of books written by black authors from different countries. The club is curated and mediated by friends Camilla Dias, Isa Souza, Pétala Souza and Maria Ferreira, who already produced content about literature on social networks. “We see the lack of thinking and knowing the knowledge that is developed by the black population”, points out Camilla.
Participants contribute to the club through a crowdfunding platform. They are given a schedule for each reading cycle, which lasts two months. During this period there are meetings for conversations about the book and also creative writing workshops.
For the writer Jeferson Tenório, winner of the Jabuti award in 2021 for the novel the reverse of the skin, reading clubs are an important mediation space for the formation of readers. “I think it is the expansion of a readership, in a way, more sophisticated”, in the sense that “the people who read the book go deeper into the themes and then share their impressions”.
Children’s audience
Reading clubs: shared stories., by TV Brasil
Children who participate in the Maria Clara Machado clubhouse, organized by the Lima Barreto library, in the Maré region of Rio de Janeiro, report that they have improved reading by participating in activities during the pandemic. Gabriel da Costa, 10 years old, declares full of emotion: “the clubhouse lives in my heart”.
“We think a lot about the question of identity, of the child knowing where he lives, knowing where he belongs. Based on their desire, based on their concerns, we plan which reading to do and how to approach this reading”, explains the mediator Cláudia Ferreira.
For ten years, teacher Ana Soares has been betting on the Lê Comigo reading club to encourage students at the Dom João VI municipal school, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, to put books into their routine. “Literary reading will bring vocabulary, will improve oral expression, because [a criança] he is living with other worlds, he is dialoguing with other peers. This result of improved learning is inherent”, says Soares. Student Antônia Pereira, 9, says she likes to participate in the club because friends help her when she has trouble understanding the text.
Third Age
Book clubs: shared stories. – TV Brazil
O Club 6.0 works at the other end. Participants are people over 60, an age group from which the reading rate in Brazil drops significantly, according to Galeno Amorim, president of the Observatório do Livro e da Leitura. The club was created by him in 2020 and is already in more than 70 cities in the interior of São Paulo. Interested parties can apply online. According to Galeno, readers are divided according to profile and have free access to more than 50,000 titles. Another activity front of Clube 6.0 is the work in long-stay institutions.
José Antônio Júlio, 76, lives at Lar Padre Euclides, in Ribeirão Preto, and says that at the reading club he feels motivated to share the texts he writes in a notebook, but he almost always knows it by heart, with his colleagues.
The program Reporting Paths airs this Sunday (27), at 8 pm, on TV Brazil.
