With the Moose Jaw Public Library closed due to COVID-19 regulations, the Festival of Words has gotten creative with its monthly book club meeting by taking it online.
Book clubbers are invited to check out the chosen book of the month using their library membership on Hoopla, and check into the Virtual Book Club Facebook event to join the discussion on the novel.
As usual, the book club will wrap up on the last Thursday of the month with a discussion online, at 2:30 p.m. on April 30, but the page is open to participants to share their thoughts before then.
Amanda Farnel, operations manager, is excited to give the new virtual method a try, to keep people talking about the literature they’re enjoying even while social distancing.
The book of choice for April is Harold Johnson’s novel Corvus, a post-apocalyptic fiction set in northern Saskatchewan that was longlisted for CBC’s Canada Reads last year.
Originally, before the pandemic measures changed the calendar, the monthly book club had planned to read Johnson’s newest novel Cry Wolf, which is why Farnel selected Corvus as the replacement.
“It's a fun read and it's a quick one. There's lots of interesting things to talk about,” said Farnel. “It's one of my favourite books, so I figured that would be a good one to start with.”
Moving to a virtual platform will change some of the elements of the usual book club, said Farnel, but she’s hoping that people will be just as enthusiastic about interacting with one another in an online format.
The Facebook discussion will feature questions specifically about Corvus, but participants are also encouraged to talk about whatever else they may be reading as well.
“(We wanted it to be) a place for people to just congregate and not talk about COVID-19 or what's happening in the world, just the getaway kind of place,” said Farnel. “We figured it'd be a good place to bring people together and talk about different books and some positive things.”
Farnel plans on continuing the book club this way for the foreseeable future and will continue choosing future books that are all available on Hoopla so everyone can find them.
“We're just trying this out and we'll continue to revamp it, as time goes on,” said Farnel.
Farnel also figured Facebook would be the most accessible platform for most participants, and said she is already seeing excitement in the community to take part in the new virtual version of the club.
The Virtual Book Club is the first bit of programming that the Festival of Words has altered due to the pandemic precautions, and Farnel said that they are hard at work trying to reimagine other programs as well.
“We're in the very, very early stages of possibly trying to move our Performer's Cafe virtually,” said Farnel. “We're trying to do as much virtual programming as we can right now, in order to help people out in this time where you can't really do much else, to at least get them engaged with the community still in a different way.”
The Virtual Book Club will be taking place on Facebook, available on the Festival of Words page, and is open to anyone wanting to participate.
This month’s book, Corvus by Harold Johnson, is available to borrow on Hoopla in both ebook and audiobook format. Anyone with a library membership has access to the website.
