Reading

Despite doing a degree on it, I'm still very bad at reading. It takes me a while to fully understand what is written, my bad memory makes it so that I forget things soon after I read it, and I can't read to relax or read something I'm not super interested in. It's very much an involved activity for me, which isn't bad! But it just means I've not read many books if not assigned to me.

This is why I really love my bookclubs! They give me some structure, a deadline, and an opportunity to discuss texts with someone else. I have two bookclubs going on at the moment, both one on one with my friends (can you even call it a club? Maybe it's more like parallel reading + conversation). I find it's easier for my brain to only have one other person to talk to.

Honamich Bookclub

My friend Honami and I just read whatever piques our interest; it's fun to read but even better when you have a built in person to talk about it with! So far, we've read:

1. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
2. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart

Our next book is Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

Butch Asian Bookclub

Can you guess what the focus of this bookclub is? Two Asian butches reading all about butch history, butchfemme lit, and lesbian texts! Our first book is going to be The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle. We're going to take it a couple of essays at a time, so the first batch will include:

1. Flamboyance and Fortitude: An Introduction by Joan Nestle
2. To the Evening Post by William Cullen Bryant
3. Miss Ogilvy FInds Herself by Radclyffe Hall; and Femme Voices from the Literary World