Finishing up,

The group met two more times to talk about The Life Of Pi book and for the final session to sit around together and have a cup of tea and a biscuit. As we were getting ready for exams, we decided that this book club would have to draw to a close as we would all be too busy to be reading and meeting up during the weekends.

Group members reported that they enjoyed the group because it was "A fun thing to do on a Sunday night" and "Gave us an excuse to catch up and see how everyone was getting on". Book club was originally focused on the books, but I think that the main thing that the members got out of it was sitting around in my lounge and having a chat. Book - or non-book related.

The Sunday evening ritual of book club has turned into a ritual of going to Chilli Planet Thai Food and getting Pad Thai with the same group of people. Attending book club, has turned into a social/dinner event where we can talk about our weeks and have a nice dinner together. The group is a similar one to book club and for me, this just reiterates the importance of human interaction be it around common interests or Pad Thai for dinner!

Affordances/Barriers - and - Plan of Action

There are a number of affordances and barriers for this activity. What enhanced my engagement was being able to visit other members houses, and having friends visit my house in order to complete the activity. The environment of these places were very significant in determining the success of the activity - this being a chat and a cuppa' usually related to books.

Affordances of the environment were: comfortable seating, good lighting, having a cup of tea, relaxed atmosphere, members of the book club being non-judgmental of other members contributions.
Barriers: Sometimes members would have quite strong opinions about a character or a particular part of a book, this was a difficulty as it would impact on the willingness of other members to contribute. Other barriers were environmental factors such as cold weather, cold flats, not enough seating (which wasn't usually a problem). Barriers such as challenging behaviours by members were overcome by the club discussing the questions by going around in a group so regardless, group members had opportunity to 'have their say' and contribute to the conversation. Lack of chairs was usually remedied and as members were relatively familiar with each other it was a relaxed and informal environment.

Plan of Action:
The next book that is to be read and discussed in bookclub is The Life of Pi. I have never read this book myself but have heard good things about it.
I am motivated to read this for bookclub because there is a film coming out soon in November and other members of the group have not read it themselves.

First Discussion Evening!

Stereotypes/Roles/Routines: Usually, book club members are stereo typically associated with housewives, or older women. This is a norm that this group has challenged as we are made up of young students (girls, with one male member). Routines that have been established through this occupation are consistent reading of books in order to be ready for book club, as well as meeting every Sunday (fortnightly) to talk about progress and have a catch up. We have made a Facebook page to arrange meetings, send reviews to each other and agree on books to be read and discussed when we meet up. Facebook is a great medium for on- and- off communication, as  students Facebook is a large part of social networking it is a perfect medium for communication. Within the club there is a merging of roles, there is usually a facilitator which tends to alternate week to week, there is one person who usually has an opinion on most things, there are individuals who are happy to just 'go with the flow' and there are members that just want to come and listen to the contributions of everyone else.

Update: 
THEN: This evening, group members gathered in the lounge on a Sunday evening. Over the last couple of weeks the group has been assigned the task of reading the first Fifty Shades Of Grey. There were mixed reactions when the group got together but it created a very good discussion between members. Members discussed suppporting characters, plot, main characters and discussed the ideas behind the book as well as the writing style of the author.

Having the first meeting made me realise that (obviously) not all books are to everyones tastes. One member of the group disliked the book so much that she literally stopped reading it- meaning she didn't have much to contribute to the discussion. The location was the same as the last meeting and members seemed to be much more comfortable discussing ideas and more relaxed.

I personally thought that the group had a good discussion but want to place more of an emphasis on everyone contributing equally. I found it really useful to use discussion questions found on the internet such as:

What is your take on the significance of the book's title?
Did you feel a connection to Christian or Ana? And why?

TODAY: Having a discussion with fellow peers today I realised that a large number of Occupational Therapy students don't read because they don't feel like they have enough time- but then spend a large amount of their evening on websites such as StumbleUpon.com where they are not really achieving anything and are slightly interested in what they are watching.

Notion of 'Place': Reflection

"Place is the physical surroundings or environments that are natural or built. Place influences how people work, play, and care for each other or themselves (Christiansen & Townsend, 2010, p.252)".

An an Occupational Therapy student it is so important to be able to identify the varying and diverse places in which occupation is performed. In terms of the person and their occupations- place or the 'environment' is a crucial component in understanding the individual as whole entity not just their own personal characteristics.

Continued by Christiansen & Townsend (2010) the places influence the occupations. An example of this is a home which may encourage occupations of socialising, self care activities and some leisure tasks, however as the notion of play is 'socially constructed' then different places will have different meanings associated to them. Commonly, place is described according to the occupation that it serves e.g shopping centre.

If I relate this concept of place to my own bookclub place - or where the activity of bookclub is carried out. Usually this occurs in my lounge in my flat. This space would be physically suitable as there is adequate and comfortable seating, it is a familiar space to all the members, there is adequate lighting and the flat is (usually) warm and comfortable for those attending. In terms of access and distances from this location to other members, each member is able to walk to the flat within a 5-10 minute walk. This enables bookclub (because of its location) to be incorporated quite easily into everyones routines and day-to-day lives. The cues in place in my lounge invite individuals to sit down and engage with each other. The only barrier to interaction being the Television to which all of the couches and chairs are directed towards.

Socially constructed meaning is being created in this act of 'bookclubbing' as my lounge is associated with the event of bookclub giving it communal and individual meaning to those involved. My lounge area provides a means of social interaction that enable participants to develop communication between others, share beliefs and values and have a shared purpose in an activity. Meaning and place develop over time due to shared understanding between members of that place. I will comment on the meaning that has been created once this particular bookclub has been drawn to a close........

Thank You Karen Tay

Bookclub is still in the process of establishing a pattern and direction. We are meeting this week to discuss a book that everyone is currently reading/finishing off. Whilst browsing the internet for ideas on how to structure the book club and ideas on popular literature that could be used I found this Blog on Stuff.co.nz which is a New Zealand news website featuring a number of blogs- one of these being a bookclub!
I might introduce the idea of following this bloggers books as she comments on a different book every week. Realistically, this would be too fast paced for us as we don't have much 'down-time'. I will bring the idea to the club when we meet and see if members would be interested in doing a 1-month read of different books inspired by Karen Tay- Reading Is Bliss

I am no chocolate fiend. In fact, I have a far more savoury than sweet tooth and don't often order dessert in a restaurant.
But by gosh, when I first read Joanne Harris' Chocolat, all I could think about for days afterward was chocolate. It wasn't because there were torturously exquisite descriptions of chocolate with "a tiny hint of chilli pepper" or "unrefined cocoa nibs from Guatemala", it was more because the characters danced off the page.
 - Karen Tay on Chocolat

And here is some VERY TRUE Book Etiquette by Karen Tay

Following Book Club I will continue to refer to this blog as I am always interested in reading new books that are recommended by people that I interpret as having a good understanding of what 'makes a good book'. My usual go-to person is my mother, but for now Karen will suffice.

- - - First official gathering - - -

Today was the first meeting of the group. Overall, 10 members attended - nine girls and one boy.  Four members of the group came from different houses which were still quite close by. The meeting time was arranged for 8pm as I thought this would work in with people making dinner etc. To begin with, we spoke about how we often we should meet up - and decided to play it 'by ear' as we all have differing schedules and would be busier at different times. I felt like the group atmosphere was informal and friendly although at times individuals had differing opinions on different topics. As this was an introductory meeting we went around the group and we all explained what types of books we were interested in and talked briefly about a recent read.

Common themes were: thrillers, historical fiction, books based on "real events" and fantasy.
I felt it was good to go through the different preferences of individuals in order to give me an idea on some books that would be of interest to the group.
To improve the session I would have liked to have organised some form of food and drink e.g. biscuits and tea. I will endeavour to do this next time.

One of the books that was spoken about was Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet which has been recently adapted into a television series. This book was highly recommended by the reader as it provided them with a new insight into the Catholic religion as well as the corrupt nature of the Church during this time. The challenging thing about this book was that there was so many characters and it was a very long book which needed dedication to finish!

Getting inspiration...

Web search engine "StumbleUpon" is a really great tool to find some websites that are Book focused or Reading focused. The toolbar on this webpage can specify searches to categories or 'interests' such as "Books".
From doing some searching with "Books" as my 'interest' here are some blogs/websites that are useful resources to find the Classics! These sites also provide reviews!

15 Books You Should Have Read In 2010
74 Books To Read If You Love The Hunger Games
Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read
Books To Pass Onto Your Children