Grace Diviny, Staff Writer
In recent years, the world of literature has seen an increase in popularity when it comes to romance novels. Many people gravitate towards the cute and emotional aspects alongside the idea of getting to root for your favorite couple to be endgame, and if you are one of those many people in the romance craze, look no further than the Love and Literature club!
Held in Hodgdon IRC 9, their meetings are held every Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30. This week, the girls had a cute slideshow that consisted of a short question that asked what the members would do with a million dollars, with each member sharing what they would do before going over what they did at their last meeting and showing a Jellycat stuffed animal of the week! They also have a little Jellycat stuffed animal called Love, where members can take her for a week and have fun adventures with her.
For their activity of the day, they had planned a Kahoot activity for the book People We Meet on Vacation, in which they advised members to read Chapter 30 by next week. However, with the warmer weather, many members were not present now, but it was still fun enough for the members who were there to enjoy themselves!
Love and Literature’s concept was formed by Club President Janelle Reid around a year ago, in which she had expressed wanting to start a book club to her roommates but did not know how to do it. However, she and her roommates alongside friends came together to make it happen, and while attendance was small at first, it eventually became a big success to where they recently became recognized by Oneonta’s Student Association.
Vice President Hannah Palmer stated that alongside reading assigned books, the club aims to make it interactive with a variety of fun and creative activities.
“We do Kahoots, Blooklets, coloring activities, and have a lot of conversations regarding the books with open-ended questions. We also do other activities where our members will have to get up and go across the room depending on whether they agree or disagree.”
Palmer says that the club is working on being more creative by finding more ideas, but the activities are based on getting the members to talk to each other about the book and its themes. She also stated that when it came to specific subgenres or themes the club reads about, they are keeping it light currently with short romcoms, specifically books around 300 pages to fit in two books throughout the semester. She says that the club is open to doing dark romance or any other genre of romance that people are interested in.
For anyone who may already be showing interest, Palmer states that the club’s main focus ultimately is about their shared bond for reading and how it gave people an outlet to express themselves and their hobbies freely during COVID-19, especially on TikTok where BookTok blew up.
“It really builds friendships because you are talking about the books, people are getting excited about it, there’s the movies to the books, and falling in love with the hobby of reading is really important to us!”
Reid also stated that the E-Board aims to make everything fun and inclusive to draw connections and memories into the club.
“Our personalities really mesh together so well that it’s easy to connect to members. Everyone just loves talking to where we get off topic. We’re kind of just yapping most of the time and it’s what makes people want to come back.”
As for their plans for next year, Palmer is taking over as President of the club, in which she is excited about. While she hasn’t chosen the books they will read yet, she plans to ask members their recommendations to make sure they are engaging and staying connected with them. The
club plans on creating a Mocktail social event where members and people interested can try drinks alongside plans of a book drive where people can donate books all semester long to donate to the community or for their own use. Ultimately, Palmer wants to incorporate more fun activities whilst changing things up with new ones in order to create buzz and excitement around the club!
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