Hello my loves,
I’m so tired.
I need the gentle pace of this book club more than ever, yet my bones ache with an utter lack of capacity and my brain feels like a scattered popping and fizzing of exhausted, pinging neurons, desperately firing to ‘keep up’ (with what, who knows).
Perhaps, if you’re reading this, you can relate. My writing and creative time is unendingly depleted, but I’m still here. Managing those boundaries, adjusting those expectations, guarding daydreaming time fiercely. Just as I would want you to do.
Onwards, my friends, with reading and friendship and endless cups of tea to light our way.
So, with that in mind, here’s more on my plans for our undemanding year of quiet reading together. Our gentle book club.
The overwhelming and unexpected popularity of this post threw me sideways. Wonderful, heartwarming, uplifting; yet freeze-inducingly anxiety-driven as I felt the overbearing weight of responsibility as dark and black and looming as it invariably presents itself, whether for a thing of beauty or a chore, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t care.
Hardly a life or death problem, indeed. But, still, valid feelings. Because this hasn’t been the first time I’ve had ‘a good creative idea’, experienced it taking off an absolute storm and subsequently been stunned into dread before the week was out, stamping on its thriving flames for fear of it becoming too much, too big, even in its greatness. For this new gentle book club project I was expecting a maximum of me + fifty ten of my closest online friends to be keen. I pictured us snuggled in virtual beanbags, reading with knees tucked, chatting on Notes about the stories conjured by the words we were gobbling up. I was not expecting the hundreds of beautiful comments, messages and emails that ensued. And whilst I may not be sounding at all grateful, I dearly am. I’m just overwhelmed. Energetically strung out, for myriad reasons. Thank you. Thank you for being here.
As many of you know I had a big creative fire at New Year and ‘burned down’ my two previously successful Substack publications, making way just for this one, ‘Writing Around The Edges’, without really yet knowing its purpose. I do know that I love to write essays, like this one, and I also know that as the very title of this Substack I am an edge writer. My life is currently such that I have very little spare time, minimal desire to be typing on a laptop on the rare occasions I’m not at my day job, and absolutely zero motivation to feel overly responsible for anyone or anything I don’t have to, being laden considerably with that in all other areas. So, even though we have wonderful, greater, dreamlike numbers of us here than I had ever imagined, I’m going to stick to my intuition, to my intention, and keep this gentle book club steered in the softly focused direction I would if there were just a handful of us.
It will go a little something like this:
1. no polls…and the whole twelve months mapped out beautifully from the start
Once the subscribers started rolling in for this project I firmly put my business hat on and planned to schedule posts methodically for the next twelve months, at each turn of the wheel, with a poll at each season for you to choose which book you would like to read next.
However, this was not how I wanted to do it. My brain hates to have anything hanging over it (“What if I forget?”) and begrudges any form of scheduling whatsoever. And since this year is an experiment in building resilience, and capacity, and joy, personally for me, but perhaps for you too, I need to practice what I preach and more often pick the path of least resistance. Who knows what lush forests it may lead us to.
So, instead, I now plan to carefully sift through all nominations for our gentle book club choices, myself. And then decide on and gift you the titles of all eight of our reads, upfront, for the next twelve months. Minimal decisions. Light touch. Spacious reading.
You can then slowly, deliciously, add reading dates to your diary. You can go crazy with coloured pencils in journals and tabs in index cards and digital sticky notes in online calendars. You can work out which titles you will buy, which you will borrow, which you will download as an audiobook, which you will ask for as a birthday present. It doesn’t matter. As slow readers, the choice is yours. And you are very welcome to take your sweet time over it.
After my first choice of Weathering by
was received beautifully (I was never in doubt) I hope you will trust me to be the one picking the remaining titles from the sparkling suggestions you have offered. Sometimes you just want someone else to make the decisions, right? Allow me to guide you to the books I feel this group *truly needs* over the next year, and enjoy having one less choice in life to make yourself.And if all else fails, we can go again for year two, and learn from our experience, hey ;)
2. no Zooms…almost(!)
As a rule we will each be gathering our own copies of the eight books for the year, reading them seasonally (about six to seven weeks allocated per book), dipping in and out of the gentle book club as life necessitates, and absolutely *not* meeting on Zoom.
However, the fabulous Ruth is gifting us her time for a highly informal and friendly Q+A, just for us, which I couldn’t say no to. Pencil in Monday 22nd April at 7pm UK time to hear Ruth talk about all things ‘Weathering’ and I’ll post the Zoom link sometime soon. What a treat.
3. book discussion on Substack Notes…photos and tags welcome
No Zooms (as a usual rule) mean any discussion can nicely take place on the purpose-built chatty platform of Substack Notes. I would love you to share photos of you in your reading nook with the current book. Be sure to tag me (@luisaskinner), and the author of the current book club book you’re enjoying. I’m a total convert to Notes and am very happy to restack your updates, to keep the encouragement flowing!
4. occasional Substack posts…for the writing
As mentioned my own writing time has already taken a battering by the unexpected popularity of this gentle book club and headspace that has obviously necessitated. That’s fine isn’t it, for a few days, a couple of weeks maybe. But bitterness may creep stealthily in if the space holding is prioritised over the deep writing for too long, so I am vowing to keep the majority of my (only very occasional anyway) Substack posts for my own essays and sharing of behind-the-scenes, edge writing creative chaos.
I will always be here to nudge you back in the direction of our current gentle book club read, remind you of the dates, even if just at the foot of my essays. As promised, light touch. Spacious reading.
Here’s the Substack Note I posted where you can add your nominations. I’ll close to suggestions on 21st March 2024 so be sure to get any in as soon as possible:
UPDATE 22nd March 2024: the books have now been chosen!
Here is the reading list for our gentle book club for 2024/25. Everything you need to know is in the post linked here:
I think that’s it for now. My head feels happier for having emptied some of these thoughts, worries and spacious plans onto the page.
Stroll gently my loves,
x Luisa
Just writing to say I so much connected with the creative feelings written about beautifully here- lately, I've not felt very interested in writing, then double arrowing myself with major guilt and panic about it. So glad you're committing to your intuition through it all.
Perfectly planned, my friend. Here’s to hoping you can remain in the slow, gentle vibe as you “guide” us through the year. ❤️