Hello all.
I'm starting an autistic book club. I want to gather around 12 regulars to meet once a month to discuss books. The meetings will be held online, on weekday evenings (UK time), and will last about 2 hours. It's free.
I'm doing this because I want to create a community and make friends. It's hard making friends as an autistic person.
I don't want to be too prescriptive about the books we might read, so I'll just say I'm looking for people who like reading thoughtful fiction and non fiction - books that can stand up to 2 hours of discussion. I've listed some favourites below to give a sense of the types of things I like.
About half of the meetings will focus on a book that we've all chosen to read together. In the other half of the meetings, individual group members will choose a book they love and talk about why they love it. This is optional - if you never want to choose a book to talk about, you will never have to. I want the whole thing to feel low-pressure - no worries if you don't manage to finish a book, don't have much to say about one, or want to keep your camera off etc.
If you're interested, please PM me with your name and email address. I promise not to share it with anyone. I'll write back to acknowledge your message. Then, once I know if there's enough interest out there, I'll set up an initial online chat. After that you can decide if you're in or not.
Some books I like:
Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children (magic realism at the birth of India)
Iris Murdoch - Under the Net (madcap caper with serious philosophical foundations)
Ursula Le Guin - absolutely anything by Ursula Le Guin (wonderful escapist stories with serious, moving things to say about gender, freedom, responsibility etc.)
Paul Theroux - Pillars of Hercules (grumpy, opinionated travel writer tours the med off-season)
Isabella Tree - Wilding (farmer and writer converts her historic farm into a wildlife sanctuary)
Gary Snyder - The Practice of the Wild (poetic manifesto for a more mindful way of life)
Thanks, and hope to hear from you.
Peter
