I’ve been working to get more Self-Paced Book Clubs available from previous live offerings, and I just finished two of my all-time favorites: Reader, Come Home and What You Are Looking for is in the Library.
When I taught these books live, I suggested them as a pair because I thought they offered a beautiful tribute to reading and the power of libraries. I was a bit hesitant to present these to teens because they are certainly not the typical Book Club selections.
Reader, Come Home is a nonfiction exploration of the cognitive science behind reading. It can be a bit dry in places, and some of it is aimed at a specific audience (educators and parents) outside of teen readers.
What You are Looking For is a delightful read, but it is slow and gentle, and not that much really happens. I wasn’t sure how teen readers would respond.
The discussions in both were wonderfully surprising. I think young readers are eager to know more about how the onslaught of digital information is shaping their brains, and a fictional account of lonely people finding their community is a balm we could all use.
To celebrate the Self-Paced versions of these two Book Clubs becoming available, I decided to do one of the Book Club assignments — both as a sample for those considering signing up and as an exercise for my own benefit as a reader!
The Assignment: Create a Book “Menu”
The assignment comes from Reader, Come Home, and it asks participants to create a book menu.
I’ll post the entire assignment sheet below, but the general point is to really consider what variety of books will provide a combination of challenge, joy, information, and new experiences.
Part 1: The Reading Menu
The first part of this assignment asks learners to consider their reading “diet” in light of what they’ve learned from reading Reader, Come Home.
In the book, Maryanne Wolf discusses the power of being “biliterate” when we are able to shift from digital to printed texts.
Rather than dismiss new media formats as inferior, Wolf asks readers to consider how different reading experiences provide different opportunities for thinking about and experiencing their world.
Ideally, this exercise invites readers to consider a combination of reading formats they already know and enjoy, new opportunities for exploring, and challenging texts that invite rigor and productive frustration.
For Part 1, the menu should be blank so that multiple readers can fill it out with their own specific texts or the same reader could use it multiple times, but it should provide some guidance to make those choices easier.
Here’s mine:
Part 2: Explaining Your Choices
Simply selecting categories doesn’t really require the kind of reflection and metacognition that we’re hoping to achieve with this assignment. Adding on an explanation of why the creator made the choices they did makes this a much deeper experience.
See my explanation below.
My Reading Menu: Explained
I tend to choose the same kinds of books over and over again, moving through the fiction on my TBR list while ignoring some of the other options. With this Reading Menu, I wanted to provide a combination of books I knew I’d love and those that would challenge me to step outside of my comfort zone.
I tend to read darker books, so while “Books to Make Me Laugh” might seem like an easy category, it’s actually a challenge for me!
“Nonfiction on My Interests” helps me reach my own professional research goals.
I think it’s important to re-visit favorite books to grow and reflect on how you’ve changed, so I added “Re-Read of a Favorite” to encourage that reflection.
I find books I’d never choose on my own when I listen to my friends, so I added “Recommendation from a Friend.”
I tend to read a lot of English-language books (because that’s the only language I speak fluently!), but I want to broaden my perspectives, so I added “Translated from Another Language.”
I struggle with reading visual formats, so the “Graphic Novel” selection will really challenge my cognitive experience.
I enjoy poetry, but I don’t tend to seek it out, so “Poetry” will help me do that!
“Audiobooks for Chores and Walks” are books that don’t require a lot of concentration, but I want to be able to find them quickly when I’m ready for them so I have them when I need them.
“Nonfiction on Something New to Me” encourages me to learn about topics that aren’t front of mind.
“My Favorite Genre” is dystopian fiction with a dash of hopefulness, and I want to find some new options to have in my rotation.
Overall, I think this menu will provide me with a variety of books I enjoy as well as those that give me new challenges.
Part 3: Filling Out the Menu
My goal is for this Reading Menu to serve a practical purpose, and that means we have to actually fill it out with titles to keep us reading!
Here’s mine:
I even made a reading challenge on StoryGraph to keep track of my progress.
(Note: I chose books I will actually use for my own personal challenge, and some may not be appropriate for all readers. In particular, The Thicket, Such Quiet Girls, Bunny, and After Tomorrow may have mature or upsetting content. Also, by the very nature of this challenge, I have not read these books yet, so I cannot give full content notes.)
Create Your own Reading Menu
I encourage you and your learners to create reading menus of your own!
They’ll all be unique based on goals, schedules, age, and reading preferences, so make sure you create in the spirit of individuality and not competition!
If you’d like to add some context for your work, I encourage you to join the Self-Paced Book Club for Reader, Come Home.
