Oxford University's Ten-Minute Book Club

 

As someone who has never been a member of a book club, even an online one, I'm intrigued by Oxford University's recent announcement about its new "Ten-Minute Book Club." The announcement on the university's website says that the club is especially for readers "short on time and low on energy." Well, these days I have a whole lot of time on my hands, but not nearly enough energy to use all that time either wisely or productively, so I'm pretty sure I qualify for membership.

Starting this week, and every week until October, a ten-minute literary extract will be released by the project team, led by Dr Alexandra Paddock, Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr and Dr Erica Lombard.  These will be from a wide selection of genres, including novels, essays, poetry and short stories. Each will be accompanied by a short introduction (in text, video or audio format) by an Oxford academic suggesting themes or contexts and suggestions for further reading - with a free link to the full text. 

[...]

Dr Paddock added, ‘We have designed Ten-Minute Book Club as a DIY collection of readings to be enjoyed alone or to spark discussion with family, friends, colleagues or anyone else…We chose a mixture of classic well-known literature and outstanding works which deserve more prominence, mostly from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.’

In a definite nod to the times we live in, the book club's first  selection is 1903's The Soul of Black Folks by W.E.B. Du Bois. If I read the announcement correctly, all the featured books, with one exception, are out of copyright and will be available for free downloads via Project Gutenberg. The club began last week, so in addition to Du Bois's book, a long poem called "The Royal Ascetic and the Hind," by Calcutta poet Toru Dutt is also up for reading and discussion.

I confess again to be poetry-illiterate, so I'm going to go with the selection from The Soul of Black Folks and wait for next week's selection. Take a look.