A few weeks ago, Christopher Frizzelle started a Quarantine Book Club on Slog, because, he wrote: “If I’ve learned one thing from hosting the silent-reading party for the last 11 years, it’s that people enjoy the social pressure to read. People need the social pressure to read. We all know we should be reading great books, classic books, the undefeated masterpieces of literature, the works of genius, the spoils of the intelligentsia, and yet… it’s so much easier to read Twitter or Facebook or fire up Netflix and let digital media do the thinking for us. The internet is leading us to our doom, people. We need to be reading great books. COVID-19 may be wiping out our fellow human beings, but if we spend our self-quarantine time reading, we might be lucky enough to survive this thing as smarter, more well-rounded people.”
That book club, featuring Albert Camus’ The Plague, is nearing its end (though you can always catch up on old discussions), but his point remains. If you need more incentives to read in quarantine, or you want to feel more connected to your fellow Seattleites, or maybe you need something to read at one of our upcoming virtual silent reading parties, we’d suggest checking out one of these virtual book clubs hosted by local organizations in the coming weeks on Zoom and other virtual platforms.
APRIL 17–MAY 15
Museum of Pop Culture
MoPOP’s first-ever Book Club will kick off with Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi classic The Illustrated Man, in honor of the prolific writer’s 100th birthday. But it won’t just be a one-and-done deal—the organizers have selected three short stories to focus on in a series of all-ages events lasting a whole month, including a live virtual discussion, a happy hour, Twitter chats, and a movie watch party.
