The 6
th
annual Whistler Readers
and Writers Festival, produced by The Vicious Circle, is Whistler’s premier
literary celebration and a key fixture in the resort’s growing cultural
calendar, taking place Sept. 14
th
through 16
th
.
The countdown to the festival continues
with our series of articles written by members of Whistler’s own writing
community, The Vicious Circle. This week features writer Pam Barnsley, whose
work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, and on CBC television and radio.
Pam is the author of the book “Hiking Trails of the Sunshine Coast”, Harbour
Publishing, as well as more recent short stories for several mystery magazines.
She is currently working on a mystery novel set in Whistler. Pam will be
moderating at the Opening Night Cabaret: Writing as Performance, on Friday,
Sept 14
th
at Millennium Place at 7 p.m. Guest writer-performers
include Oni the Haitian Sensation, Chris Craddock, Margaret Macpherson, and
Michael V. Smith. Tickets are available through Millennium Place at
604-935-8410.
The Whistler Reads Book Club event with
author Jen Sookfong Lee, will be moderated by Paula Shackleton, from 8 to 10
p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15
th
at Millennium Place. Tickets are
available through Millennium Place at 604-935-8410, or through
www.bookbuffet.com
. For a full listing of
festival workshops and events, check out the
www.theviciouscircle.ca
. To register
for any seminars at the festival please email
Stella25@telus.net
or call her at
604-932-4518.
The festival is brought to you by the
letter W, the number 15, and the funding support of The Resort Municipality of
Whistler, the Community Foundation of Whistler, The Whistler Arts Council and
the B.C. Arts Council.
The cult of the book club
By Pam Barnsley
Twenty years ago a woman ran an advertisement in one of the Whistler papers, looking for people to join a book club. At the appointed time and place several interested readers showed up. The woman who ran the ad did not. Maybe it was one of those big powder days and she was too tired. Maybe she was engrossed in a book and forgot.
Those who did show, including originals Stephanie Sloan and Karen Laughland, carried on, and today the Whistler Book Club still meets once a month to hash out what literature means to them.
“F
or
me it started with a love of reading and wanting to share and discuss that
enjoyment,” says Sloan.
Laughland adds, “We have
always been a ‘serious’ book club as everyone's time was limited and we wanted
to focus on books with some depth. We primarily read fiction but we have read
several biographies and nonfiction such as
The Power of Myth
, by Bill Moyer, and
Guns, Germs and Steel,
by Jared Diamond. The only book to defeat us
was
Ulysses
. I don't think
anyone finished it!”
Over the years book clubs
have popped up faster than shrooms in the Pemberton meadows. While the typical
book club is a group of people who meet regularly to discuss a book they have
all read, there are many permutations of the species. Whistler has at least
three other established book clubs, as well as the public Whistler Reads, and
various online groups.
“I love book clubs,” says
Dan Ellis, owner of Armchair Books, who offers a discount for the reading
groups. “They make people read exciting books. I’m always interested to see
what the book clubs choose — like Cormac McCarthy’s
The Road
— you either love it or hate it, there’s no in
between.”
Not everyone loves the
book clubs. Author Li Robbins of Toronto writes, “
It’s a prospect I find about as appealing as
attending the Canadian Academic Accounting Association’s annual Christmas
party. Let’s face it: clubs of any kind exist to homogenize opinion.”
She believes the
clubs are moulding popular opinion to an unhealthy extent. “The American
Physical Society’s journal published a report last year tracing the commercial
success of books on Amazon.com’s Top 50 List from 2002 to 2004. They discovered
the effect of book clubs on sales was of greater financial significance than
the hoopla created by a major marketing campaign.”
Booksellers have
long known that the best way to sell a book is by word of mouth — get as many
people to love the book as possible and they will tell their friends who will
tell more friends. But that means the book has to be good. Or at least people
have to love it.
The exception to
this is the phenomenon of Oprah’s Book Club. Oprah doesn’t dicuss the book the
way a classic book club does, she simply says, “Read this” and millions of
people buy the book.
Jonathan Franzen,
author of
The Corrections,
achieved notoriety by declining the invitation to be an Oprah Book Club
choice. Within a few days his publisher presumably had throttled him and
Franzen apologized for his lapse of judgement. He then joined the ranks of
ink-stained wretches dragged from obscurity to sudden fame and financial
happiness.
Oprah is getting
millions of people to read. How bad can that be?
Bad, according to
one man who prefers to remain anonymous. “I hate Oprah. E
very time she picks a new weepy novel as a book
club selection, it immediately causes a tidal wave of rampant consumerism.
Having just finished reading my sixth consecutive touching story about a woman
who struggles her way through a life of hardship only to discover that the true
blessings in her life lay in her blah blah effing blah, I decided that I needed
something different. I needed a book with a dark side. I needed a book with, if
not a male protagonist, at least a male character or two. I needed a book
without any effing cats.”
He could be a candidate to join t he male members of a club that meets during half-time of televised sporting events. One of their favourite books is Why Do Men Have Nipples? by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg, M.D.
Ashley Schauer says the process of selecting a book for this discerning crowd is a complicated one. "Basically, I did a Google search for 'book', 'men', and 'nipple', and this was the first thing that popped up. It had fewer than 250 pages, so that sealed the deal." Also on their favourites list is I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It , by Charles Barkley.
Not all men’s book clubs
are in it for the beer and testosterone. The Beagle Books Men’s Book Club admit
that they only read books by men for men, but their
favourite
book so far has been
Plainsong
, by Kent Haruf. “The book is sparely written,
but has great depth and symbolic meaning that reinforces the theme and
setting,” says Deane Johnson.
There are book clubs for history buffs, psychologists, and mystery and sci-fi fans. There’s a long-running mother-daughter club that has been reading books together since the girls were in elementary school. The Whistler Public Library currently has a Kids Book Club that reads books chosen by the kids themselves. They discuss the book, have snacks, and play a bingo vocabulary game from the books. Jomichele Seidl, director of Children’s Programs at the library, has plans to add two more book clubs for older youth when the new library opens.
Also coming is a monthly literary salon. Library Director Lauren Stara will host an evening of discussion about books. “I ran one for five years,” she says. “It’s very casual; people just come to talk about books in general, not a specific book. I’ve often come away with a whole list of books I want to read.”
Alix Nicol belongs to a local group, The Bookies. “It’s opened our eyes to different literature, made us read books we wouldn’t have. We dive into some pretty controversial topics that you wouldn’t, say, at a dinner party.” One of her favourite books this year is The History of Love , by Nicole Kraus.
This year the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival includes an onstage book club on Saturday, Sept. 15 from 8 to 10 p.m. at Millennium Place. Jen Sookfong Lee, author of The End of East , will be onstage with Whistler Reads founder Paula Shackleton, and a few of the almost 200 readers who have joined Shackletons’s group. The audience will have a chance to participate, and to ask Lee questions. There will also be a Shanghai Tang After-party from 10 to 12 p.m. at a nearby venue.
Whistler Reads is both an online book club and a connection point for anyone who wants to read the current book. Whistler Reads meets to discuss the book, often at interesting local venues, with elements of drama, author interviews and other surprises thrown in.
Shackleton says, “
To speak with Giller Prize winner Vincent Lam
(author of
Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures
) we had to have him call us on his cell phone
from the back of a taxi cab on his way to his shift-work at Toronto Hospital!”
For their discussion on
Paris 1919,
by Margaret Macmillan
,
they had four municipal councillors and a former mayor dressed in period
costume “mad lib” the world leader who negotiated the historic peace
conference.
In their 20 years of reading with The Whistler Book Club, Karen Laughland and Stephanie Sloan have read and discussed over 200 books — the equivalent of an English Literature degree.
Laughland says she has read many great books that she would not have found on her own. “Definitely having discerning readers to select books is invaluable. I enjoy our thought-provoking discussions, especially for the books that some members hated and others loved.”
Many book clubs enjoy a glass of wine or Scotch with their discussion; one club even calls themselves Quill and Swill. The Whistler Book Club reserves alcohol for their annual potluck book selection event. Asked why they have never mixed wine and words, one of the members opined, “We just started out that way. I think we were too poor back then.”
Sloan quips, “I think we were too young back then!”
Whistler is a town of sports junkies, where hundreds play softball, thousands ride bikes, ski and snowboard. But we all read books.
Karen Laughland has the
last word:
“
Our
book club is a lovely constant in an ever-changing community.”
Book ’em, Dano!
Resources:
Whistler Reads www.bookbuffet.com
Whistler Public Library www.whistlerlibrary.ca
Armchair Books
www.whistlerbooks.com
CBC Book Club www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub
Directory of Canadian Book Clubs www.canadianbookclubs.com