Announcing The HuffPost Book Club

The Huffington Post is launching a book club. This is why.

Stories are how we understand our world.

Books are not separate from the rest of our lives - just as a song can provide the perfect soundtrack to a real-life experience, so the characters, ideas, dilemmas, behaviors we learn through our books help us "read" everything else that surrounds us.

This is why our Book Club is different.

Just like other book clubs, it's a way for us to invite you to read books that you otherwise might not, and to be part of a larger community discussing their narratives and themes.

Unlike any other book club, we also want to hear about how your reading intersects with your experiences, your memories, your everyday life and with current events.

We want to know where and how you read, and what you can see and hear as you do so. We want to know where the story is taking you, and where your memories are taking the story. Books are a collaboration between author and reader, and we want to hear what you're bringing to the tale.

Using free online tools, The HuffPost Book Club will create a unique intersection between the digital and physical world.

The HuffPost Book Club wants to be a part of the way you read books. We invite you to join a special HP Book Club digital community, through your existing Twitter (#HPbookclub), Facebook, Instagr.am, YouTube and Flickr accounts, to share both thoughts and real-world experiences as we read.

We also want to join your real-world community, teaming up with local book clubs and independent bookstores, hosting both online discussion and real-world events. We will be inviting readers to submit blogposts as they read, sharing supplemental material to assist others' reading.

In the first year, the Book Club will feature 10 titles, an eclectic selection of prominent names and overlooked authors, spanning a wide variety of publishers and genres. At the culmination of each book, we will announce the next.

We begin with one of the most remarkable pieces of fiction in recent years: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.

Youngest winner ever of the Orange Prize for fiction, shortlisted for the National Book Award, named Apple's Fiction Book of the Year, and included in the top books of 2011 lists from Amazon, the New York Times and the Washington Post, it's a brutal and magical story.

We're telling you now, so you can add it to your Christmas list. We can't wait to read it with you.

The Book Club will officially begin on January 3rd. On February 7th, we will host an free event at St Mark's Bookshop in New York City, featuring Téa Obreht. More on that soon.

So prepare your reading lists. Gather your friends. The HuffPost Book Club is an experiment in reading, both online and off. Help us tell its story.

Enter your email address to receive weekly updates from The HuffPost Book Club when it launches. Your email will not be used for any other purpose. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook to find out more. If you have any questions, email us at [e-mail]

 

Comments

[Chrystal The Writer]

12:39 PM on 01/24/2012

Perhaps its me, but I am unable to find HuffPost Book Club on Facebook, yes HuffPost Books is on Facebook, but not HuffPost Book Club.

[Tomazulob]

02:08 PM on 01/08/2012

This is a great idea. I am sure you will be flooded with suggestions, and I am surely not one to fight the tides of human sharing. I am beginning the audio version of this book (a photo to follow this week), but I just finished a great book called Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard. This is about the "assassination" of James Garfield, but it is more about the transition of not only this country as people try to leave the civil war behind, but also the transition of the use of technological advances when entrenched beliefs fight them. It is a tragedy about the loss of a great man, but it is even more tragic when arrogance cost his life.

[Chris Cheramie]

12:45 PM on 12/15/2011

How about some good economic books along with history, and other non-fiction.

[Annemarie Dooling]

01:07 PM on 12/16/2011

It's on the list! If you know of any great examples, let us know.

[KarenM]

10:25 AM on 12/15/2011

Mostly, I listen to librivox.org while I knit. I can do two things at once that way...

[holyghostie]

07:32 AM on 12/15/2011

Cool I'm in....but can I sit next to the girl in the photo? :)

[Help USA Taxpayer]

11:36 AM on 12/14/2011

Thanks Andrew
I love to read and am in 4 book clubs already that are small, maybe a massive book club like this will add to my reading enjoyment.

[Annemarie Dooling]

02:11 PM on 12/19/2011

Or, we'd love to hear about what you're reading in the other clubs. We're just happy that you're reading! :)

[inkongirl]

11:32 AM on 12/14/2011

Cool. I needed something new to read.

[HeevenSteven]

07:41 AM on 12/14/2011

One Book, One HuffPost?

[Clarity22]

11:06 PM on 12/13/2011

Sounds good to me!

[Beatitudes]

06:30 PM on 12/13/2011

I only hope that you will consider books from Independent and small publishers and not just be a marketing tool for the big 6 publishers/

[Balancement]

06:22 PM on 12/14/2011

If that doesn't work out (likely), you could always subscribe to The Bloomsbury Review. That's what they do.

http://www.bloomsburyreview.com/

[triplettam]

05:08 PM on 12/13/2011

Sounds good.

[eric14]

03:13 PM on 12/13/2011

Many people have e-readers with access to free books including many classics.

Why not start several book clubs on Huffpost using this resource?

There are thousands of books available covering most fiction and non-fiction areas.

Books should not mean ''new books we are trying to sell you'' which is what it has meant in daily/weekly print media for the last 150 years. let's move on.

There is this really big thing called THE ARCHIVE. Our legacy. Let's use it.

[dropthedh]

01:16 PM on 12/13/2011

Never mind the book, where's that beach?!

[shastaman]

01:00 PM on 12/14/2011

I know ! Right?
I clicked here to say
" Hell-O book club" ! ! ! !

[dmarrs7077]

01:01 PM on 12/13/2011

there wont be 4 pages left in each book unless the author was prasing obama the whole book huff post doesnt like hearing the truth

[threnodymarch]

04:14 PM on 12/13/2011

What does this have to do with anything? I had to read your run-on sentence 5 times just to understand where and when the phrases started. Instead of randomly bashing HP for some supposed bias, comment on the actual issue at hand.

[Chrystal The Writer]

12:45 PM on 01/24/2012

I thought I'd stumbled upon another post, when I read @dmarrs7077's post, but you've cleared the confusion up for me @threnodymarch. Thanks

[triplettam]

05:06 PM on 12/13/2011

Doesn't look reading would be anything that would interest you anyway.

[Vrano]

12:53 PM on 12/13/2011

"The Little Red Book: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung" should have been your first book. Oh, wait, these are books that libs wouldn't normally read, not books that they carry in their purses and pockets.

[12Purple]

03:30 PM on 12/13/2011

Why the ad hominum attack? Most liberals I know read all sides of a story to make an informed decision and/or opinion.

[triplettam]

07:26 PM on 12/13/2011

I guess that's your version of an insult. You know: reading a book or two might help you in that regard. I don't think just reading "red alerts" from stormfront or blogs on Fox.com really help your wit. This stale old tactic of trying to label every liberal a communist is not only old, it's dumb. I've been liberal all my life and I don't know one communist. And I don't abide dictators which is why I had such a problem with Cheney and his VP.
So: Can we sign you up? It will require some critical thinking on your part, but believe me: Once you think for yourself you'll never go back to Fox again.

[Chrystal The Writer]

12:47 PM on 01/24/2012

Good comment.