Mohsin Haider, BA Economics
Attention all bookworms!
Words don’t just paint a thousand pictures, they paint a whole new world as well.
We here at SOAS Book Club are dedicated to creating a community for like-minded individuals to come together and share their love of all things bookish. Whether you read fiction or nonfiction, we welcome you all. SOAS Book Club is a new society established at the beginning of this academic year, but we have already successfully hosted a variety of events—with more to come!
We have monthly book meetings where we discuss the chosen book(s) of the month; we discussed ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ in December, ‘The Wrath and the Dawn’ in January, and most recently, romance books in February. Alongside this, we have also held a games night. The game night was a huge hit, and many of our members had an enjoyable time, especially those who managed to win the prizes. Furthermore, we held a book swap event where our members came along with old books they no longer wantedand left with brand-new books to read.
One of our most popular events, which we collaborated with the Writers Society for, was our Poetry Slam Night. We had numerous people come up to the stage and share lovely written poetry and compelling short stories, including our very own Co-President, Anika Wadood, who wrote a beautiful piece of poetry.
“SOAS Book Club aims to create a space for all book lovers, as well as those who are interested in becoming a bookworm.”
SOAS Book Club aims to create a space for all book lovers, as well as those who are interested in becoming a bookworm. Books may sometimes hurt the bank account, but it is worth the magic. Books are a powerful form of escapism; nothing compares to that special feeling of being swept away in a book and forgetting about reality for a while.
We have many more exciting events on the way, including bookstore visits and collaborations with other societies—maybe even other universities! If you want to be a part of the committee, we are going to be hiring for some exciting new roles soon. Of course, if you just want to be a member as well, that is perfectly fine too.
We hope to continue growing as a society and reach out to as many SOAS students as we can. To join our club, follow us on Instagram (@soasbookclub) or send us an email at [email protected], and we can add you to our WhatsApp group and mailing list. We look forward to recruiting new members and hosting plenty of exciting events. See you all soon – over and out.
Photo Caption: Bookmarks from a SOAS Book Club ‘Make your own bookmark’ event (Credit: Mohsin Haider).