August: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Hello everyone,

Our first book will be Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Written in 1922, it is about an Indian man's spiritual journey during the time of the Buddha. Here is a quote from wikipedia:

Hesse's crafting of Siddhartha's journey shows that understanding is attained not through scholastic, mind-dependent methods, nor through immersing oneself in the carnal pleasures of the world and accompanying pain of samsara; however it is the totality of these experiences that allow Siddhartha to attain understanding.

Here are some reasons I chose the book:

1. I think reading a "young persons searching for wisdom" type book is fitting post-smith.

2. It's a book I've been meaning to read for a while.

3. It's relatively short and therefore a good book to start with.

So I hope you all will join me in reading. August 23 will be the goal for finishing the book and starting conversation. We'll post throughout the last week of August. (Just had a flash back to moodle posting which this is definitely NOT!)

Check back later this month for discussion and next month's book.

Happy reading!

Hello Friends! Welcome to the Smith Alum Book Club, the brainchild of Rowan and I (who else, really, would come up with such a thing?).

Why a book club?
Now that we're not at Smith, we don't have any required reading. That means we have plenty of time to read whatever we want, but it also means that we no longer have the structure to discuss interesting issues or complex concepts that come up when reading. The solution to this dilema is an online book club where we can talk about what we're reading.

Another benefit of the book club is that as we spread out all over the world, we'll still have in common to talk about besides our shared Smith nostalgia! If we're all reading the same thing we'll have something that connects us.

How does it work?
Each month someone will be the "leader." They'll choose the book and post it on the blog. At some point, either as they're reading or when they finish the book, they will post questions, thoughts, etc., and the rest of us will respond and discuss by using the "comments" section of each entry.

What will we read?
Rowan had the idea of reading "classics" that she had always meant to read, but never got the chance to, books that somehow fell between the cracks of high school English and a liberal arts degree, but that are referenced frequently. But the books won't be strictly english literature type "classics." In general, the guideline will be books that become richer with discussion. Anything that fits that description will be a good choice whether it's fiction, non-fiction, ancient or contemporary. And our hope is that with a wide variety of people participating, we will read all kinds of different books.

Also, we will try to choose books that would be available at local libraries since many of us will be short on cash this year!

Who can join?
Anyone! We're starting with our Smith friends but if you have other friends you think would be interested, invite them to participate.