Giggling girls and guys fill the soft cushioned chairs in the corner of the library. The four founders stand before a massive table filled with pumpkin muffins, juice boxes, and chips. The first meeting of book club starts. Juniors, Nina Molina, Anita Das, Steven Botsoe, and Terese Gibas inform the excited and anxious group about the new club, its purpose, and its upcoming events.

“Welcome to book club,” Gibas began, staring at the smiles around her.  “The purpose of book club is to share and spread the enjoyment of reading because, obviously, people who don’t like reading, are not here.”

The book club is brand new this year, and the club heads have adopted a democratic style to the club. They don’t establish a set list of books to read, but instead assign a genre for the club to read and then discuss.

“Some of the things we’re going to try to do, instead of having to read the same book because no one likes that, will be picking a genre and coming together and reading it,” Molina said. “Members can decide the genre, or we can break into small groups.”

“We’re not the guys assigning stuff, that’s just stupid,” Gibas said. “Right now we are thinking about reading horror, but if everyone is like ‘No! We will not do this’, then we will take a vote.”

Das believes the democratic choosing of books is best for a larger club. “Not everyone is going to like the same book. Like the summer reading books, I dread them,” Das said.

The club has plans to do many activities and to establish itself more firmly.  “ We were hoping to get a blog started so that we can talk about books that perhaps we’re not reading now or that aren’t in the current genre or could share it with people in the club or people who can make it to the meeting,” Molina said. They’re also planning to go see adaptation movies. “We want to go see The Maze Runner, because we thought that would be cool to do,” Molina said.

The club is thinking about incorporating free writing as well. “We could use a book called 365 creative prompts for a day, and there are tons of books like that. [But those would be] very optional though. We’re not saying that members must write,” Gibas said.

Around 20 people arrived at the first meeting, surprising and exciting the founders and the new members. “We thought we were going to have five freshmen girls, and then we weren’t sure if it would be this awesome group of people of all ages so we’re really excited,” Molina said. “We’re really excited and impressed with the turnout which exceeded our expectations.”

The members themselves are also excited and impressed with the club.

“I’m surprised that the club would be this organized,” said Nina Grotto, sophomore and club member.

The members and the founders are all looking forward to the meeting on Nov. 4.