I don’t need to tell you how much of a crap storm this pandemic – but specifically lockdown – has been; you already know. There have, however, been a few wholesome and, quite honestly, really lovely things to have come out of this horrid time. One of these is the TikTok Book Club.
@jaydenkouli we need a name for our book club ?
If you’re anything like me before lockdown hit, you vowed you would never download TikTok and are now addicted. The algorithm they use is scary clever and landed me in BookTok for a while. This is where a video posted by Australian Jayden Kouli found itself. Jayden decided at the beginning of January that he would challenge himself to read 52 books in 52 weeks and thought others might want to join. I don’t think he ever realised just how many would. Within one day, there were over 1,000 members of the Book Club Facebook group and it continued to grow day by day with over 4,000 book lovers now joining in.
Jayden himself told me that the sheer amount of people that joined this lovely community has not only blown him away but has made him so grateful that he has been able to create a space where like-minded people can read and learn together and discuss topics and issues ‘that go beyond the books’. He said it has had an amazingly positive impact not only on himself and others but also his outlook on life and challenged him to look at everything through a different lens.
@jaydenkouli I’m speechless, this is incredible, WE ARE DOING IT ?
In the beginning, Jayden created this group because whilst he was super motivated to smash his goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks, he knew he would need people around him to keep him accountable on this journey. When the Book Club was created, most of the world was stuck inside so Jayden saw the creation of the Book Club as a ‘perfect distraction’ from everything going on around us. It has since become more than that for him. Jayden told me that the community was a by-product of the Book Club but that it is now like one big family and by far his favourite part of the whole thing.
Once you join the Book Club Facebook group, you can vote on monthly polls which decide the books everyone will read and even discuss other books with fellow readers. There are books chosen for each week of the month – 2 fiction and 2 non-fiction – and there is a weekly zoom meeting to discuss each book. There is no pressure to read every book so you can dip in and out as you please. There are also lovely people who announce any trigger warnings for books before people read them to make sure everyone feels as safe as possible.
@jaydenkouli
The Book Club has even gotten so popular that the meeting on March 13th (Europe) had a guest; Adam Silvera who wrote ‘They Both Die at the End’. The group had read this book that week and Jayden managed to get Silvera to join them in their meeting to discuss his own book – an opportunity any book lover would jump at. There is now even talk of creating merchandise for the group because it has gotten so big.
I asked Jayden what he thought would happen to the Book Club after this pandemic – hopefully – ends and whether he would keep it going. He told me that he hopes it continues as lockdown gave him time to do more of what he loved and meet new people (virtually of course). He hopes that when the world goes back to ‘normal’, he’ll remember the good things that came out of it and make time for these. His ultimate dream? To bring the Book Club into real, non-virtual life; ‘but for now, we’ll stick to our online catch-ups’.
If you would like to join the TikTok Book Club, find it here: TikTok Book Club
And be sure to follow Jayden to find out more about the Book Club – Instagram: @jaydenkouli and TikTok: @jaydenkouli