Book clubs improve people’s reading competency, and helps increase their cultural awareness and sensitivity. However, many Saudis do not read, something that brings little surprise to the absence of actual book clubs in the Kingdom.
To fill this void, a group of people have got together and established The Book Rating Club, an online group where members discuss books. The club suggests books to members, who are then invited to rate them from a scale of one to 10 and write quick reviews.
While book clubs are common and popular in the West, there are few such clubs in the Middle East. The existence of online book clubs makes it possible for people of different backgrounds and cultures to have intellectual exchanges.
Starting a virtual book club is also a great way to discuss a book with friends or colleagues. It is this that drove Abdul Aziz Al-Moayyad, a 26-year-old accountant in Riyadh, to create The Book Rating Club.
“Our mission is to provide positive and intellectual stimulation through reading,” said Al-Moayyad, adding that the idea of having a book club began a year ago. “We had an idea of creating a book-rating club where people could give their points of views and opinions.”
In order to achieve that, Al-Moayyad decided it was first better to acquire some experience by creating a book club on Facebook as a way of marketing the idea and getting feedback. “We wanted to see how people would react to the Facebook group,” he said.
The Book Rating Club is not the first online Saudi book club, there are others. The failure of such clubs, whether actual or virtual, can be attributed to many Saudis not reading. Al-Moayyad at first tried to establish an actual book club with his friends and members of his family. Many members simply lost interest after a short while.
The Book Rating Club has so far suggested 32 books. Books that are recommended are of a variety of genres and include religion, fiction, non-fiction and philosophy in both Arabic and English.
Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and The Sea” was given a 6.9 rating, and one reviewer described it as a book with “a very simple plot and great psychological depth.” Another novel on the list of recommended English books was Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield”.
“Other than rating and giving a brief review, we have, until now, not discussed any book. We want to have the discussion over Yahoo chat or Paltalk,” said Al-Moayyad.
Nura Baghanem, a 22-year-old management information system student in Jeddah who is also one of the club’s administrators, said members read and rate one book a month.
“Individuals talk about their experience while reading the book,” she said, adding that not many people have, so far, responded to the group. “We want more interaction before we start the actual book club online. The idea was to create a place where people could rate books so those who don’t know about the book and want to buy it could have a glimpse into what it is about,” said Baghanem, adding that there is a problem with members so far submitting far too few reviews.
— For more information visit:
http://sites.google.com/site/bookratingclub/
http://bookratingclub.blogspot.com/