Book club boom in India
Sonali Bendre Behl’s online book club with 3,100 members, and Gurgaon Book Club, which is followed by more than 1,000 people.
Most of the clubs focus on English-language books, whose market is thriving due to the emergence of local authors such as Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi. Bhagat, whose books have been turned into movies, writes about young, urban middle-class Indians, while Tripathi has written books based on Indian mythology. Together, they have sold millions of books.
“More book readers are enjoying the new era of not just reading but sharing. Social media is playing a big part in getting these people together,” says Gurmeet Wasu Kaur who started the Mumbai Book Club three years ago. She has since set up clubs in Hyderabad, New Delhi and Pune through Facebook.
Even celebrities are latching onto the trend. Bendre, 42, started her Facebook-based book club, called Sonali’s Book Club, early last year. It
“Books are sold through word of mouth. From that point of view, they are quite useful.”
There are also book clubs that cater to a certain demographic. GurgaonMoms book club, as its name suggests, focuses on mothers who often squeeze in some reading when their kids are in school. The club is an offshoot of Facebook community and lifestyle website GurgaonMoms, which has more than 3,500 members.
They meet monthly to discuss one title. At the last meeting, around 11 women showed up for a discussion on The Small-Town Sea (2017) by Anees Salim, an award-winning Indian author.
“We meet in coffee shops at 11.30am when our children are in school. The only thing that is mandatory is that everyone has to read a book,” says Upasana Mahtani Luthra, who is in charge of public relations at GurgaonMoms.
For 55-year-old Ritu Sharma, book clubs are a good way to keep in touch with friends while trying to get back into reading.
She started a book club three years ago with a group of friends and they try to meet at least once a month. The last book they discussed was Into The Water (2017), a thriller by bestselling British novelist Paula Hawkins (of 2015’s The Girl On The Train fame).
“I think it's a meeting point for women. Most of our kids are in university, so a lot of the women have free time and they want to do something constructive,” says Sharma, a travel agency executive.
“This club motivates you – when you meet, you are forced to read a book. I definitely got back into reading because of the club.
“I read my book club book and always pick up another which I never did before. I now read two books at a time.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network