A reading club for women
It all began in Iasi, north-eastern Romania, in 2020. It brought together women from all walks of life, who gathered around books. And, since they got together in a Spanish restaurant, they baptized their own gathering there in Spanish, using a play-upon-words, Mujeres livres, with the play-upon-words using libro and livro in Spanish and where mujeres stands for women, also in Spanish. Free, book-loving women, in English. It is the name of a reading club for women. Cezarina Caloian is an artist and an associate professor with the Graphic Arts Section of the Iasi-based Fine Arts Faculty. She told us who exactly came up with the idea for the reading club.
Cezarina Caloian:
"The two founders, Arina Cosma and Florina Virna of Iasi came up with the idea. The club made its debut in the winter of 2020. We had a couple of physical meetings, then during the lockdown and for the first months of the pandemic we had to cancel our meetings, then we went online, and we have ever since stayed like that, we meet once in three weeks, and all women who would like to do that can join in, since there also is an online community Florina Varna has managed to organize very well. There's 10 of us, or thereabouts, members who have been participating constantly ever since the project took off, then there are also people who join in once, maybe twice, or people who join in and remain in the project."
Here is what another participant, Lavinia Popescu, told us about the project of the reading club.
Lavinia Popescu:
"It is a reading club proper, we get together to discuss books as a book doesn't end once you've finished reading all its pages, it has a life of its own through the discussions it stirs and that is how you feel you honor its author for all that they offered, you want to discuss what you felt, with the others. It could be the pleasure of the text, the tenderness of the story or the self-discovery experience you had. When you read a book, you feel you are not alone. You feel you also want to share with the others what you felt, and, especially, you want to find out from the others what they felt. That is exactly the reason why this reading club was necessary. It is just as natural for us to feel inclined to be part of a community capable of providing a secure space, a space where you can express yourself and, especially, a space you can be part of. That is exactly why we have this group of women, which is a support group and, every time we meet, we really get our kicks out of listening to each other. "
Lavinia Popescu recalled the first meetings of the club, and how the meetings progressed.
"For the first meeting we had, I think we were about 20 people who were happy to be together, it was a surprise for every one of us, and then the pandemic broke out. During the pandemic, the reading club kept us company, it provided survival resources for all of us. Through reading, we discovered how humankind survived and, for us, that only buttressed a strong pillar of the confidence whereby that was something we were going to get it over with, completely. Together, we have read the stories of deportation and survival in the Siberian Gulag, through the book titled Zuleikha, open your eyes (a novel authored by Russian writer Guzel Yakhina). We saw how people lived with the bombs swooshing over their heads, through the books of Khaled Hosseini (and Afghan-American writer, born in 1965). We learned about acceptance from the Winters of the Soul, by Katherine May, The 40 Rules of Love gave us comfort through the Sufi wisdom ( The 40 Rules of Love, a book authored by Elif Shafak). When I look at the shelf with the books we read at the club, I can only be grateful for the journey I took together with the community we have created and I want us to be able to enlarge the community, so that as many women as possible can draw their inspiration from there, for their daily lives."
Cezarina Caloian:
"We read all sorts of books, from Elif Shafak, Hosseini Khaled, Maria Duena, Zafon (n.r. Carlos Ruiz Zafón). We read Vargas Llosa as well as Romanian authors, Laura Ionescu, with her book I Can't Find You Anywhere, actually we had her as a guest in one of our online meetings. And the titles we chose are somehow from various cultural spaces, from various types of literature. At the end of a meeting, we decide upon the book for our following meeting. Every participant reads the book, makes notes, highlights certain interesting aspects and for the online discussion, moderated by one of the founders of the club, Gearina Cosma, the discussion actually revolves around various interesting aspects, characters, episodes in the book, we share our own opinion, polemic discussions are also generated. What's also interesting is the fact that joining the club are women from various walks of life, women with different backgrounds. We're physicians, psychiatrists, therapists, psychologists, we're people activating in healthcare, artists, IT specialists, students, and then everyone of us comes up with an original interpretation of the text, for our discussion. And for me, that's exactly where the beauty of our meeting lies."
Lavinia Popescu told us the choice of the books was made democratically, through voting, and that one of the greatest joys was for every participant to share the impressions they got, in connection with this or that book.
"It's not just the sheer pleasure of reading, it is also a means of self-knowledge through reading. And then we feel happy to have the opinion of someone who is a philologist, for instance, the opinion of a psychologist, what the opinion was of somebody else, no matter what their background was. We collect ideas, we jot them down, or we don't, that helps each and every one of us. In general, we're a nucleus made of seven people who gather every time, but there are also other people joining in, for each and every online meeting. We're open to anyone who wants to participate in our meetings. The fact that we have them online and not only physically, that is also a good point. Oftentimes we intend to meet physically, but the fact that we're going online helps other people join us, people from other cities."
Therefore, if you feel the need to meet women who are passionate about books, you can join in for the Mujeres Livres online meetings by posting a message on the club's Facebook page.
(EN)
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