My First Time Trying a Book Box: Literati Luminary Book Club Review
I am incredibly excited for today's blog posts because I'm working with Literati to share my experience with their Luminary Book Club. If you've been keeping up with my posts, I recently talked about how book clubs are an amazing way to fend off a reading slump, especially when life gets super hectic, and even with a super long TBR, I've still felt lost when I go to pick out my next read. I'm so grateful to Literati for sending me a book box and sponsoring this post!
On top of feeling stuck with choosing what to read, I've also been trying to explore more genres and the world outside of YA. YA has been my home base for so long that I always get overwhelmed trying to figure out what I want to read in other genres. Luckily, Literati had just what I needed. I got the chance to choose from 13 different book clubs all curated by Luminaries who are amazing, award winning writers, thought leaders, and artists you most definitely know like Malala and her Fearless club about incredible women, Austin Kleon's Read Like An Artist club, Roxanne Gay's Audacious Book Club meant to challenge and entertain, Atlas Obscura's Finding Wonder Club giving a peek back into history, Elin Hilderbrand's The Beach and Beyond to bring you the joy of romance beach reads all year round, and more. There's truly a book club for everyone's particular taste.
I had such a hard time deciding which club to join! At some point, I'll definitely have to check out The Beach and Beyond when I'm ready to dive into romance further. One awesome part of Literati is that you can switch between clubs on a month to month basis, so if you're like me and want to sample every club, it's easy enough to move between them.
To start, though, I decided to join Kelly McGonigal's The Joy Collective. As soon as I saw the club was all about page turners that also weave in information on the human brain, I was sold. With the hectic adjustments to a new city and a new university, a bit of joy and books that promised strategies to build resilience, hope, courage, and a connection to something greater seemed like the perfect book club to jump into. I'm always intrigued by learning more about human behavior and why we feel the way we do, so I was excited to see what this month's pick would have in store.
While I waited for my box to arrive in the mail, I downloaded the Literati App so I could see what the actual social aspect of the book club was like. I love that Literati actually has a community that allows you to have conversations with the people who are reading the same book you are. I obviously enjoy sharing my thoughts on everything I read, and I started this blog because I didn't have access to any kind of outlet to share them. I'm so glad that there's now a book club you can join even if you don't have a local club or a way to get to one.
Beyond that, the app offers you tons of ways to connect with your fellow readers and the Luminary who's running the book club. I was surprised to see Kelly McGonigal liking and replying to so many posts people had left on the pre-reading board, so you get to interact with both your peers and the leader of your book club. The community is rich and exciting, and there are tons of thoughtful posts already in the app to interact with. You really get a true book club experience with the advantage of being able to decide how actively participatory you want to be. And like a less frustrating version of Goodreads, you can log your reading progress, post your thoughts as you go on message boards divided by sets of chapters, and stay on track for the month with the bookmark included in the book box which gives you 3 check-in dates to make sure your reading progress stays steady. I'm a much more active reader when I'm able to keep a goal date in mind, so I thought this was a super cute touch!
I've already mentioned a few things that come in the box like the bookmark and the booklet of all the months picks, but you also get the Literati edition of the book and a note from your Luminary curator about why they chose that specific book for the month. If you misplace that card, though, it's also available on the app! The box itself features the same beautiful design as the app and is printed with tons of fun quotes, so make sure you take a look around the box for all the details. I've never subscribed to a book box before or an online book club, so this was a brand new experience for me. I think as bookworms, we can be so particular about wanting to choose our own books, but lately, I've realized there's a lot of fun to be had in letting an expert give you recommendations. In an attempt to branch out and look beyond what I naturally gravitate towards, I think I've learned a lot, and I can't wait to start reading
The Art of Gathering from my book box. Considering the fact that my life at college just feels like one big gathering after another, a book with the subheading "how we meet and why it matters" seems like the perfect, informative reading choice, though I never would have thought to pick it up on my own. Also, have you seen the cover? It's absolutely gorgeous.
So, as hesitant as I was to give up selection control, Literati definitely won me over, and it was incredibly fun to get the box in the mail and excitedly get to open it and find out what I would be reading. As adults, there are so few surprise gifts in life, this is a little one you can set up for yourself to replicate a tiny version of that Christmas morning thrill every month while possibly stumbling into your next favorite book!
More on Reading, Writing, and Me...
How to Keep Reading (Even With a Busy School Schedule)
Comments
Post a Comment