Mumbai: Want to be heard? Bring your book to this exclusive reading club

It was in the summer of 2015 when Nidhi Srivastava conceived the idea of a book club. The agenda? Bring. Your. Own. Book. Uncustomary to traditional book clubs, this club requires members to show up with a book of their liking. Each member gets 4-5 minutes to introduce and describe the book they brought. Through the forum, readers create a conducive environment wherein they discover new books through dialogue. Consequently, each B.Y.O.B. meetup becomes a crisp review of books that find a place on the table.

The book club that started in Delhi has catapulted southwest to create a thriving base in Mumbai. A volunteer-driven society, it is run by passionate readers who do not seek remuneration but a deep deluge into the world of reading. The club has spread virally across various Indian cities like Bengaluru, Surat, and Jamnagar, and is now a family of thousands.

While the organisers differ as per region, the spirit of the club remains the same. Going by the name of ‘chapters' in different cities, the club caters to fluid professionals who switch cities but crave to belong to a reading community. The proceedings are conducted similarly across diverse regions. Nidhi reveals that the format is kept constant so that members are greeted with a familiar experience, known faces, and warmth.

Loving a book? Bring it to B.Y.O.B.
When Nidhi arrived at the recent B.Y.O.B. meetup in Mumbai, she was elated to spot book lovers she had interacted with in Delhi. To her, a B.Y.O.B. in any city is a homecoming of sorts. What started in Delhi has turned into an exclusive family of readers in Mumbai as well. The experience of meeting fellow readers at B.Y.O.B. is stimulated by experimental themes like ‘books by women authors', ‘books by Indian authors', or genres like ‘science fiction'. In doing so, the club is mindful to not deviate from the core idea of bringing by choicest books while setting soft boundaries.

A deviant in this genre, B.Y.O.B. is not your regular club that aims to fix a book for discussion. Readers turn to this club for free-flowing conversations that stem from a plethora of books. The agenda sets the stage for people who don't like to be told what to read. With this intention, the club ensures that people feel encouraged to join the meetups. They are not bound to read a particular book to engage in a conversation. In an unorthodox way, the club believes in the idea of readers getting heard on the book they like.

Bond with like-minded readers
"You can have your own reading life. You own the freedom in your book choice. You get to indulge others in the mysteries of a book you're loving at the moment," highlights Nidhi. Typically, everybody ends up finding one other person at the club who has read the same book. This helps in building a community of readers who echo similar tastes and inclinations in reading. The setup also exposes members to discovering varied genres and books out there.

Nidhi informs us about how people have found their reading mates at the B.Y.O.B. club meetups. Regular members of the club get to identify people with similar preferences and bond with them. Book recommendations become more authentic, the mind opens up to exploring new reads making follow-up conversations more engaging. The members find recluse in the familiar faces and familiar book tastes.

Diverse readers under one roof
Each meetup is attended by approximately 15-20 people for a session of 3-4 hours. Functioning through WhatsApp, the club has dedicated groups for different cities which constitute over 100 people from each of them. Completing its eighth year in July, the club is now a thriving family of over 4,500 members. At any given time, there are 3-4 coordinators who manage the activities of the book club. These readers throng to the position upon exhibiting a flair in the club functions and of course, reading.

The club meets once a month in each city. For each meetup, members apply through a Google form which has a strict cutoff of 20. "The slots get filled pretty fast, almost in a couple of hours!" shares Nidhi. After the registrations close, the secret meet-up location is sent out to select people. This is done to manage the crowd as there are always more readers than the club can regale in one meetup. The club gives preference to older members over newbies.

Meetups happen over quiet and dainty spaces of the town to solemnise the session. In some instances, readers have indulged themselves in after-meets to keep the conversation going. The agenda barely deviates to author meets, or single book meets. The focus of the club remains fixated on the cycle of reading new books. Psychologically, this practice inspires members to go back home, read a new book and come back to express their views on it.

Genesis of B.Y.O.B.
An animal behaviourist by profession, she developed a knack for reading early on. In a telephonic conversation, Nidhi's beaming smile radiates as she talks about how she founded the club. "To be honest, I did not have enough friends to discuss books with. That's how I came up with the idea of a book club." The void of not having anyone to discuss books with can be a lonesome space. Despite attempting to talk about books with her friends, she found the setup to be casual and not satisfactory.

For readers like Nidhi, it is inevitable to seek more from their surroundings. She began to pitch the idea of a formal book club to fellow readers. The premise was set on the love for books and the agenda was to meet regularly and engage in a dialogue. "We needed a democratic format because it felt very restrictive to be prescribed what to read," shared Nidhi. With this, she came up with a concept of a fluid club where nobody was told what to do.

On that note, Nidhi admits that she subscribes to traditional book clubs too that come with a pre-set agenda. She attends meetups where people are discussing one book or following predefined rules. But in terms of organising her club, she wanted a flexible setup to make it work for all. For the eighth anniversary of B.Y.O.B., she wishes to conduct a special meetup and reunite with fellow readers after three years of the havoc wreaked by the pandemic.

The club's meeting spots remain exclusive to the members. The experience can be compared to a secret society on a mission. Upon being asked about the locations they meet up at, Nidhi requests us to keep it undisclosed. However, she reveals that these places are restaurants or libraries spread across Andheri and Bandra. For the longest time, B.Y.O.B. meet-ups happened at people's private residences too. "House meet-ups are a lot of fun as we don't get kicked out like in restaurants after a while," chuckled Nidhi.

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