Book club

A few years ago I started a reading club on Goodreads with four friends. We called it Los pibes lectores. The rule was simple: each of us proposed a book, we voted, we read. Almost everything ended up being science fiction, there was a natural self-selection.

what the club has read

• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
• Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
• The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
• The Trial, Franz Kafka (the non-sci-fi outlier)
• Foundation, Isaac Asimov
• Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov
• Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov
• The Martian, Andy Weir

what I learned from the format

A book club is one of the best excuses to keep a deep conversation going with friends every month or two. Not “how’s life?”, but “what did you make of Asimov’s line about psychohistory?” It’s an on-ramp to topics that would feel weird in any other context.

I’d recommend starting one. Four or five people. Minimal rules. Periodic meetings. The curation tunes itself over time.

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