Who are we? What are we? And how do we actually get people to turn up?

Books by the sea is a little local book club, based in beautiful sunny Scarborough, and started by me! (Michelle). To explain exactly why I decided to start this little group, back in April this year, I need to go back to summer, last year.

Just like every other 20-something year old last summer, I was completely caught up in the world of ‘Booktok’. (Or at least that’s what my algorithm was telling me). The truth was that I had actually found a very niche community of like-minded individuals online, sharing their love of one series in particular.

ACOTAR!!

Or ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ as it is known to most people.

The term Romantasy was completely new to me when it blew up on ‘booktok’. I’m surprised this genre has taken so long to find me, since it is made for teens like me that grew up with Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent etc.

Romantic Fantasy, as it is also known, has truly been a game changer for me and ultimately reintroduced me to my love of reading. Like so many others, I grew up an avid book lover. Shelves full of Young Adult books, staying up late reading in bed with not enough light, my eyes straining to read each word and stay awake long enough for just “one more chapter!”

That was until, I guess I started needing to read more for school. From GCSE’s, to A-levels, through to University, reading became educational. It became ‘required’, and so I lost the joy of it. Reading wasn’t a fun past time, it was a chore. And so I stopped reading for fun, only picking up a new read to enjoy on holiday, when I had nothing better to do but lie on a sunbed and enjoy reading guilt-free once more.

A couple of years ago, I decided to change this mindset. I had been out of education for a number of years now, and I felt like it was time to rediscover the joy in books once more. That’s when I joined my work’s book club. It was a virtual book club, and initially I really struggled keeping up. I was struggling to read just one book a month, and I fell behind in the reading. I carried on reading each month, even if I was a few behind, and so although I no longer joined the virtual discussions I took the recommendations and decided this was a great opportunity to expand my reading selection.

The number of books I was reading per year was still pretty low. Maybe 5-6 per year?

I was enjoying reading again, and I was enjoying reading different genres but I still wasn’t reading very frequently, definitely not to the level I did in my teens. And then last summer, I had been following booktok for a while and I was well aware of everyone reading ‘ACOTAR’. I don’t really know why, but I was initially hesitant to read it. I think maybe because I thought I needed to be reading more ‘intellectual’ books or that going back to fantasy was too childish. Anyway, it took me a while to convince myself to give it a go and see what all the hype was about.

So I downloaded the first of the series onto my kindle and took it on holiday with me.

And I devoured it in record time (for me anyway).

It was like it had reignited a spark in me, I hadn’t realized had been dormant for so long. I couldn’t download the next one quick enough! And within two weeks I had read all five books in the series. I was completely obsessed!

And well, I haven’t really been able to put a book down since, and that was over a year ago now!

I’ve read a lot of different genres since then, but I’ve especially enjoyed the Romantasy genre. In many ways I feel like that teenage Michelle once more. I’ve accessorised my kindle with cute stickers and cute little pop socket. I’ve turned my home office into a psychedelic purple, cozy world. With a painted purple bookshelf, already bursting at the seems!

I’m worried that I will ultimately end up in a dreaded ‘reading slump’ but for now my love of reading is back! And this time I have my own disposable income to buy even more with!

So anyway, back to the book club.

I loved following everyone on TikTok’s reading journeys and getting great recommendations for my next read, and even being influenced to buy yet another kindle accessory. But the problem was that this was all online, and other than a few fellow readers at work, I didn’t have anyone to talk about any of this with in real life.

So I started searching for a local book club…

And quickly discovered that Scarborough didn’t have one!

Now, I know we are a small place, but I assumed book clubs were a fairly common thing. So I was shocked to discover that no one in Scarborough was already part of local book club. At first I found this disheartening. It took me a while to gain the confidence to think about whether this is maybe something I could do myself. It felt like such a huge undertaking! How do you find like-minded people? How would I find somewhere that would be willing to host us?

And, of course: would anyone show up?

It all felt like a massive leap of faith, and I fully expected to fall flat on my face, sitting in a cafe/restaurant somewhere in Scarborough, all by myself. But I guess there were a lot of like-minded people in Scarborough, who were also desperate to find their own book-loving community, because on the first night there was 15 of us!!

Since then it has become a wonderful community of people, all sharing our favourite books, genres, TV show, films, podcasts… Each month we share our opinions, whilst enjoying a delicious piece of cake and drink from the brilliant Brewed, based right by the beautiful Scarborough sea front.

It has been an amazing experience taking this club on, and I am so thankful for everyone that has joined and been a part of it. Together we have created a wonderful group of individuals x