Written by Hannah Murray

There is something satisfying about sitting down with a good book and losing yourself in a world of make-believe. While many do this in the comfort of their own homes, others enjoy reading in the comfort of other book-lovers. On the second Tuesday of every month, Woodland Regional High School hosts a Book Club during advisory. At the time, students meet with Library Media Specialist Jodie D’Alexander and student leader Collette Hammond to discuss what they find interesting about their current reads regardless of whether they have finished the books.

Something that many people don’t realize is that everyone reads different books. Sometimes they read all different genres and sometimes they read the same genre and compare how all their books relate to each other. During their monthly meetings, everyone discusses how their books are going regardless if they are finished or not. “Once in a while we will do a genre read,” said D’Alexander. “Sometimes we’ll read fantasy or historical fiction, but because the Library Media Center doesn’t really have multiple copies of books, we’ve kind of had to go that route.”

D’Alexander is currently reading The Digital Delusion by Cooney Horvath; her favorite genres are romance, historical fiction, and biographies. “These books are more of my personal reads,” said D’Alexander. “But, I’ve gotten some new titles for the Library Media Center. So I’ve got to catch up on those as well.”

Unfortunately, D’Alexander has seen less and less people over the years that are interested in joining book clubs. But, she feels that it’s important to join a book club to get the opportunity to “enjoy reading regularly and hopefully hearing about different titles and different authors that may potentially interest you,” said D’Alexander. 

Even though joining Book Club is important, D’Alexander is excited to share some news that she has been working on with Paul Geary. They have been working together to involve more reading in advisory. “It was what our founding principal, Dr. Arnold Frank wanted, when he designed Woodland’s advisory program. Reading was always a component of it and we used to do that once a week,” said D’Alexander. After COVID reading in advisory has not been a priority factor anymore, and that is why every month each department will be supplying reading each month and even sometimes students will be able to have a free read.

As the years have passed, Book Club has fleshed out into a strong organization that fosters a true appreciation for reading. D’Alexander, Geary, and Hammond only hope “that all of the Woodland (students and staff) will embrace our all school reading day this school year” and continue to pick up a good book.