The Lighthouse Book Club
Would you like to read more but just can't find the time? Is there a beautiful book sitting on your nightstand that you can't seem to finish? Do you need a little push to keep reading? Join The Lighthouse Book Club! Three times a year, we read a book together. Both students and staff can participate. Reading with others is always more enjoyable!
What are we going to do?
Together, we'll read a chosen book. Once we've finished it, we'll exchange our reading experiences during a cozy live gathering with drinks and snacks. Each time, we'll try to make this gathering enjoyable, perhaps by inviting a speaker or even the author, or maybe we'll watch the film adaptation of the book. It's great for improving your reading skills and socializing! In one academic year, we'll read three different books. You can sign up for each book separately, so you're not committed for a whole year at once. Of course, we hope you'll join us for all the editions!
Which books are we reading?
In the academic year 2024-2025, we will be reading the following four books. You sign up per book, so you don't need to commit to a whole year right away. Of course, we would love for you to join us for all the editions!
New in the academic year 2024-2025 is that we will also be collaborating with the Dutch Book Club and the Film Club to read a book and watch its film adaptation together. A great boost for your reading skills and your social contacts!
Here's how The Lighthouse Book Club works
Sign up for Book 4: Atonement
After registering, you will receive a confirmation with the date and location for the meeting. You will also become a member of the online group The Lighthouse Book Club on Teams. Here, we stay in contact with each other while reading the book. Registration is done per book because we purchase books for the students and this way we have better insight into the numbers per round. Sign-up deadline: 3 April 2025.
Special edition in collaboration with The Lighthouse Boekenclub and The Lighthouse Film Club
The Dutch Book Club will be reading Boetekleed (the Dutch version) at the same time, and afterward, we’ll watch the film adaptation together with the Film Club and discuss both the book and the movie.
What does it cost you? You'll need to obtain the book yourself: either by purchasing a paper version, an e-book, or borrowing it from someone or the Public Library. You'll also need time to read and discuss the book afterwards with other Book Club members.
Pay attention! The first 15 students (not staff 😉) who sign up will receive the book to read for free! Thanks to sponsorship from The Lighthouse. These students will receive a message about when they can pick up the book from The Lighthouse & Events. The condition for receiving the book is that you actually read it and attend the gathering(s).
What do you get out of it? New contacts and insights, camaraderie, live gatherings with drinks and snacks. A new book for your bookshelf, and perhaps even the opportunity to interview an author...
The Lighthouse Book Club is organized by The Lighthouse and lecturers Tiaan Westenberg and Helen Limon from European Studies.
Rituals by Cees Nooteboom
When will we see each other?
- Book pickup at The Lighthouse & Events (Ovaal 0.01) for students: you will receive an email about this.
- Book discussion on April 10, 2025 from 16:00 - 17:30 (Strip 1.06).
Rituals
In Rituals, Amsterdam of the fifties, sixties and seventies is viewed from the perspective of the capricious Inni Wintrop. An unintentional suicide survivor, the unexpected gift of life returned lends him the curiousity, and impartiality, to survey others' lives and rountines. Inni's opposite, the one-eyed downhill skier Arnold Taads measures his life by the clock, while his disowned son Philip follows Japanese rituals which themselves seem to render his existence meaningless. A novel for those who seek to unravel our mysterious, apparently directionless lives...
Cees Nooteboom
Cees Nooteboom (born Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria Nooteboom, 31 July 1933, in The Hague) is a Dutch author. He has won the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, the P.C. Hooft Award, the Pegasus Prize, the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs for Rituelen, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the Constantijn Huygens Prize, and has frequently been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature.
Atonement by Ian McEwan
When will we see each other?
- Book pickup at The Lighthouse & Events (Ovaal 0.01) for the first 15 students: you will receive an email about this after registration.
- Film screening followed by a book and film discussion on 13 May 2025 from 18:00 to 21:00 (OV1.43).
Atonement
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis watches as her sister Cecilia removes her clothes and dives into the pond in their estate’s garden. Cecilia’s friend, Robbie Turner, watches her too. By the end of that same day, all three of their lives will be changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia have crossed an unthinkable boundary and have both become victims of Briony’s imagination. At its core, this is a profound and moving exploration of guilt, atonement, and forgiveness.
Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan is a British author and playwright, renowned for his award-winning novels, which have been nominated for the Booker Prize six times. In his early career, he was often deliberately provocative, but he has since become one of Britain’s most acclaimed writers. Several of his novels have been adapted into films, including The Innocent, The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, Enduring Love, and Atonement.
