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!
- The Secret History by Donna TarttĀ
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati RoyĀ
- Rituals by Cees Nooteboom
- To be determined (this book will be read together with the Dutch Book Club, and we will watch the film adaptation with the Film Club)
Here's how The Lighthouse Book Club works
Sign up for Book 1: The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
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.
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! Students (not staff š) 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 Antje Grebner from European Studies.Ā
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
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 October 23, 2024 from 16:00 - 17:30 (Ovaal 1.43).
The Secret History
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at lastāinexorablyāinto evil.
Donna Tartt
Donna Tartt is an American author who has achieved critical and public acclaim for her novels, which have been published in forty languages. In 2003 she received the WH Smith Literary Award for her novel, The Little Friend, which was also nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Book 2
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 February 6, 2025 from 16:00 - 17:30 (Ovaal 1.43).
The God of Small Things
Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmothers factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family - their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom-pincher) and their avowed enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt).
Arundhati Roy
Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.
Rituals by Cees Nooteboom
Book 3
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 (Ovaal 1.43).
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.
