Introducing The Ancient World Book Club
I strongly believe that reading is best done with friends.
To me, one of life’s great pleasures is gathering - either in-person or online - to swoon over an author’s writing together or to argue about whether a villain is as villainous as everyone makes them out to be.
For the past couple of years I’ve hosted a summer readalong of an ancient epic on social media and I’ve wanted to host a more regular book club ever since we started.
My favourite part of the summer readalongs was everyone’s reactions to these ancient texts: seeing which characters and scenes people responded to most, what emotions were evoked, and how it could inspire people to explore the ancient world in more depth.
What I did not enjoy was wrangling two different social media platforms every Sunday morning throughout the summer and trying to placate the gods of the algorithm.
But wonderful Storygraph came to the rescue and from January 2024 I have been using their readalong feature to host my monthly(!) Ancient World Book Club. We read Greek and Latin texts in translation alongside retellings, reinterpretations, and historical fiction set in the ancient world but written by modern authors. It’s so exciting!
What is the Ancient World Book Club?
A monthly online book club for people who love classical literature, historical fiction, and myth retellings!
What do we read?
We aim to read one text per month, or a selection/highlights package if the text is especially long. We alternate between ancient and modern authors each month, starting with an ancient author in January.
You can see an overview of what we’re reading in 2024 here. Some months I’ll include a recommendation for a bonus text: this is completely optional, but often a short(ish) text that I think will be a good accompaniment for the main text we’re focusing on.
What language do we read in?
Most people (myself included) choose to read in English. If you prefer to read an ancient text in its original language, or a translation in your native language, I highly encourage you to do so! Comparing translations and word choices is one of my favourite things to do, and I really enjoy being able to do it with you all!
There isn’t a ‘set’ translation/edition of any text, either - I’ll post some guidance each month, but I really just encourage you to just explore a few different ones (the ‘read sample’ function on Amazon is really useful for this!) and use whichever you feel the most comfortable with.
When do we meet?
This is a monthly book club, but there is no set schedule. You can read a little bit each day, or read the entire book on the last day of the month - whichever you prefer and/or however you have time to fit it in!
On the first day of each month I open up the reading group on Storygraph: I’ll post separate forums for discussing each section of the text as well as some general resources/introductions to help you familiarise yourself with the text before reading.
Because the book club is entirely online, you can join in at any time of the day, at any point during the month. I’ll leave some prompts for discussion in each forum, and encourage you to share your thoughts as you read.
Do I have to join every month?
Absolutely not - if you want to skip a month and only read texts by ancient authors, that’s completely fine. Or if you only want to read books about certain characters/locations, that’s fine too. There’s no obligation to join in every month - though I would love it if you do!
Do I need to have studied Classics to join?
Absolutely not! I want the Book Club to be open and accessible to anyone who can read a book/ebook or listen to an audiobook, whether they’re a Classicist or have never engaged with Greece/Rome before.
One of my goals with my original monthly readalongs was to prove that ancient authors can be just as engaging and entertaining to read as any modern author, and I’m keeping that in mind with the Ancient World Book Club too.
How do I sign up?
The Ancient World Book Club is hosted on Storygraph, so make sure you sign up for an account there and familiarise yourself with the website/app if you haven’t used it before.
You can also click the button below to subscribe to the Ancient World Book Club mailing list - this is completely separate to my existing Plato’s Fire mailing list and will only be used for information about the book club.
I send out reminders about the book we’re reading/about to read next, and reading guides for the ancient texts.
Can I share this with my friends?
Please do - the more the merrier!
