The New Yorker on Tuesday announced the creation of a book club, or, as the editors prefer to think of it, a "readers’ cooperative—a standing invitation to roll up your sleeves and dig deep into a book, and see what together we uncover." Regular readers of the weekly magazine's blog Book Bench will be familiar with the kinds of conversations the new book club hopes to engender: Last month Book Bench editors and writers invited readers to tackle Roberto Bolaño’s nine-hundred-page novel 2666, published last November by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The first official title to be discussed, in March, is a less ambitious literary gem. The choice of Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road as the inaugural book club pick was no doubt prompted by the recent film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett.
At the beginning of each month, the Book Club will start the discussion with the editors and the New Yorker writers thoughts about the book under consideration. Readers are then invited to add their views and opinions in the comments section or in an e-mail, which the editors may or may not excerpt or post in its entirety. The next month's book will be announced a couple weeks in advance.
