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Book Club Objectives
For people reading the actual book:
– to get you reading a real book in Italian, whether or not you have before, in the company of other club members.
For people reading our ‘Riassunto facilitato per studenti di italiano L2’:
– to get you reading in Italian.
– to encourage you to buy a copy of the actual book and try reading it.
For both groups:
– to share ideas, resources, progress.
– to provide encouragement and support where necessary.
For people not (yet) joining in:
– to inspire you to read in Italian, even if you’ve never done it before!
Book Club Organisation
One simplified chapter of our ‘riassunto’ will be published each Monday/Wednesday/Friday for three weeks. Find the material by following the links on the ‘Literature’ page of the club website.
The simplified retelling of the story will reference the start/end page numbers for the actual book, which we strongly encourage you to buy, so simplified readers and real book readers can join the same discussions.
Discuss or ask questions about each section by leaving a comment on the relevant page, linked to from the ‘Literature’ page.
If you haven’t commented on the club website before, your first comment will need to be manually approved (as an anti-spam measure.) Be patient. This could take a few hours, or longer if it’s night where we are.
Book Club Do’s and Don’ts
- The Book Club is not a race. Some people will read Italian very slowly. While we have a start/finish date, actually, there are no time limits. So read at your own pace.
- If you need help, ask. But do the obvious research (i.e. checking dictionaries) first.
- Read the ‘riassunto’ text, and/or the real text, your choice. But if you don’t have the time, don’t like reading, or don’t feel up to it, keep quiet! Comments are open to everyone who at least tries to understand the text.
- No spoilers, please! If you’ve read ahead, don’t give vital plot points away. Restrict discussion on Chapter 1 to content in Chapter 1.
- Agree or disagree with others by all means, but be courteous in your comments.
- Please don’t post links to ‘pirate’ copies of Eco’s book. We’d like to respect copyright law, and 100% encourage participants to buy a copy of the book.
- Above all, have fun!