Fancy joining the Lucky Dip Book Club? A club for local creatives ... no matter where they live!

How do you like the sound of a new book-inspired creativity challenge each month? Because I might just be able to help you out there ...

Do you remember the days of The Copy & Paste Project? [A blog challenge/creativity kick-start hosted by me and my inordinately talented friend Kirsty Neale between 2009 - 11].  It doesn't matter if you don't ... this isn't really connected to that ... it's just that those of you who do remember how it ran will understand why the Lucky Dip Book Club caught my eye ...

This book club with a creative twist has its base at the MIMA gallery [Middlesbrough, Teesside] but you don't have to live nearby to join in. In fact anyone and everyone is welcome. Follow me and I'll get Danielle, the club's organiser, explain more ...

"Hi, we’re a new book club based in the town of Middlesbrough, UK, but we aim to be accessible from anywhere. You can join in no matter where you live if you can get to the internet." 

You see? I told you you could join in.  Here's how it works [I've highlighted some of  the key points in Danielle's original description] ... 

"We are an experimental book club. Here’s how we are different to a regular book club:

1) Our books are chosen by a combination of chance and recommendation. Every month we ask visitors to Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where our club is physically based, to suggest a book to go into the hat. We encourage people to open minded, playful, and even dastardly with their suggestions. It’s acceptable to put a book you hated into the hat, just to see how our participants will respond if it gets drawn.

2) Every month, THREE books, not one, are picked from the hat to be the focus of the month. How you use those books is up to you. For example, you may just choose one book to work closely with and disregard the other two. Or you could use all three of them for your own means, which leads me to… 

3) Your response to the book does not have to be to read it from cover to cover and provide a full and informed opinion at the end. We don’t care if you read it or not. We are fine with it if you despise it. We encourage ‘responses’ beyond forming an opinion. For example:redesign the book cover. Do a piece of creative writing giving a voice to a character you think needs more page time. Draw a comic depicting the gruesome end of a character who lived happily ever after, much to your disappointment. Crochet a doll of a character. Write a score for a scene. Do a photography project embodying the atmosphere of a chapter. You are welcome to produce, anything and also nothing, because…"

And here's where I think this project gets extra-interesting ...

Here's where this project ties-in with what we've been chatting about and confessing here lately about blog commenting, about feeling too shy to join-in, about not having the confidence to speak-up, and about the splendidly named position of  lurking!! 

"4) Lurkers are welcome. We appreciate this sort of experiment can be daunting. If you are just curious and/or shy, you are welcome to join us as a spectator, you will not be judged for it. You are also welcome to join us at any time, and come and go as you please. There is no competitive agenda or requirement to create.

5) There is no deadline for responses. Every month we will draw three new books, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop working on a project from a previous book. You are encouraged to share your progress with us. But you don’t have to. The aim of this group is to provoke creativity and the confidence to use books as inspiration and fuel for your own ideas.

6) This tumblr is a space for those who want to attend remotely. If you have mobility or social anxiety issues please don’t be afraid to get involved without ever coming to a physical meeting. They are only one hour a month anyway, the main project happens within you, maaaan. We’ll also use it as a place to show our own work, and examples of similarly inspired projects to serve as inspiration."

To see all the posts so far on the Lucky Dip Book Club Tumblr site click here.

So those are the official details ... what do you think? Are you coming? 

• Maybe it's something you might like to hover around for a while.
• Maybe it's something you can imagine dipping into each month to grab a starting point for your own creativity. 
• Maybe the idea of it been fully accessible online might give you the confidence to drop by and play-along sometime.

As for me well ... I attended the first meeting, in person, in the flesh, on my own. And I was nervous. But I felt it had been too long since I'd really pushed myself to try something new, something with unfamiliar people, something vaguely social ... but not too social. Heaven forbid.

But I was nervous. Did I mention that? 

The other members were perfectly nice, and while I welcomed having a cup of tea to hug throughout, I still had a headache by the time I got home! And yet ... I'm pretty certain I'm going to give it a go and return next month. 

And if you like the sound of it, and you fancy joining in online, but you're nervous, shy, introvert, or feeling awkward then you should know you're not the only one! But that doesn't mean we have to always miss out!

Danielle has clearly thought about this and wants the club to be inclusive and to appeal to lots those people who think they'd never dare attend something like this 'in real life'. So ... if you're tempted then here are the final additional details you'll need to join in ... 

The first 3 Lucky Dip books drawn from the hat were:[and it was an actual hat I can verify that. I was there. I saw the hat. I even picked out one of the choices from it!] 

1. The Whitsun Weddings poetry collection by Philip Larkin
2. The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl and 
3. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr.Seuss

What you do with them is entirely up to you! Have another read of the points 2 + 3 above for more of an idea of where you might begin. 

And don't forget you need not even have read the books to take inspiration from them! But, if you do want to read without buying them [I haven't] then try your local library or have a search around online - you can find examples or text and/or imagery from all three titles without having to even touch the books. 

After finding the text of Green Eggs and Ham online and a copy of the Larkin in the library I'm currently at the stage of pushing vintage paper scraps around to see what comes of it, taking some of the imagery / text of the original sources as my starting points. 

I will no doubt share my finished pieces here, but the club also welcomes works-in-progress contributions by anyone to the 'Bookydip' Tumblr page. 

[I'm not really 'getting' Tumblr, so we'll see how that goes! Danielle did say people can email her their work to upload ... maybe this might develop as the club becomes more established].

So that's the inclusive, come-as-you-are, join-in-from-the-comfort-of-your-pyjamas [if you're at home that is ... I won't be wearing my PJs to the next meeting!] Lucky Dip Book Club ... 

... anyone reaching for some Larkin/Dahl/Seuss yet? 

Julie