Film Courage: How many book clubs are you a part of?
Filmmaker Bomani J. Story: Just one, just one.
Film Courage: How long have you been a part of it?
Bomani: I think it started in 2016. I think is when it started so what is that seven years six
years or something like that now oh it's the same book club that you found wow okay yeah what are
the rules for joining a book club mine or in general okay both yeah I don't know about in
general I don't know what the hell they're they're going on over there but for us it's like it has to
be I mean you have to show an interest in reading for one and you have to read the book like I know
there's a lot of book clubs that they don't read the book which I find crazy like yeah it's a thing
like where people would just be like they're not reading the book and then the book clubs kind of
just disappear right because it's not sustainable if you don't read the book and usually it's like
you have to amongst us it's like you're gonna you have to be recommended right like someone has to
know you from the book club and kind of like bring you in because we just don't I mean you have to
be vetted like I need to know you're going to read the book like I need that's what it's really about
it's like where who we're dealing with and being like oh is this person like does he read do they
read does she read like does she actually read the book and want to engage about it because there's
a lot of people who they they don't actually read the book it's it's crazy I know it sounds
wild like why would you join a book club and not read the book but there are a lot of people who
do that it's like they don't dates yeah maybe they have ulterior motives where it's like maybe they
just want friends and stuff which is like fine but read the book too like okay so they have to know
that hey is he cool or yeah yeah okay you can come in yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah as you read the book
how many people work best as a book club like is there a point where it gets to be too many is
there a point where it's too little I mean I can only assume if you only have two members including
yourself it's not really a book club right like so it has to be more than that but for us I mean we
have quite a few members because we have different chapters in different states So like for our West
Coast chapter we have about how many members do we have in this it's like five or six including me
and then we have a Southeast chapter there's about 10 members there and then we have an
East Coast chapter and there's about like four four members there is this virtual or you're
actually meeting in person with so many people so each chapter meets like we don't meet with
the other groups the other chapters we meet amongst ourselves in person but like usually
about once a year or once every two years like well like I'll read the same book and then hop
on a giant zoom and like all be discussing it and stuff like that and before the pandemic we
did it two years in a row where all the chapters would read this we'd pick a country we'd all find
a book and vote on it from that country and we'd read it and then we'd all fly to that country for
a long weekend and then we would like discuss it oh wow that's pretty cool yeah normally are they
held at a coffee shop or someone's home for mine the weed like we usually someone hosts and then
we cook like dinner and have wine I don't drink but everyone else has wine and like yes and just
becomes like a an evening oh an evening okay so that that would help with the vetting too because
they're letting in people that they don't yeah why is it important for you to be in a book club
I don't know I just like it like it's like you you create a bond with people and like sometimes
when you read a book you kind of want to talk to somebody about it hear everybody's thoughts and
like argue on the merits of it and it helps you see new light on it stuff you might have missed
and like it it can open a book up quite a bit when you're talking to it with a bunch of other people
and strengthens friendships obviously I get to eat a good meal and like I think it's healthy
to be around people and talk to them and have those kind of things so I think it serves a lot
it's hard to meet people in LA and and it's not based on something maybe superficial like going to
a club where people ask you what do you do this is just based on an author's work so yeah yeah that's
nice yeah it's fun do you read I do I've read a lot of stuff in the past it's harder to do it with
film courage but yeah during the pandemic I read a lot of stuff of with the Libby app yeah and I
do miss reading and I do like books over but it's it's been tougher to even see movies yeah yeah but
yeah I do I do miss it and I read a book [My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff] about a woman
who worked at a publishing company in New York City and Salinger was one of their clients and
they were all told like oh when you get Salinger on the phone to tell so and so
and and and yeah it turned out he was really nice yeah so he wasn't as as mean as as this
this like crazy guy that was that was made out to be and it was her life and she was
teenage or a young woman in the 90s and I just yeah I miss I miss reading and I like Alice Munro,
Margaret Atwood oh yeah yeah people whose books get banned yeah yeah Judy Blume but anyway
bring it back keep reading yeah keep reading it's time do you get to finish the book oh like
in this book club it's about depending on what's going on but it's probably anywhere around four
to like six or seven weeks oh okay yeah so we're meeting about once a month once a month and a half
and stuff like that every once in a while we'll run into like a two-month thing because whether
it's Christmas holiday season or whatever and we're like okay well it's going to take a little
bit longer to kind of get through these things and yeah but for the most part on average it's
probably about once every four or six weeks and you all bring a copy of the book with you
to the club or no depends on how cool the book is it's like if you're like me I pride myself in the
hardcovers that I buy so I'll bring it and I'll show it off and then one of the members will be
like well I got a better one and like and slide it it's like I see it in there so well we'll do that
what book should be required reading in a book club oh I don't know if there should like be
I don't know if there should be required reading I think I think there should be required like
discussion like because that's what the point of or one of the points of like a book club is it's
like is the the discussion and the camaraderie amongst the the members and and a safe space
for you guys to kind of voice your your your criticisms and your feelings and on the book
and then the literature but I don't think any I don't think there should be a like oh every book
club needs to read this I think it's a matter of the interest of the the members what they're
what they're interested in Reading can you take us through sort of a virtual experience of what
it would be like to be at this book club like if if someone's hosting it are you showing up
with your own potluck you're bringing like the side dish and a book yeah yeah so I'll just take
you through like a an even when I'm hosting what I do is like I'll cook a whole meal so for let's
see for this one like for instance I did a what's a meal I did for everyone I did like I did a lemon
pepper chicken honey lemon pepper chicken with mixed vegetables and this recipe that they call
a Brazilian rice it's really just like rice with onions and garlic and cilantro kind of but how
it's prepared is a little bit different than people I don't know if this is like it might
actually not be brazilianized but that's what the title of the recipe said but those are the
ingredients and then we'll bring and then there'll be a dessert and I did a creme brulee for for the
dessert and so like what will happen is it's like the people start to show up there'll be
some small talk because we haven't seen each other in a month and what we've been up to
then I'll unveil the meal everyone will get their meal they'll pour the either the wine or the
whatever drinks that we're having and we'll sit around the table and we'll jump it off and I'll
be like well so how did you feel about 100 Years of Solitude and so we'll start to start discussing
it and while we're having a great feast so similar to how John Favreau did oh yeah yeah you're doing
dinner in a book yeah yeah okay yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah right yeah nice one yeah Saturday or
Sunday evening most the time so has there any been any heated arguments well the things where
people keep it pretty respectful yeah no there's never really been any that's again why the vetting
process we're always like who's who's coming up in here eating us like so nah we all are very civil
about it there are there's exchanges not like you say but there's like differences in opinions like
when there's like a polarizing book on people who are just like whether they don't like it or not
but those always make the best discussions it's just like when a book is very polarizing so for
whatever reason 100 Years of Solitude was a pretty polarizing book I loved it some other people there
like didn't really like it for whatever reasons but that was our that was our best discussion
was talking about that book what was the first book that defined Your Love of Storytelling um
okay so I don't know the first book that I like that I picked up
I don't know I can't say that there was a book that like made me kind of be that like I just
kind of started picking up reading like I remember there's a book called Wizard's First Rule that I
picked up in like when I was really young and I really liked it so I was just kind of reading
that series which brought me to Harry Potter and then I read some of that series and then I
forgot there's oh A Series of Unfortunate Events like I was reading that and then I started
reading some of the classic Western Literature Like Frankenstein and The Divine Comedy and
The Count of Monte Cristo and stuff like that and like it just really started like it was just kind
of a process I was like opening up storytelling I should say he that really started opening it
up as a as a craft to me and also as something to experience but yeah I can't say that there
was like one book that made me kind of be like oh my God like it was just kind of like slowly
building to a point where I was just like I started recognizing craft as I was reading it
I can definitely say like when I read Elmore Leonard I read all his books
and like that kind of get opened up craft a little bit to me because he has a certain swagger with
his writing and his dialogue and stuff like that and so because of that it showed me something
and even how he describes a character or how he doesn't describe a character like that opened up
to me because when you just read someone's like all their work you're gonna start picking up on
their their their style what tips do you have for others if they'd like to find a book club
yeah I think like yeah you want I don't want to say like-minded but you do want like-minded people
who like in the sense of they all like to read you don't really want to be involved in a book
club of people who don't actually like to read because they're not going to read and then people
to create a space where you feel comfortable talking about the book so you can express your
thoughts and engage with someone because like that's another muscle to exercise is expressing
your thoughts on something that you that you read and what you liked and what you disliked and what
you were ambivalent about it's just like and then being comfortable to do that these are all
different things that you you need to be able to do so I would say just having a space where the
people involved are allowing for that you don't want someone who's just going to be like I don't
care about your opinion like it's just like you want to space it's a very welcoming space for
that kind of stuff and are these mostly fiction books or their Memoir yeah I think like Memoirs
like so we're mostly like fiction narrative is what the backbone is but we're willing to do like
Memoir or historical fiction those can be a part of it but it's working off the backbone of like
it's fictitious narrative like fiction what about political books is that something that in the past
few years maybe have been come less popular or or is is that not off the table nothing's
nothing's off the table we've never really done a political book oh no yeah it just is it just
never happens because we're always kind of like first we're like first we were chasing literary
periods where it's like oh Victorian romantic modern and stuff like that and then then we
were just like okay well like genres fantasy horror sci-fi like we were kind of just like
doing that so there's never really been a moment where like a political book even like crossed our
minds because we were just jumping all these other things have you ever participated in a Movie Club
no I've been approached but I've never really they hand you a car yeah just like are you gonna
be but I don't know it's weird like so I think it's part of the reason why some people don't
join book clubs too because it's just like the commitment of it they don't like the the idea
like going into the future right they're just like what forever right it's like you think about that
and I feel like with movie clubs like that kind of and oh oh oh oh and also you don't want it to
feel like homework this is going back to what else you asked so you don't want my whole goal with the
book club as well is like I don't want it to feel like homework because the second something feels
like homework or a task you're not going to want to do it you what I mean so it's like for for a
book club I think that's I think that's crucial you don't ever want this to feel like homework
so try whatever you can use in your power to make it not feel like homework utilize that but I think
for a movie clip that is the thing that happened to me it's like everyone who approaches me it
always feels like it's going to be homework that I have to watch this movie instead of something
where I'm like I'm just seeking out like a movie that I found or someone recommended to me it's
like even though it's like technically the same thing it's just like whenever it's like Movie
Club then it feels like homework all right so well with the book club they don't require notes
correct you're just going and talking about over dinner yeah yeah there's no like study
guide or anything like that you it's like it's just we're just having a casual conversation.