Elizabethtown College held its Sci-Fi Friday book club meeting Feb. 15 at 11 a.m. at the High Library.

Science fiction, or sci-fi, is a popular genre, which is why it was chosen as a theme for this semester. The book selected for discussion was “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler.

First-year Cassidy Dunn was unable to attend the event but did read the book. “The book was about [a] future where it was really dangerous to go outside and live outside the walls of the community [the characters] were in,” Dunn said in an email interview.

“Eventually something happened that caused them to have to leave and the main character met new friends as she traveled to her dream destination,” Dunn wrote in an email interview.

Dunn ended up enjoying the book. “I loved how it was written and how everything was presented. I was never sure of what was going to happen next and I loved that,” Dunn said. “I also enjoyed that it took place in the future and how it ended.”

Three staff members and one faculty member attended the event.

According to Access Services Librarian Amy Magee, the discussion centered around how well the book’s vision of the future aligns with the current reality.

“The book was written in the 1990’s and set in the year 2024, and some of the predictions are quite accurate, while our perception of other issues presented in the book have evolved,” Magee said in an email interview.

Magee also said there was a brief discussion about how the book fits into the sci-fi genre as a whole.

The book club will meet three more times this semester in March, April and May. Dunn said she hopes to attend future events.

“I really love being able to talk about a book after I read it and discuss the things that we found interesting,” Dunn said.

“I feel that the book club allows people to come together from different backgrounds and discuss something that they have a common interest in.”
However, this was not the first book club held.

“We actually started doing book clubs in the High Library this past summer, with a Beach Reads book club for staff. In the fall, we had the Choose Happiness book club, which was inspired in part by our Leffler Lecture speaker, Ibtihaj Muhammad,” Magee said.

Book clubs will continue to be held in the future as long as students are interested. Etown is always looking for ways to engage students’ interests.
“The inspiration for starting the book club was to provide an engaging, low-key activity that would allow students, faculty and staff to take a short break from their work day to talk with people they might not otherwise have a chance to talk with,” Magee said.

Dunn agrees that the book club is a good way to take break from work. “As I was reading the book, it brought me a lot of joy that I was able to read something that I chose to read rather than more homework,” Dunn said.
Dunn also added that the club gave her a reading suggestion she wouldn’t have considered before.

The library also holds other events, such as presentations and art exhibits. The exhibit, “Placida Paper: Turning Algae into Art,” is currently on display throughout the month of February.

The next book club meeting will discuss the book “Trail of Lightning” by Rebecca Roanhorse.

The book is about a girl named Maggie who is a monster hunter. When her town needs help finding a missing girl, she is their last hope. In order to survive, she must confront her past. The meeting will be held March 15 at the High Library from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.