In the spirit of lock down we feature our first online Book Club this month – These Girls Can Run – Online Book Club.
These Girls Can Run
These Girls Can Run is a fantastic running community of over 10,000 ladies open to anyone regardless of fitness or experience. The various branches hold weekly running sessions with a focus on support and encouragement rather than times and results. Recently due to the Coronavirus pandemic they have been unable to run together. Determined to keep everyone connected, founder Kim Scott came up with the idea of a book club “I think something to focus on away from the news and what is going on in the world, is really important right now. To be able to read a book and then come together virtually to discuss it has given us all a little bit of escapism.”
These Girls Can Read
Book Social (BS) So Kim, tell us about the book club:
At the moment we just meet online once a month to discuss the book we’ve been reading. Our first online discussion was at the beginning of May and we’ve got another one scheduled for this month. I hope to continue the Book Club once all this is over but as our community is so widespread across the UK and beyond I think we’ll remain an online group.
BS: What are you reading at the moment?
We’re reading Your Pace or Mine by Lisa Jackson which is a running book all about life, laughter and “coming last” as the author describes it. Everything she says is totally in line with our ethos of “positivity over pace” so it’s a book I chose because it will really resonate with our ladies.
Before this, our first book was Jog On by Bella Mackie. Again this was a running book but this time with a focus on how running can help our battles with mental health. In our early days we’ve tended to just read books related to running but I am studying Positive Psychology at the moment and I love all things personal development related so I hope we can branch out and maybe read different styles of books in the coming months. Things like motivation, self belief and other such concepts all have a part to play in running so I hope the ladies will love what’s to come.
BS: How do you choose a book?
At the moment, I’ve chosen the first two books we’ve read but as we go along it would be lovely to take suggestions from within our groups. We all have those books sitting on our bookshelves which we’ve been meaning to read forever, so why not read them along with friends?
BS: What’s the best thing about being in a Book Club?
For me, the best thing about our Book Club has been connecting with our community in a new way. I’ve loved the fact that the books we are reading are helping ladies to reflect on their own running journeys (something I don’t think we do often enough) and just hearing different opinions on different aspects of the book has taught me a lot.
We Want You!
Thank you TGCR for taking part in our latest I’d Rather Be At Book Club feature. If lock down has driven your running shoes out of the back of the wardrobe pop along to their website or check them out on social media. They are a lovely, lovely group and are very welcoming.
Remember if you are part of a Book Club and would like to see it featured on Book Social then get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
