Making a Book about Books: The Book Club Play Research Packet

By Aaron Malkin, Senior Literary Fellow

I mentioned in one of my most recent posts that I was in the midst of putting together a research packet for The Book Club Play, but wasn't yet ready to lay out what was going to make it into the book. After conversations with Karen Zacarias (the playwright), Molly Smith (the director), and Amrita Ramanan (our literary manager) and a lot of reading, here is the Table of Contents (with electronic links to the actual contents where available) for The Book Club Play Research Packet that was distributed to the cast and creative team of The Book Club Play last week:

The Book Club Play: Table of Contents

I. Books, Books, Books: Literacy, Publishing, and Book Sales in America

• “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literature”(2009)- A Study by the National Endowment for the Arts
• Excerpt from Encyclopedia Britannica article “Modern Publishing: From the 19^th Century to the Present”
• Books for Consumption: The Big Book Store and Kindles
  • “The Growing Battle of the Big Bookstores” by David Berreby, The New York Times, 11/8/92
  • “Amazon Kindle Book Sales Soar” by Melissa J. Perenson, PC World, 1/27/11
  • “Borders Goes Bust – Will Amazon Kindle Be Next?,” Forbes.com, 8/3/11
  • Sub/Text: Stacking Up: “Top Ten” Reading Lists
  • Excerpts from The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
    • Whim
    • Responsiveness
    • Lost
    • Abbot Hugh’s Advice

II. The Book Club

• Sub/Text: Say Hi to Low, Hello to High: An Introduction to the High vs. Low Art Debate*
• Excerpt from The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
  • Judge, Jury, Executioner
  • “How to Start A Book Club” from Oprah’s Book Club Collection
  • “Book Clubs: Why do we love them so much? Is it the zucchini bread?” from Slate
  • Snapshots of Prominent Local/National Book Clubs
    • Oprah’s Book Club (Nationwide)
    • Beauty and the Book (Jefferson, Texas w/ Chapters Nationally)
    • Politics & Prose (Washington, DC)

III. The Bookshelf: Excerpts from The Book Club’s Reading List (Spoilers Follow!)

• “Call me Ishmael.”- Chapters 1 & 2 of Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• “The flower of life.” – Chapter 34 of The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
• “He lay perfectly still.” – Chapter 13 of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
• “The truth.”- Prologue, Chapters 1 & 2 of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• “The Affair on the Liner”- Chapter 1 of The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Burroughs
• Sub/Text: Synopses of 30 novels/plays mentioned in The Book Club Play*

*Sub/Text: Your Virtual Dramaturg is an online audience enrichment database dedicated to enriching the experience with the plays presented at Arena Stage and facilitating further discussion and inquiry. For more information, visit http://www.arenastage.org/shows-tickets/sub-text/