Jen Knoch is associate editor of ECW Press by day, Canadian literature aficionado by night. Her blog, the Keepin’ It Real Book Club (KIRBC), chronicles the highs and lows of Jen’s reading habits, tackling everything from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight to Rivka Galchen’s Atmospheric Disturbances. She’s honest about her reading habits (because, let’s face it, everyone read Twilight) and believes that the quality of the book doesn’t affect the quality of conversation about that book. The Keepin’ Real Book Club is smart, thoughtful and refreshing, just like the blogger herself.
This Books@Torontoist editor chatted with Jen via email about the KIRBC and her latest project, Civilians Read, an everyperson take on CBC’s annual literary throwdown. (Disclaimer: This Books@Torontoist editor is on the panel. And is going to win.)
Torontoist: Tell me about your blog, the KIRBC.
Jen Knoch: I started the KIRBC as an extension of my real-life book club of the same name, where people come to rant and rave about their fave reads. Since the original members all went their separate ways, I hoped we could continue the discussion online. Turns out my friends didn’t catch the blogging bug, but I did. So I repurposed the blog a bit, trying to keep the original spirit of accessible but smart conversation about books, and blogging about almost every book I read. (This also has been very helpful when I inevitably forget the specifics of almost every book I read.) Like the original club, people will find the KIRBC is a pretty positive space, because, honestly, that’s how I feel about the majority of the books I read. That’s not to say I’m never critical, but usually I can find something in a book that made it worthwhile.
TO: How do you decide what to read and, subsequently, how you go about blogging about it?
JK: Well, a lot of recommendations come to be through the real-life meetings of the KIRBC (we’re like a reading ecosystem!). But other than that, working in the book industry means I generally have my ear to the ground about new and interesting books, and I also take the time to read other book blogs I love for suggestions. I regularly check out Kerry Clare’s lovely Pickle Me This and B. Kienapple’s A Certain Bent Appeal. As for the blogging process, I generally try to make a few notes as I read and as soon as I finish a book. Sometimes these are more academic observations left over from my grad-student days, and sometimes it’s just noting passages that Ioved or gut reactions to things. Then I’ll sit down and try to string it together into something readable.
TO: You’ve followed Canada Reads closely as a blogger for a few years now and this year you even have a video blog going for them. Why are you so interested in this event?
JK: I’m a big fan of both books and CBC Radio, so when those two things come together, my little heart beats double time. But that aside, any event that gets people really excited by books gets me excited. I also found Canada Reads has a very similar objective to my own KIRBC meetings. Bring a book you’re passionate about, convince others they should read it. So it’s a natural fit. As for my blog’s involvement, I’ve found it’s a really great thing to cover, because so many people care, and it’s easier to get a good discussion going because so many people have read the book. During the competition, I try to be the first to post about it and offer a balance of summary and colour commentary. And the videos just started up because I thought, “I could do this panelist thing,” and I wanted to add something new to my coverage. The wonderful Julie Wilson thought it’d be a nice way to give a face to the reader, so that’s how they ended up on the CBC.
TO: This year, you’ve amped up the Canada Reads coverage by mimicking the project with one of your own, Civilian Reads. What inspired Civilian Reads, it’s format, and the panelists?
JK: It’s amazing what you can think up when you’re bookless on the TTC (not that this is something I’d generally recommend). I think in some ways Civilians Read emerged out of playing panelist in those videos and having fun doing it. I thought, I know lots of smart, well-read people who could do this too. And then I considered how much MORE fun it would be if I pitted them against one another! So sticking closely to the CBC model, I fleshed a plan out quickly, and then emailed some serious peer pressure to five people who I thought would make a great debating panel. They all agreed almost immediately, despite the extra work and the fact that I’d effectively hijacked their reading agenda for the next month.
TO: What do you hope to accomplish with Civilians Read?
JK: Well, in isolating the panelist variable in the Canada Reads competition, we should get a better how much personal strategy and charisma can effect the course of the competition once we compare it with Canada Reads. I think it’ll also be interesting to see if the conversation and the outcome changes when you stage the debate with five people who are readers first (after all, all of our panelists make a living from the book industry), rather than public figures who also like to read. And for the panelists, this is a whole new level of engagement with the books and these ideas, which should give us a new appreciation for the books and the competition, and hopefully stir up some interesting discussion on the blog.
TO: What are some of your favourite books or authors?
JK: Yikes – a tough list to make. I’m big on books that just emotionally eviscerate you, so The God of Small Things and Fall on Your Knees are at the top of the list, but others I could frequently reread include Midnight’s Children, The Hours, The Book Thief, Lighthousekeeping, and Fugitive Pieces, just to name a few. And I’d have to throw in just about anything by Viriginia Woolf, Timothy Findley, and John Irving.
TO: What sorts of books make good blogging books or, since KIRBC is also a book club, good book-club books?
JK: Just about any book is bloggable – though of course it helps if you liked it, and especially if it made you stop and think. As for book club books, because of the rules of our club, people can recommend anything they’re really passionate about. But some of my most popular recommendations have been books that mix plot-driven narrative with some literary substance. For example, I’ve found many fans of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Josephine Bonaparte trilogy by Sandra Gulland. I tend to recommend books that make people cry, which I figure is the ultimate sign that you’re invested in the book.
TO: What are your future plans for KIRBC?
JK: My plans are mostly to keep up with reviews and coerce other contributors into stepping up a bit more to give people a break from me. I’ll also be making some more video pitches for books that I love, tarting up the site a little bit with a revamp, and brainstorming some more schemes I can rope unsuspecting friends into. As for the corresponding book club, I’d just like to share the love and get more people out to meetings, and hopefully inspire some new chapters to start up elsewhere. So basically try to take over the world.
