Victoria Schiller, Senior Writer
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, the English, world languages, and literature departments hosted an informal book swap for all English and Spanish majors, minors and concentrations. Students and faculty gathered in the Miguel Hall lounge, ready to offer a book from their collection and hopefully gain a new favorite read. The Quadrangle attended and spoke with several students and faculty members about the first book swap of the semester.
Adam Koehler, Ph.D., chair of the English department, shared how this event came to life.
“The idea came from the students,” Koehler wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “A senior English and communication double major, Amaya Behsman, approached me with the idea and it just sounded too good. She said, ‘Everyone meets up to talk about what they’re reading and trade books?’ and I thought, ‘Of course!’ I just emailed the faculty and the students and everyone came with their books and we chatted in the lounge about what we loved about these books and well, traded them with each other!”
The Quadrangle also asked Koehler why events such as the book swap are important for the English and foreign language departments and what he hopes students will gain from these events.
“A rich reading life is important for all of us,” Koehler wrote. “A book swap is a chance for us to be together as a community, to hear new perspectives about what we’re reading or thinking about and to remind ourselves what we’re here for, which is to participate in the life of the mind together. We should all be reading books for fun, conversing about what these books mean to us and hearing about each other’s interests and where they overlap. These are simple but essential for us as people. I hope they saw that they have a smart, warm and engaged community who also cares about these things.”
The Quadrangle also spoke with several students who attended the event. Behsman explained why she decided to participate.
“I came to the event to reconnect with my professors and English major friends after the winter break and to get new book recommendations from trusted sources, especially because I’m graduating soon, so seeing people and talking about books is valuable to me,” Behsman said.
Amy Forster, a sophomore majoring in English and special education, also attended the book swap. The Quadrangle asked what book she brought to the event and if she was looking for anything specific to add to her collection.
“I brought ‘Nine Lives’ by William Dalrymple,” Forster said. “It was a book I got in my first-year religion class during the first semester last year and I really loved it. Professor Koehler picked that up, and then I actually took one of Professor Koehler’s books, which was ‘Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay’ by Michael Chabon, which seemed really interesting. He’s a Pulitzer Prize winner, and I liked the last Pulitzer Prize winner he [Koehler] recommended, which was ‘A Visit to the Goon Squad’ by Jennifer Egan. I was going in with an open mind.”
Behsman and Forster shared that they would like to see more events like the book swap in the future, and offered ideas for potential upcoming events.
“I’d love another English event,” Behsman wrote. “Even if we did a thing at An Beal Bocht Cafe, or a writing workshop of some kind would be cool.”
“I think it would be really interesting to do blind dates with a book,” Forster said. “I think going on trips to bookstores would be really cute, and a book trivia night with different things about books and we could make teams to win a giftcard to Barnes and Noble.”
A second book swap, as well as future events––such as the English department’s very own English night at An Beal Bocht Cafe––are currently in the works for the coming weeks.