How to Join the Book Club

FAQs

Athenaeum was founded to resist our age of noise, speed, and amnesia. We are a community of readers who still believe that ideas matter — that Plato, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, and Dostoevsky are not just names in a syllabus, but guides to a deeper and more ordered life.

We are working through the classic texts of the Western canon: the kind of reading that sharpens the mind and strengthens the spirit. The West has given us the greatest works ever written, but it takes effort to read them — and even more effort to read them well. That’s what we’re doing here. Slowly. Together.

So far, we’ve read works like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Dante’s Inferno, Homer’s Iliad, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and Augustine’s Confessions. Works that represent major stepping stones in the great journey of Western thought.

How do I join?

All subscribers to our publication can join the biweekly live streams on Substack. They take place every other Tuesday, at noon Eastern Time, and usually last for 90-120 minutes.

All paid subscribers can participate or ask questions via the live chat on Substack, or join the discussions on Zoom directly if preferred. All paid subscribers will receive a Zoom invite link via email ahead of each call.

Note: all paid subscribers are welcome to join the Zoom calls directly, but most tend to prefer tuning in to the Substack live streams and asking questions via the live chat.

Also, please join the ongoing book discussion taking place between sessions inside our subscriber chat.

Where is the link to the live session?

You can find the Substack live streams on our homepage (athenaeumbooks.com) — the stream will appear at the top of the homepage as soon as we go live. We also share the stream links inside the subscriber chat.

For those who want to join the Zoom sessions directly, all paid subscribers will receive a Zoom invite link via email ahead of each call.

What if I can’t make a live session?

That’s totally fine. We record all the sessions for our paid members and upload to Substack so you can watch them back any time. You can find all the recordings that we’ve posted to date here.

What is the schedule?

We are typically reading one new book each month, split into two bi-weekly discussions every other Wednesday (unless it’s something lengthier that requires more time to read).

Shortly after the final Tuesday session on a book takes place, we vote on the next book inside our subscriber chat. Paid members are presented with a list of books to vote on — the one with the most votes wins.

What are we reading?

There is no formal reading list, and we are reading through the great texts in no particular order. However, our members vote on a pre-selected list of classics, similar to those in the image below.

We have chosen a list of 30-40 great works that we feel qualified to discuss and explain at length. They are books that tackle the big questions on morality and the human condition, and that have contributed significantly to the great journey of Western thinking — from ancient times to modern.

What is the pace of reading?

We have made this as flexible as possible so that people can read along at their own pace.

Generally speaking, we will have two bi-weekly discussions on each text (unless we are reading something that requires more time). During the first of two sessions, we will broadly cover the first half of the text, major themes, and tips for reading onward. During the second session, we will cover the second half and our reflections on the text at large.

There is no requirement to hit a certain number of chapters prior to any discussion. However, those who have at least read a few chapters by the time the first session takes place, and at least half of the book by the second session, will get the most out of the sessions.

What is the format of the sessions?

These are interactive sessions. The first half (45-60 minutes or so) will typically be a lecture by our expert host, Sean Berube, who will discuss key themes, plot points, and tips for reading — before moving on to the discussion section and Q&A.

All paid members are encouraged to join in directly with questions and comments in the second half, either directly via the Zoom call with Sean, or via the subscriber chat on Substack.

Who is the host?

Sean Berube is an independent scholar and lecturer on the Great Books, shaped by a decade of disciplined autodidactic study in philosophy, theology, and literature.

He writes and teaches on the great texts that formed the moral imagination of the West. His mission is to renew the soul of civilization by helping readers rediscover the wisdom of the past.

Where can we discuss the book and our progress?

Please join us inside our community on Circle (all paid members are sent an invite link) — this is where most book club discussion takes place, and we encourage as much participation from our members as possible. This is a journey that we are all sharing, and the great texts are best studied together.

Also, after each book club session concludes, we share a written recap of key discussion points inside the subscriber chat.

Are there any other resources to help understand these texts?

Yes. Most of the texts we will be covering in the book club are texts that we’ve written about already on our Substack. Head to the essays section of our publication for breakdowns that will serve as a useful introduction to whatever we’re reading.

Our paid members get regular, new literature essays alongside the books we are reading, and can access our entire archive of articles, essays, and podcasts.