Grand Valley State University’s Book Club held its first book sale this year at the Kirkhof lobby.

All of the proceeds from the sale will be used as funding for future club events. 

“Our old president gave us a bunch of books last summer and he told us we could do a book sale,” said current Book Club President Bruna Ngassa. “We have been meaning to do it for the longest time but COVID ultimately pushed the sale back.” 

Although the group tries to hold a book sale every year where they sell popular books at a reduced price, it’s not their only fundraising opportunity. 

“We have an event called Potter and Pancakes that we plan on using the money raised from these sales,” Ngassa said. “This event takes place in the second semester and we eat pancakes and watch Harry Potter movies.”

While reading is a large factor in the group, they focus on other things as well. They also have annual parties with food, drinks, games to play and book-related discussions. 

“We also do holiday parties,” Ngassa said. “There will be really good food at our annual Halloween party at the end of October. We also have a white elephant in December.”

As for what inspired the book club to start, Alex Olmstead, the club’s secretary, gave the rundown.

“This club has been around for a long time,” Olmstead said. “It started to create a safe and fun place for fellow book club members to meet. It was started on the idea that there would be no assigned reading like a traditional book club.”

Olmstead said a typical book club meeting consists of several different things. 

“We’ll usually go over announcements and then play a book-related game or have a discussion,” Olmstead said. “In the past, we have played literary charades, discussed our favorite and least favorite books, have had holiday parties, potlucks and outings such as author book signings.” 

This year the club introduced monthly reading assignments where they meet as a club to discuss the book weekly.

“This month we are reading ‘The Invisible Life of Addie Larue’ by V. E. Schwab,” said Allison Klimek, a senior club member. “We are trying to read a book for a month. We’ll see how it goes, hopefully we can keep doing it.” 

The book club is planning on reading the first half of the book together and then having a meeting afterward to discuss. After that, they’ll be finishing the book and have a meeting to discuss their thoughts about it. Club members have the option to join others in reading the monthly chosen book or they can just enjoy reading related conversations and activities at the club meetings. 

Several board members have been avid readers from a very young age. 

“I actually taught my sister to read when I was around five years old,” Ngassa said. “I have always been a reader as an introverted child. I first started reading Barbie books and then ‘The Rainbow Fairies.’ I have gone through many genres, but reading has always been a big part of my life.” 

The GVSU Book Club is perfect for readers that love any genre of books and want to be surrounded by other fellow book lovers. The club has several events coming up and students can join the book club on LakerLink at any time. 

As for future book club outings, on Oct. 22 the book club will be attending a ghost tour in downtown Grand Rapids. 

“Authors who’ve written ghost stories will lead the tour,” Olmstead said. “It’ll be a fun and spooky adventure.”