What I Learned by Coordinating Suri Membaca
Bismillah,
Since last October, I have been coordinating a monthly book circle for women. Suri Membaca is actually an advocating movement to encourage more women to read even after their university years, being a career women or as a housewife. This movement is started earlier last year in Klang Valley areas by Kak Nurul Suhadah Shuib and team.
1) It is 'kind of' easy to start a venture, but more challenging to sustain
Our first ever book circle was held at Blackwood Arau and we got 7 attendees who shared books of many wonderful genres. Even Maisarah came down all the way from Penang. Since it was the first time we ever gathered, the choleric-melancholic side of me imagined every possible outcomes. Turns out it was a refreshing and thoughtful session, to witness how excited each of us in sharing the books that we have read.
Our first meetup in October
Since then, we agreed to conduct our book circle in the second week every month. In order to sustain our motivation in reading. From my observation, the biggest challenge in coordinating book circles like this is to sustain it. It is easy to organize a once-off event, but to continuously making effort and spending your time for it, surely we are going to need a good team and strong objective.
Suri Membaca #2 in November at Kangar Public Library. The children zone is very vibrant and comfy!
2) Don't look at the numbers, look at the effort
In my earlier discussion with kak Kama, we aimed for a small circle as events like this is uncommon in Perlis. Since the last 1 year settling back in Perlis after graduating, I realized that one of the hurdles for event organizers to conduct event here is in the financial/economical side as generally most of the locals are not accustomed to pay commitment fees. Religious talks at the mosque are very common, but not events on enhancing skills such as public speaking /parenting / financial management compared to my university's vicinity in Seri Iskandar or even Lembah Klang. Hence the disparity or the lack of options here. I would personally save up and attend events in KL as there are lots of programs there. In short, there's a lot of effort needed to build knowledge culture in Perlis.
Books from Suri Membaca #3
I would really appreciate if the barriers between university /knowledge institution can be lowered by holding more programs that can relate with the laymen. We can try to discuss issues that matters i.e. poverty, climate change or importance of learning in a way that can be understood by all. But if we keep conducting events entitled 'Antara Cita-cita & Cinta' or 'Nikah Muda', I will say nehhh..no thank you. That is why the range of book circles should be broadened. Just imagine what will happen if teachers, educators, housewives, students etc have their own monthly book circles to discuss about knowledge, even once a month (hence the idealist me).
Of course, it is impossible for us to read all literature in all genres, but if we start sharing and listening, we may gain more than what we can achieve personally. Therefore, it is important for us to keep reminding ourselves to not be discouraged by the number of attendees, but to appreciate each that came. It is undeniably hard to manage work, study, house chores etc but to set aside 2 hours (or more) every month for personal growth is amazing! I am really glad to meet these sisters, Alhamdulillah.
Meetup #4 last January, we discussed about HAMKA
3) Caveats to those interested to join
- don't be afraid, as each sessions are held in a very 'santai' way.
- the themes are set as a motivation, just bring any book that you want to share
- first timers? you can come to listen first :)
I believe that this is one of the efforts that can be done to encourage lifelong learning and in a long run, creating a conducive knowledge culture in Perlis. We have brainstormed quite a number of activities to be done in the future insyaAllah, including inviting writers to share about their books, storytelling session with asnaf kids and writing workshops. Hopefully we can achieve an understanding that reading is never a privilege of the privileged, but a necessity of the commons.
Our February meetup will be held this weekend at Blackwood Kangar. Hope to see you there!
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