The Pioneer Book Club draws students together to read books and discuss them — sans grades.
Students often “forget that reading and communicating with other people can be an enjoyable past time, not just an arduous homework assignment,” says club President Sandra DiBrito, a graduating biology major.
In its second year, the book club has enjoyed strong participation from both new and existing members; students always take all 40 free copies of each title, DiBrito says. In return for taking a book, students are expected to attend one of three discussion sessions organized for each title midway through and at the conclusion of the quarter.
The AUSA Senate, Honors Program and Partners in Scholarship fund the club, which sponsors two titles per quarter and tries to include a diverse array of genres and subject matter, DiBrito says. Past titles include Life of Pi (Harvest Books, 2003) by Yann Martel and Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House (The Dial Press, 1998).
More recently, club members read Plainsong (Vintage, 2000) by Colorado author Kent Haruf. Then, the club joined with DUPB to offer students a chance to attend the Denver Center for the Performing Arts production based on the book.
The club’s current title is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (Harper, 2006). Spring quarter’s first book will be Three Cups of Tea (Penguin, 2007); the club hopes to have author Greg Mortenson speak on campus.