There is talk of the benefits of reading and several studies have confirmed that this activity even leads to stress reduction and better cognitive development.

For example, a study from the University of Sussex in the UK claims that reading can reduce stress by 68% and just six minutes of reading reduces heart rate.

However, reading can also be a shared activity and reading groups or clubs are often developed and coordinated by a facilitator, who sets the agenda and guides discussions and other activities around the theme. These experiences are regularly provided in person, but after the pandemic, online options have opened up, as well as in a hybrid format.

People can join others not only in Guatemala but in other countries to discuss books together. Also a way of exchanging culture and thoughts.

“Reading opportunity to get to know each other”

With a passion for taking reading to new heights, Guatemalans Ana Maria Aldana, have made 30 Books, a space dedicated to reading as a tool for personal growth and transformation. This community is growing every day and currently coordinates three reading clubs in which nearly a hundred people participate.

The first club born dedicated to reading personal growth and self-help books. “The pandemic brought us more to maintain mental health, high levels of loneliness experienced and levels of anxiety and depression, so we came to develop this concept to find in the book a little antidote to these situations.” In this club they focus on the special ability to learn from books by different national and international authors, he added.

There is also a fiction book club that focuses on stories that lead to adventure and entertainment. In this group, suspense novels, comics, and others are read. In addition, Aldana has opened a new space for reading in English to improve second language skills.

The Guatemalan shares that he, like many Guatemalans, did not grow up in an environment near books and has a belief that reading is not for him. “Then I had a personal situation where I was faced with not knowing what to do and who to turn to and I got my first book and that’s how I started learning about myself, my behavior, my emotions and that brought me closer to reading it. ,” he said.

During the pandemic he was in France in a country where restrictions were strong, where he lived small and he was allowed out only within certain limits and other conditions that affected him emotionally, he explained, that was the first attempt. to create a virtual book club to get close to people, but ended up being a podcast he worked on with a Mexican friend.

In 2021 arrive in Madrid, Spain on Book Day, April 23.l… “I saw how books were a party and I reconnected with the moment when I found the answers in books and I tried again to make something, 30 books were born, to motivate people to read with me“, remember.

In his network he started doing dynamics for reading, sometimes he invites his followers to read a page and this makes them want to know more. It developed into a community, Guatemalans living in other countries joined forces and became a movement where workshops were held, coexistence with writers, among other activities.

On Instagram he has 10 thousand followers. His blog became a website for people to register, he began collaborating with writers, and he launched his first journal for reading, a resource for organizing reading.

“I realized that digital works, but people also need something physical, a place to write, so we created tools and journals for readers to record their exercises,” added Aldana. He has hosted a face-to-face event.

“I want the readership community to continue to grow and for writers to see our country from a more positive perspective,” he concluded.

More online space

In Guatemala there is another attempt to take reading to another level through this reading club dynamic. Here are some of the options available in virtual mode.

reading is traveling

The Guatemalan Rotary Academy of Arts and Letters, a Rotary group, seeks to develop artistic and literary activity in Guatemala. A month earlier they said which book to read and then they had a virtual meeting where they had special guests and experts. For details, visit Facebook: AGRAL2021.

at Sophos

Current page www.sophosenlinea.com It has different clubs available in face-to-face as well as virtual modalities. These spaces seek to enhance the enjoyment of reading, as well as serve as support and encouragement to read a variety of works and authors, representing various artistic and intellectual trends, classical and contemporary. Each club proposes a defined theme.

new acropolis

This international organization working on individual and collective evolution has a hybrid reading club. This year the participants have read Divine comedy, Siddhartha and the works of William Shakespeare, among others. For more information, visit www.nuevaacropolis.org.gt.

Reading club with María José Navia

Course at the Papal Catholic University of Chile with the author María José Navia. María José shares her ideas and impressions on a different book each month, providing a space at the end of the session for participants to share their opinions on the subject. Enter link guiastematicas.bibliotecas.uc.cl/club-online.