Episode 556: Who Are the Book Jackets?

Today we'll be discussing A Tale of Two Cities, a terrific book by that most Dickensian of authors, Charles Dickens. OK, you've all read it. Come on, let's get a dialogue going

I really like the guillotine.

Yes, yes.

Why don't they have the guillotine here?

Well, I don't know, but the thing--

Did anyone ever try to pull their head out of guillotine at the last minute so just the top of their head got chopped off?

OK, are there any questions not involving the guillotine? Anyone? Anything? So that's it? What about class differences? What about romantic love, sacrifice, and regret everything? In life is between the covers of this book, people.

You are listening to WREK Atlanta, and this is Lost in the Stacks, the research library rock and roll radio show. I'm Charlie Bennett, in the studio with Fred Rascoe, Marlee Givens, and a guillotine. Each week on Lost in the Stacks, we pick a theme and then use it to create a mix of music and library talk. Whichever you tune in for, we hope you dig it.

That's right, Charlie. And today's show is called "Who Are the Book Jackets?

Shouldn't that be "What Are the Book Jackets?"

Oh, is this going to be a whole show about those bits of paper that protect the hardbacked books?

More than a bit, Fred. Come on.

Marlee, have you tricked us into doing a show about Fabio? I'm in. I am in.

Well, sorry to disappoint you, Fred, but no and no. And I really do mean, "Who are the Book Jackets?" Book Jackets is the name of the student book club here at Georgia Tech.

Well, that's clever. Probably a more appropriate show, I guess.

We'll be speaking, today, with the senior executive officer of this relatively new student organization.

And full disclosure-- I serve as the faculty advisor for the Book Jackets. CHARLIE BENNETT: So there might be some interviewer-interviewee slippage today. Better stay on your toes, Marlee.

And our songs today are about who joins clubs, how clubs interact, and of course, reading books. Book clubs are homes to book lovers. So let's kick off with "The Book Lovers" by Broadcast, right here on Lost in the Stacks.

This is Lost in the Stacks, and you just heard "The Book Lovers" by Broadcast. Our show today is called "Who Are The Book Jackets?" so let's start by meeting our guest. Jordan, would you like to say, hello, and introduce yourself?

Yeah, of course. Hi my name is Jordan Kopcha. I am the senior executive for Book Jackets. I'm a dual MS in psychology major, and I'm at the end of my first year as senior executive. I started the end of last year, took over for the former president, who was actually the one to start the club.

And that was Corinne.

Yes.

OK, yeah. Yeah, and I first heard about Book Jackets when I was asked to be the faculty advisor. So were you a member of the club when it started?

Not when it started, no. But I joined last spring. And last fall, I was-- or the fall before that-- let me amend. I was briefly involved, just getting settled in at college, so definitely got more involved in the spring.

And do you remember exactly when the group was founded?

I believe it was that fall before.

OK so during lockdown, basically.

Yes.

Right. I remember that. How many members do you have now?

We have a lot of members on the Discord, but our meetings usually get a lot less people. It's difficult to come in person, difficult to read the books. So I'll say-- we have somewhere in 200 people on the Discord. Our meetings usually get around 10 people. So that's the spread.

Now, some of our listeners might not know what the Discord is. They might think that that's Discord Records. So can you explain Discord?

Only people in their late 40s and 50s like us, Charlie.

I'm right here in the room, Fred. I'm right here in front of you.

Right. Discord is a messaging service where you can host channels with large amounts of people. And within one channel, you can have different places to discuss different topics.

I seem to recall that, when it first started, there was an Instagram component to it, but that's no longer the case?

No longer the case. I think it got difficult to keep up with it, but it's definitely something that we are considering starting up once again.

So is this your first book club?

It is, for me, yes.

And what drew you to it?

I've always been a reader. I have loved reading for literally as long as I can remember. But it's really the discussion aspect of reading where I'll finish books, and if I don't know anyone else who has read the book, I'll be going a little bit crazy, texting my mom an entire plot synopsis so that I can go over my discussion and thoughts on it. So I really wanted to have a space to really get into these discussions, and a book club is the perfect place for that.

Had you cobbled together a kind of social media replacement for Book Club? Were you talking to people online on Discord or Reddit, or whatever the young people are using today to speak to each other before, this formalized book club?

Right. Yes, definitely. Going on subreddits and seeing what people on Twitter are saying and getting my ideas and leaving comments and being like, I disagree with that, or getting in little spits.

So take us back to your first meeting, the first time you attended Book Jackets, and how was that?

Nerve-racking. It was one of the first clubs that I had ever gone to at Tech. I was relatively new. It was in Skiles at the time. And location changes but is always announced beforehand. And I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be like. I definitely had not done the reading.

[LAUGHS]. No, but that's standard for book clubs.

Yes.

It's like a 25% success rate, right?

Yes, so I was a little worried. I didn't know anybody. And I was by myself, and I was a first year. So I was pleasantly surprised at how welcoming people were. Specifically, Corinne was very kind. And it was a more relaxed environment where it was OK that I hadn't done the reading or wasn't quite ready to speak up that much. I could just sit back and still feel enlightened by the discussion.

Can you remember how many people? And also, what was the book that you didn't read?

Oh, I believe it was Circe. And this was right around finals time, in the fall, whereas-- that's the first time I ever actually went. So it was really only seven or eight people. Yeah.

Marlee, were you the faculty advisor at this time?

I've been the faculty advisor from the beginning, and I have never attended a meeting. We'll talk a little bit more about clubs in general, I think, a little bit later. But this like a really good, self-sufficient club that I sign off on. I always make myself available. I've met both of the executives and taken them around the library, talked a little bit about the library's popular reading collection and things like that. But they really just kind of handle everything themselves.

I was expecting to hear that this was going to be a virtual club, especially given when it started. But you met-- you always meet in person? It's not a Zoom kind of get-together?

We have had virtual meetings in the past. We like to meet in person when possible so we can have snacks. And also, it's a little bit easier to discuss-- there isn't a lag over Zoom. You don't know whether you're interrupting someone, sometimes, when you're doing a virtual meeting. But there's always been a virtual option. It is put out as a hybrid, in person and virtual.

Oh, do you have someone who's like on the Discord in the physical room, trying to also add comments into the discussion? JORDAN KOPCHA: Occasionally, occasionally. That's a really difficult setup.

Yes, it is. It can be.

Are you more talkative now in the meetings? Do you speak up? Has this changed the way that you interact in a group?

I think that, for myself, in any group, I'm usually pretty talkative, especially-- in my classes as well, and definitely. At this point, I'm leading the discussion, so I'm coming up with a discussion questions. And if there's a lull in the discussion, which is frequent and very normal-- I need to be the one to step in and say, OK, it seems like we've exhausted this topic. Let's move in this direction, so definitely.

So in the last minute or so of this segment, can you describe what a standard book club meeting is? What begins it, what happens, and how do you end?

So we start off-- everybody gets snacks. We usually say, how is everyone doing? Everyone suffering through classes? And then we go around and we each rate the book, wherever we're at, whether we're done with it or not, one through five, and give a brief description of why we rated it there, see where everyone's at. And then we get into questions. And I'll come up with the questions based on, here are a bunch of questions about this one character or about this one theme.

Oh, go ahead, Marlee.

I was just going to say, it sounds like the radio.

Right.

[LAUGHS]

How do you bring it to a close? I have to admit, I'm asking, is there a ritualistic ending to the book club where you say, OK, we're done with that book, off we go? Or do you just say, all right, hey, everybody, please eat some more food because we got a lot

Definitely, please eat some more food. But also-- usually-- coincidentally, we tend to get through a lot of the book discussion by the end of the hour because, at this point, we've had a few meetings on the book if we're wrapping it up. So it's OK if we go a little bit over, but I'd like to get to a point where everyone seems satisfied about it and discussion's dying down a little bit. And I'll say, OK, do we have any final thoughts, opinions? Anyone else want to say one last thing.

It's just like radio, Marlee.

And we'll say goodbye to this segment, right?

This is Lost in the Stacks. We'll be back with more about the student book club here at Georgia Tech after a music set.

And you can file this set under Z549.F5.

That was "Join the Club" by Beach Fuzz, and before that, "Friends of Mine" by the Buzzcocks on their classic spiral scratch EP-- songs about hanging out with people who share a common interest.

This is Lost in the Stacks, and today's show is called "Who Are the Book Jackets?" we're speaking with Jordan Kopcha, senior executive officer of Georgia Tech's student book club.

But Charlie and Marlee, we also need to speak to you a little bit.

No, no.

I think we do because-- we alluded to it in the first segment, but both of you are faculty advisors for student organizations here on campus.

It's true.

So Marlee-- obviously, the Book Jackets, as you mentioned. Charlie-- faculty advisor for where we are right now, the radio show.

We're in the clubhouse of my student organization, yeah.

WREK.

Let's be very clear about this. Faculty advisor is sometimes simply a validating role. A faculty member agrees that a student organization is legit and that they have what they need and they are about what they say they're about.

Georgia Tech says a club can't be a club unless a faculty member gives the OK, or something like that. CHARLIE BENNETT: Yeah, it doesn't get the support of a student-- the Student Organizations department. I am a very active faculty advisor because of the nature of radio. There's a lot of people who do it and you can just come and do a show every Friday, and it's not interfering with the club works. And I was doing a show before I became faculty advisor.

Well, thanks for the validation, Charlie. I do put it on my CV as a service to the Institute.

Right, us non-tenured folks have to do that-- put everything on the CV.

We do, exactly. So I don't have a whole lot to say. So let's return to our guest. Can you just tell us-- we talked a little bit about when you first joined. What do you get out of belonging to a student organization, in general? Is this your only club, or do you have other clubs or organizations you belong to on campus?

This is definitely my top priority club. I've dabbled, a little bit, in other organizations, but I also do research. So when something like research is taking more time, I will cut back on those organizations and focus on book club and research, or book club and my classes because this is my top priority.

Do you get something out of book club that helps you in your classes? You said you were a literature media major as well as a psychology major. Did I get that right?

Yes.

Yeah, in your discussions in your class, do you ever find yourself relying on maybe skills or things that you've developed and leading those discussions in a book club and you suddenly find you're using those same skills in a class discussion?

Definitely. That actually happened pretty recently this semester, where discussions that I will have in my LMC classes will let me learn new terminology or new concepts surrounding media that I can then take to book club. Specifically with the book that we just finished reading, Kindred by Octavia Butler-- we had read in one of my LMC classes 3212, a short story by Butler.

Say that again? That's not a term I'm familiar with.

Yes, Sankofa narration. And it is a term relating to the idea that studying and writing about the past, even painful aspects of the past, is important and necessary, both to avoid it in the future but also just emotionally. And it's stuff like that that I can bring over from my classes to the Book Jackets discussion space. It's very exciting to see some of the similarities. CHARLIE BENNETT: Does Book Jackets-- does it lean academic, or does it lean social?

So we've heard your responsibilities include running the club itself, making sure it's on time or that it's on schedule and that you have a good discussion. What are your other senior executive officer responsibilities? What do you do in the behind-the-scenes stuff for the Book Jackets?

Right, so there are responsibilities surrounding just making sure that the club still exists as a club, so registering it, staying on top of that, making sure that, if new members apply for membership, I'm answering. A lot of times, people will DM me with questions about prospective students entering the club. I also am in charge of booking a room, making sure we actually have a place to meet.

Booking the room is probably the worst part.

Yes, it definitely is. Very competitive.

We know a little bit about that. We do. Well, you are listening to Lost in the Stacks. We will talk more about students reading books for fun on the left side of the hour.

This is Grant Jerkins, and you're listening to Lost in the Stacks on WREK Atlanta. I'm the author of A Very Simple Crime, and I urge you not to kill your significant other. MARLEE GIVENS: Today's show is called "Who Are the Book Jackets?" That is the name of the student book club here at Georgia Tech. In the foreword to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting a Reading Group, journalist Ray Suarez muses about what's great about book clubs.

CHARLIE BENNETT: That was "Slack" by Ringo Death Star, and before that, "Discord Dance" by drinking electricity-- songs about the platforms were groups interact.

This is Lost in the Stacks, and today's show is called "Who Are the Book Jackets?" Our guest is Jordan Kopcha, who is finishing her second year at Georgia Tech and double majoring in psychology and literature media and communication, and somehow finds the time to run a student organization. So let's talk about some of the books that you have read with Book Jackets. What was the last one?

So we just finished Kindred by Octavia Butler.

And can you walk us through the process of how the group chooses a book?

Right, so I will put out a message on the Announcements area of the Discord, saying, all right, everybody, we're going to be voting for a book soon. Usually this is when we're still wrapping up the book before. And I'll say, you have until this time-- about a week-- to put any recommendations in another channel, called General, or they can DM them to me-- whichever is easier. And I will take those recommendations and usually any previous ones, put them into a Google form, and we will just vote.

I think we missed-- what's the time frame for each of these books when you're reading them? You said there's multiple meetings for your discussions. Are you discussing, as you read, with milestones?

Yes, so we try and do about two books a semester. Of course, it depends on the length of the books which can vary greatly. But when we vote on a book, I take a look at it. I take a look at the division of it, number of pages. And I usually divide it by chapters into three or four meetings because I really want us to be able to read books even if they are longer. I don't want us to be limited by that factor.

Do you have that one member that-- every time a vote comes up, that, we got to read this book.

Yes, that has happened, where it will just be pushed very hard, and usually we do end up reading that book, eventually-- you perseverance.

OK, the squeaky wheel, right. You don't have to identify the person. What was the book?

I believe one of them was 100 Years of Solitude.

Oh, OK. CHARLIE BENNETT: I'm going to refrain from any jokes about magical realism. So what's the pool of books that you're voting on? How many do you sift through?

Usually it's around nine or 10. And it can be a pretty wide range of different kinds of books. This semester, we read a horror anthology at the beginning of the semester, which was something very new for us. But we do go to a tech school. So there are a lot of sci-fi books that are brought up, which is interesting for me because I didn't read as much sci-fi before joining the club. But now I'm finding a lot of stuff I really like.

And you don't really have-- you said it's not a sci-fi club, but is there any detectable theme, or is it really just what someone just has a notion to read at that point? Is that pretty much it?

Yeah, definitely. There are occasionally themes that show up, but usually these are not on purpose. And it's more of a moment in discussion where we'll be like, oh, look, this is similar to something we talked about with this past book. But it is really based on just how people are feeling when they're voting, what kind of books that they've heard about recently, that kind of thing.

And you don't have a running list that you go back to. It's really just every-- it's new every time. You get a new list of books to vote on.

Usually, I try and keep a running list for the semester in that, if-- when we're voting for our second book of the semester, if there have been recommendations for the first book that didn't get picked-- I will include those, but I'll ask people beforehand. I'll say, hey, people who put out recommendations-- do you still want to have these recommended? Because usually the people who recommend are the ones that are regularly showing up to the meetings.

So do you have a book picked. You said you just finished Kindred? Have you already picked the book, or are you in the midst?

We are in the midst. Last year, we did do a summer book. We did The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, which was incredible, by the way. And I think that there has been demand to do a summer book again. So I don't want to it's hard to approach people during finals. So I'm letting that-- riding that wave a little bit, but we will likely be voting for a summer book soon.

And do you meet during the summer?

We have not in the past. There has been some interest shown in meeting online, so it's definitely a possibility. Not confirmed yet, so I won't say anything definite, but also not completely off the table.

So we're coming up to the end of the segment. As senior executive officer, do you have some plans? Are there changes you want to apply to the book club? Are there things you want to do? What's the future for you?

I definitely want to tap more into the social aspect of it. You mentioned that we had an Instagram a long time ago. By a long time ago, I mean a little-- a few years, so not that long.

Lord.

I definitely want to see if we can get that started again. I also want to be able to get together for maybe visiting a bookstore or maybe watching a movie adaptation of one of the books we've read because we tend to talk about the film and TV adaptations a lot as well.

Well, thanks again for joining us. We'd like to thank our guest, who is Jordan Kopcha, a second-year undergraduate student at Georgia Tech and senior executive officer of the Book Jackets-- the student book club. Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is Lost in the Stacks, and now, it's time for some music. File this set under LB1050.B3.

MARLEE GIVENS: That was "The Book" by 1910 Fruit Gum Company. Before that, we heard "Book" by Gustav, and before that, "Read a Book" by Pylon. And we started our set with "Reader" by RMFC. Those are all songs about reading books. Today's show is called "Who Are the Book Jackets?" And I don't currently belong to a book club, but this show has made me wonder what kind of book club I might want to join. How about all of you? What kind of book club would you join, Fred?

Oh, a book art club or art book club or some kind of remediation and manipulation. Basically, I'd want to take books and wreck them and make things out of them and build my own. How about you, Jordan? You have a book club. But if you could make up your own book club, what would it be?

Probably a poetry book club, especially one where we can really get into all the word choices and really mark it up. I think that'd be cool.

That does sound cool. I hate to get serious and bring us down. But I think I'd want to join a book club that-- where I read things that take me out of my comfort zone. With that--

With that uncomfortable zone of a pause, we will roll the credits.

CHARLIE BENNETT: Lost in the Stacks is a collaboration between WREK Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Library, written and produced by Charlie Bennett, Fred Rascoe and Marlee Givens.

Legal counsel and a-- I think he might have misunderstood-- a Discord Records box set--

I love it. MARLEE GIVENS: Yeah-- were provided by the Burrus Intellectual Property Law Group in Atlanta, Georgia.

Special thanks to Jordan for joining us on today's show, and thanks, as always, to each and every one of you for listening.

Find us online at LostintheStacks.org. Subscribe to our podcast if you like, and it's just out there. It's everywhere.

On the next Lost in the Stacks, we're talking about the outside of the library and--

What?

Yeah, and underneath the bridge.

It's time for our last song today. There have been many ways to talk about and appreciate books throughout history, from salons and parlors in Victorian mansions, to gatherings around the coffee table in living rooms, to online discussion platforms. But throughout the history of book discussion, one thing hasn't changed. You still can't judge a book by looking at the cover. So let's close with "You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover" by Bo Diddley, right here on Lost in the Stacks.

Fred, that song's not about books.