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A book club that dictates who gets the Nobel Prize...or at least reads without borders.

Monday Jan 15, 2007.     By Michael Foreman

Arts + Words Feed

The basics: This reading group meets monthly at 826CHI (1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.) to discuss novels by noteworthy international authors.

Incorporated: August 1, 2006.

The books: Globiblio readers have tackled authors like South Africa's J.M. Coetzee and Czechoslovakia's Jaroslav Hasek.

Online: Exact dates and details available at 826chi.org/globiblio.html.

The club: Groups average around six to eight people, but intrepid readers should email ahead (Patrick at 826chi.org) to ensure there's room in that month's group.

When some people hear "book club," they think Oprah stickers and mediocre bestsellers that left them longing for more exotic literary territory. After all, there are only so many Mitch Albom books one human being can read. That's why Patrick Shaffner started Globiblio, a club that steers landlocked readers away from mainstream American titles, toward Chile, China, Czechoslovakia and points beyond.

Each month readers meet at 826CHI (the Wicker Park tutoring center founded by author Dave Eggers) where Shaffner explores foreign fiction like Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits and Orhan Pamuk's Snow. He's a natural moderator; besides acting as the center's Community Outreach Coordinator, the self-styled "Chancellor" moonlights nights at Improv Olympic. He keeps things casual to encourage conversation, so the lively talks are BYOB and BYODIBTCWETMIYSD (Bring Your Own Dish Inspired by the Country We Explored That Month If You So Desire). Ever ready to broaden our horizons, Centerstage sat down with Shaffner to talk, eh, Turkey.

How did Globiblio get started?
It was just the idea that being in America, there's easy ways to get into reading and discussing American fiction. But what about world fiction? I don't want to speak for everyone, but I'm going to. Everyone reads only American fiction. I think world literature is not as in the forefront, so this is just another way of hopefully getting people to read stuff that they haven't heard about or have never seen before.

How do you choose which books to read?
I try to get meaty texts so that we have something to discuss. I'll get my globe and say, 'Let's go here. Who's the greatest author from Chile in the past 30 years?' If there's a prominent author, I might dodge them and say, 'Who's some other author who didn't quite get through?' For members who come more than once, it's fun to be able to compare the outlook of this author versus another based on their situations and time in history.

I chose Orhan Pamuk, and then a month later he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. So if anything, the book club dictates who gets the Nobel Prize.

Explain what goes on at a Globiblio meeting.
To get the conversation going, I try to get our table feeling like we're friends or classmates at least, to respect each other's opinions and know a little bit about each other so we don't feel reserved when expressing what we thought about the book. For Turkey, there was a huge issue in the book of suicide for your religious beliefs, and so I asked if they would or would not wear the veil. Just something to get people talking, and not just 'this person works downtown at this office and this person does this.' That kind of blossoms into people being able to bounce off each other. I try to lead the group by not leading it and saying, 'I'm just as much a part of this as you guys.'

What book has sparked the liveliest conversation or debate?
That would probably be The Good Soldier Svejk, our Czechoslovakian book. There was one firebrand who had some very interesting opinions that others in the group did not agree with, and were quick to tell her. So it did become sort of tense, but overall it felt like we'd done something that night.

Who's a Globiblio reader?
People with the greatest taste in literature, probably. What's the word, hip? The hippest people! It tends to be twenty- to thirty-somethings, though we had one reader bring her dad along to one of the meetings. He'd only read so many pages of the book, but he certainly jumped in there with his comments. It's a variety of folk with different backgrounds and different thoughts to bring to the table. But it's open to anyone.

How's the grub?
The food is pretty sweet. We haven't had a month without food. Turkey was a banner day. We had some Turkish Delights, some sausage things and some bread from a Turkish market, some pastries and wine. People always bring something that ties in. You don't have to, but it's wildly encouraged.

Are you part of an open-to-the-public book club that we should take note of? Let us know.