Ever wanted to “dig deeper” into a piece of literature you really liked? Whether a classic or a modern novel, sometimes a books touch as so much that we want to learn more about it and just reading it once isn’t enough. That’s what book clubs are for, right? But nowadays there are more ways to do that.
One that I have found beautiful, clever and extremely helpful is the platforms for learning, such as Coursera or Edx. For those not familiar with them, they are designed in such a way that the user can, for free, learn a series of subjects via videos and online reading material. The subjects are designed and run by universities around the world.
Some of the courses available
I jumped at the chance to learn what I can from one of those courses. It is on the edx platform, in collaboration with Berkley University. The book discussed is A study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the first story of Sherlock Holmes. I have just finished week one, and it is quite good. It looks a lot like a virtual book club, where you are given a reading plan ( for example two chapters per week) and then discuss the chapters on the platform’s forums. There are glossaries to help you study deeper into the book, information about the author and their era, the historical and political situation of the time, and some quizzes at the end of the week so that you can see if you have grasped the essence of the story so far.
Overall, I would say it is a good experience. You exchange a lot of ideas, which is quite pleasant. The information you gather about the author and the era are also very interesting. It doesn’t require a lot of your time, just a couple of hours per week, so that is a pro. If you are interested in learning more, edx provides courses for a variety of books. Go ahead and take a look, you might find something really interesting.