Announcing: BTT Book Club

Online beginning in January

Aside from a few personal things, like laundering towels and constantly feeding people and spontaneously painting rooms in my house, I really only do two things in life.

I read. And I write.

I do some of that writing here at Between Two Things, and I tell you about good books in Worth It.

But for a while now, I have wanted to read WITH all of you smart, thoughtful people. The same books, at the same time.

So let’s do it. Let’s have a Between Two Things book club, shall we?!

Same.

I’ve been leading book conversations since I started teaching literature at Clemson University at 23. When I’m not teaching, I’m facilitating in-person book clubs at bookstores and in my house. I have roped in my friends and my in-laws and plenty of strangers. I LOVE talking about books with other people.

And I’ve got a good one for y’all.

For many years at Yale, three guys have taught a wildly popular undergraduate course called Life Worth Living. One of them, Miroslav Volf, is a hero of mine.

The Yale professors have now translated their in-demand course into a book by the same name, one that is every bit as meaty as you’d expect a Yale class to be but also somehow super easy to read. These guys have basically made it so you can read about life’s consummate philosophical questions at the same time your kid is watching science homework videos about protoplasm right next to you on the sofa. (Trust me.)

Life Worth Living is interesting if you read moral philosophy textbooks on your days off OR if you literally never have time to think about the why of life (see above: towel laundering).

The book addresses what the authors call “The Question” at the center of all our lives, an inquest that often comes for us when we least expect it.

It can take slightly different forms: What is worth wanting? What matters most? What makes a life valuable? But no matter how we ask it, our search for the answer is bound to transform us.

That’s right. Why NOT start off 2025 with an existential crisis? (But the fun kind!)

---

We’ll meet online four times to discuss this book. Meetings will be 7-8pm on Monday nights (every other) beginning January 6.

Here’s our reading schedule:

January 6: Parts 1 (Diving In) and 2 (The Depths)—pages xi-104

January 20: Part 3 (Bedrock)—pages 105-152

February 3: Part 4 (Facing the Limits)—pages 153-207

February 17: Part 5 (Back to the Surface)—pages 208-284

You can sign up here.

This website also gives you a link to the Zoom meetings and a link to purchase the book. You can ask for it for Christmas!

I will limit the number of participants at some point, so go ahead and snag a spot.

Sometime between now and January, you will also need to change your settings for this newsletter here to include this new book club section. (It’s just for book club participants, so people who aren’t reading along won’t get those emails. Just click the little button next to “BTT Book Club” to turn on emails for that section.)

I know you are so busy, but you are going to have so much free time in the new year. Soooo much.

A few BTT book club principles that you might want to know about:

1. You won’t be put on the spot! You can just listen in (wearing your pjs) if that’s what tickles your fancy.

2. If you are a little more extroverted though, sharing on Zoom and in the comments is what will make this interesting. This book is meant to be read in community, and our differing perspectives are what is needed to make this book meaningful.

3. Book club members should come with curiosity, not judgment. This book raises life’s literal biggest questions, so some disagreement is guaranteed. As Anne Helen Petersen always says on her community threads, “Don’t be a butt.”

Ok put your book club questions in the comments. I’m sure y’all will think of something I haven’t! 📚