Welcome to Hooked on Fiction!

The reading club for lovers of fiction literature of all genres.

Welcome! Come on, take a sit. It’s cold outside, but you’ll get warm right away. Would you like a cup of tea? Coffee, maybe? Just water? Ok. Now that you’re settled let me tell you about this place you just found.

Hooked on Fiction is a community of readers who love classics of all fiction genres, from adventure and mystery to horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. It’s kind of like a reading club but cooler.

We are all busy people who struggle to find time to read. But reading with friends is much more fun, so we will channel our collective enthusiasm to keep each other hooked. We will read together and, slowly but consistently, cover the classics of all genres.

What’s that? You have questions? Go ahead!

How does this work?

Glad you asked! Every week, we’ll read a piece of a classic novel. I’ll send you around 12 thousand words of the best literature ever published at intervals during the week, respecting chapter boundaries. Never more than an hour a week of total reading time.

Slowly, yes, but even at this calm pace, we can cover an average novel in about a month or less. By the end of the year, you’ll have read 10 to 15 of the world’s most influential fiction novels.

At the end of each week, we’ll have a discussion thread to tell each what we loved about the week’s reading. And at the end of each novel, we’ll have another big discussion.

What are we reading?

We’ll start with the foundational novels in each genre and eventually move on to more niche works. We will always read public-domain books, so there will be no worry about copyright or anything. Don’t worry; hundreds of the best books ever written are in the public domain!

Initially, I’ll pick the books based on my experience and fine taste, but you’re welcome to suggest whatever you want to read, and we’ll build together an awesome list of classics.

But I have already read many of those!

That’s fine; many of us have. You can skip whenever you want. Or you can use this opportunity to revisit an old favorite and maybe discover something new. Or, if the book is fresh in your memory, just participate in the discussions around it. This is your place to enjoy good old literature, however you prefer.

What happens if I can’t keep up?

Don’t worry; we’ll go slowly enough so that you can catch up in a couple of hours one weekend. But in any case, everything we read will be forever in the public archive, freely accessible.

But only one book at a time?

Well, let me tell you a secret. This reading-a-classic thing is just a pretext to hang around with cool people and talk about books. You see, it’s the connections and the conversations that matter the most to us. So, sticking to a fixed calendar we can all follow is the best way to ensure consistent weekly conversation topics.

Ok, you got me. When do we start?

In the first week of 2024, I’ll send you the first part of the first book we will read together: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, the novel that kickstarted the science fiction genre.

Are you in?