Notes from the Reading Salon for Ruminators
On the contingency of life, definitions of girlypop, and Brat Summer Bolshevism
This post is intended as a supplement to the first Reading Salon for Ruminators I hosted on Sunday 10th May 2026. It has long been a goal of mine to get people into a room and discuss the big ideas of life and the books that shape our thinking behind them. It was truly an honour to host such an enlightened afternoon with so many awesome people and such meaningful discussions.
Outline of the notes:
What is the Reading Salon for Ruminators
The idea behind the theme for this session
The books that helped guide the discussion
Tips to become better readers
What is the Reading Salon for Ruminators?
The Reading Salon for Ruminators is a book club designed to explore one big theme in each session. Rather than focus on a single book, we take a thematic approach and everyone brings a book they associate with the theme.
I have chosen to do it this way because in my view, the books are the journey and not the destination. I can reach many conclusions about a variety of topics through the books on my shelf, and the person next to me can reach the same conclusions with a completely different book shelf.
The idea behind the theme for this session.
The inaugural session had the theme of “the contingency of life”. I wanted to explore how the decisions we make can have an outsized influence on the path our lives take. The inspiration came from reading “Why Nations Fail” by Acemoglu and Robinson when they discussed “critical junctures”. I touched on this in a previous substack where I remarked:
We live in an age of systems and scale. Billions of people, trillions of dollars, an endless array of choice. Corporations and governments are so vast they are struggling to navigate their size. The leviathan would be diagnosed with dwarfism in our age of scale. We speak of Capitalism, Imperialism, Neoliberalism, Fascism and all the other isms which attempt to explain our structural realities. With all of this in mind it can be easy to slip into being a passive player in life’s beautiful game. And yet the common theme in history is that it is contingent. Things are not predetermined, they are one way and then they are another. While we are alive it is still all to play for as David Graeber reminds us:
The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.
The books that helped guide the discussion.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma
Time to Think by Nancy Kline
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Alchemy of Happiness by Al-Ghazali
The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
The Diaries of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka
The Wandering Souls by Cécile Pin
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
The Bosnia List by Kenan Trebincevic
Tips to become better readers:
Towards the end of the discussion the group came together to share some thoughts of how they stay motivated to read, how they become better readers, and how they get out of a reading slump. Below are the tips the group came up with.
When in a reading slump, read a book you loved as a child to get you started
It is okay to buy books that you may not be interested in now, but know you will come back to later
Crack the spine, highlight, annotate - make the book yours!
Read a few books of varying topics at the same time, that way if you get bored of one you can pick up another
The books you read don’t always have to be heavy hitters or “classics” they can be fun reads
(I promise this wasn’t me!) Join a book club!
Use any commute time to read instead of scrolling
Read the same books as your friends, that way you are all invested
It is okay not to finish a book cover to cover
Make a routine out of reading
Immerse yourself in all things related to that book. Read about the author, the context, any video essays, book reviews etc
Always carry a book on you
Use a kindle
Some concluding remarks:
Hosting the book club was the most fun I have had this year, my jaw was hurting that evening from all the smiling and talking I did. A sincere thanks to all who attended.
For those interested in keeping up to date with the Reading Salon I recommend following the Instagram @ReadingSalonForRuminators
The conversation as a big group and the smaller breakout ones were breathtaking in their depth and the perspectives shared. I managed to note down some of the iconic quotes which stuck with me:
“Giggle as you go”
Not a quote but there was an extensive conversation on the definition of girlypop which sparked huge disagreement
Following on from that the phrase “Brat Summer Bolshevism” was said which is now permanently lodged in my brain
“You almost have to hit rock bottom before you think you have nothing to lose”
here’s to more!