Bookworms drawn to new reading and writing club

By Gabriela Tobar and Madison Lewis 

A new student-led book club at Rider is turning heads and pages this semester, offering students a way to discuss literature, socialize and take a break from end-of-semester tension. 

Prose and Con: Rider Readers and Writers, a book club started by students sophomore sociology major Brianna Nixon and sophomore English major Aiya Rabah, held the first meeting on April 3, a week after gaining approval from the Student Government Association. 

Nixon explained the history of the book club’s name. 

“It’s like a play on words and since this was a readers and writing club, it just made sense because it had a literary element without being too specific to one or the other,” Nixon said. 

Nixon attended the Library Ambassadors book club this past fall that Alexis Kaelin, one of the library ambassadors, was in charge of. 

Nixon’s idea of starting a book club sparked after the Library Ambassador’s book club concluded. 

“We had a good group of students and so the idea kind of sparked from there,” Nixon said. “I reached out to her early February and that’s when we got the process going,”

When Nixon started her first semester at Rider in fall 2024, she was on the lookout for a book club.

Nixon was excited for the Library Ambassadors book club until she discovered that it only met once a semester, serving as inspiration for starting her own book club. 

“I came into the spring semester with the idea in mind,” Nixon said. 

The process of getting the book club approved by the SGA took more than a month, and gaining student interest was very fundamental to kickstart the club.

 “We had known that there was an interest for it for a couple of different reasons. The first being the success of the book club that met in the fall. But, the librarians could only do so much and that was only a one time thing, ” Nixon said. 

According to Nixon, the initial interest form the club sent out received 23 responses, and students from different majors across campus wanted to join the new book club.

Freshman English major Jenna Wilson, secretary of Prose and Con, said, “I hope the people that don’t have many things to do on campus can feel comfortable coming to this club.”

Nixon also shared details about a project that she did last semester at the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, located in the Bart Luedeke Center.

“A project that I had done last semester was putting a free little library outside of the CDI and that ended up being really successful,” Nixon said. 

Nixon says the book club is not looking to replace the Library Ambassadors book club, but rather work together to figure out how to co-exist. 

Nixon’s passion for books and her enjoyment of reading, pushed her to want to share it with others and with the new book club, she felt as though she could. 

“Reading builds empathy and I think that’s something that everyone could benefit from. Whether you believe that or not, it would just make Rider a better space,” she said. “Reading has impacted my life in so many ways and just being able to share that in a really simple way like just being able to sit and talk about books is beneficial.”

At the student-led book club, the members vote to choose through popular titles and then hold a discussion to decide which book to read. 

“Going forward, once our club is more developed what we want to start doing is having other people’s interests come through,” Nixon said. 

Prose and Con meets every Thursday to talk about the books that members are currently reading. The club also holds writing workshops and hosts activities related to literature. 

Prose and Con will have a book picked once a semester. Their first pick for April is “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune.

However, Nixon plans to pick two books apart from the Library Ambassadors book club. 

Looking into the future of Prose and Con, Nixon hopes to collaborate with other clubs on campus. 

“I think there’s so many opportunities to do so. There’s so many different clubs on campus,” Nixon said. 

Nixon looks to collaborate with Culture n’ Trends, a new club at Rider. 

“Talking about fictional characters in the way that we imagine them in the styling of them and all different things like that. I think it would be really cool to partner with them,” she said. 

Nixon hopes that the new book club goes off campus to meet some authors and support local libraries. 

Her biggest aspiration is to hold different events on campus to get people interested in reading. 

“Being able to help them find their niche and what they’re interested in and accept them into our little bookish community, that’s a huge goal of mine,” Nixon added.