Watch out Oprah! WSSU has a new book club

There's a new book club on campus, called "Between the Lines."

Created by seven staff members from University College and Student Affairs earlier this semester, Between the Lines' purpose is to encourage students to read more, exercise their critical thinking and problem solving skills, and to embrace a plethora of literature.

The seven staff members choose a book by what they think students would be interested in reading. They base their selections on what is on the best seller ‘s list.

Every week the staff members conduct a one-hour discussion of the book. Each staff member leads a discussion with a group of 20 or more students. The groups are known as "Book Wheels."

The books are provided free to the students. Each group meets on different days.

There are 140 students in the book club; 60 percent are female and 40 percent are male.

The book club is only open to students at this time.

"This may change in the future depending on the popularity and how the book club develops," said Natasha Jeffreys, director of student development.

Book Wheels discuss books of all genres including fiction, non-fiction, religion and self help.

"We also try to look at experiences in the book and see how they apply and how students can relate to them," Jeffreys said.

"Instead of being on Facebook and Twitter all of the time, they can use some of that time to read a good book."

Language Arts Center director, Derick Virgil said he was happy that the male students wanted to join the book club. His recent selection is the book, "Do You" by Russell Simmons.

"I want more male students to read more and to read material that they can relate to," Virgil said.

"I wanted to choose a book the students would be interested in and that would give advice to live by. It is important for males and females to talk about their goals and to know their potential."

Other book selections for this semester include; "Just too be Good to be True"; "Color Me Butterfly"; "When love Calls, you better answer"; "Letters to God"; "Picking Cotton" and "Before you Suffocate your own fool self."

The book club plans to include electronic books. They are working on spring selections and plan to add more staff and faculty members.

"I hope the students gain the wealth of knowledge and a love of reading from the book club," Jeffreys said.