The coolest Sunday afternoon hangout: #TSBC

It’s Sunday afternoon. Armed with a cup of coffee, a pen and small notepad, and my iPad, I make my way to the sofa. It’s my favorite spot in the drawing room – perfectly positioned to allow me to soak up the sun in winters and directly in the path of a cross-breeze when I open the doors of the balconies in summers.

Image via CrunchBase

As I flop down on the couch, I fire up the Twitter app on my iPad and search for #TSBC. It is 3:00 pm. For the next one hour, I will be busy tweeting – replying to questions and people; retweeting and favourite-ing tweets that I like; laughing out loud at times; at others, making furious notes in a small notebook. At the end of that hour of Twitter interaction, I will come away with new thoughts and perspectives, as well as a list of interesting books or authors I knew nothing about.

Isn’t this book cover a beauty? Shared on the #TSBC chat on book covers by Random House India

See, #TSBC is the Sunday Book Club, a weekly chat that takes place on Twitter every Sunday at 3:00 pm IST where we talk all things, well, books. Topics have ranged from discussing movie adaptations of books, autobiographies, the works of Oscar Wilde, book covers, the Ramayana, banned books, and a fun discussion on what book…And, at the end of every chat, one lucky person stands to win a book*! I won First Day First Show by Anupama Chopra during one of the initial few chats  on books and films. The question was “If your memoir were to be made into a film, what would you name it and who would you cast in it?” And my rather flippant answer was “The girl who tried to climb a mountain and walked down a hill. Starring Julia Roberts as me. :-P” Pretty cool, huh?

Started by three friends and book lovers Raghav, Neo and Sudha, the club is 11 weeks old. And participation (both from India and abroad) has grown by leaps and bounds. This really doesn’t come as a surprise because they have some well-thought-out questions on each topic, leading to healthy discussions among book lovers.

If you love books, this is one chat you wouldn’t want to miss! There are, however, a few Do’s and Don’ts.

• No self promotion during the chat
• No rudeness and flaming – please respect everyone’s point of view
• Do mention which question you are answering (A1, A2 etc)
• Do tag your tweets with #TSBC or they won’t reach all the Tweeps who are participating

Also, do follow The Sunday Book Club and the three founders and hosts Raghav, Meetneo and Sudha. You can also like their Facebook page.

And you’re set! Simple, ain’t it?

So what are you waiting for? Jump into the discussion every Sunday at 3:00 pm IST. See you then for a scintillating book chat!

* Currently, giveaways are only open to people who have an Indian mailing address.