An Interview with New Spittoon Book Club Leader Sean Toland
The king is dead, long live the king! Now replace "king" with "Spittoon Book Club leader" and "dead" with "has departed China" and thus our story begins.
So it goes that the founder, and until now only leader of the Spittoon Book Club, Deva Eveland has left Beijing. But this wasn't before Deva passed on the torch to new club leader Sean Toland. I recently spoke with the US native about his first book choice and future plans for the book club.
Firstly Sean, congratulations on being the new Spittoon Book Club leader, how does it feel?
A little intimidating, to be sure. I’m new to Beijing – got here Sept 2021 – and the Spittoon Book Club was one of the first groups I joined, so it feels like I’m responsible for a real institution. But I’m also looking forward to having more of a foothold in the churn of expat life here.
The book you have picked as your first time as book club leader is Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, why did you choose this book?
In short, because I’d been meaning to read it. Whitehead is one of the most impressive American writers right now, to my mind; both of his last two books won the Pulitzer Prize! This one shifts from heavy social themes to a historical page turner of 1960s Harlem, but he doesn’t lose his concern for real people’s lives.
Do you have any plans for future books at the moment, or have thought about how you will select them?
I’m hoping to farm a lot of suggestions from group members. If I pick all the books, we’ll only read things I already know about. The most important thing is that it’s interesting enough for plenty of people to want to read and come talk about it.
Deva made a concerted effort last year to read more books by women, is this something you plan to continue?
Absolutely! More books by women, more books by authors of color, you name it. Not that we’ll necessarily ignore Dead White Men either. Some of my best friends are dead! *chuckle* The books I’ve read with Spittoon so far have covered a broad range of cultures and locations, from Tanzania to Mars, and I want to keep that up.
In line with this are there any possible themes you’ve thought about doing, like a focus on Chinese authors etc.?
I wouldn’t want to pick a theme now, but I’m sure we’ll keep reading a lot of Chinese authors. The Book Club has a great mix of members from China and all over, and I know a lot of the laowai are especially excited to get more exposure to Chinese literature.
Moving away from Book Club and talking about books more generally, what genres do you normally enjoy reading?
I literally can’t answer that, because I’m always spinning so many books. At any moment, I’ll be working through at least one non-fiction book, poetry, and some novel or other. In the past few years, I’ve been rediscovering my teenage love for SciFi after a grad school experience dominated by the Greats.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Oh god, another impossible question. It really depends on how we define that. The former academic in me has to scream that Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are probably the greatest novelists the English language will ever see. For poetry, I always return to Seamus Heaney and Elizabeth Bishop. But if “favorite” means the author I’ve read the most books by, and reread most often, then the uncontested winner is Terry Pratchett. Actually, that’s a good reminder to dive back into the Discworld series...
Lastly, if someone is interested in joining the Book Club how can they get in contact with you?
Jia ge weixin ba! Anyone who wants to join can add me on wechat at swt_9191. We always meet on the first Thursday of the month. Under normal circumstances, we’re at Camera Stylo on Dongsishitiao, but for now we’ve had to be flexible in finding locations that accord with current regulations. In any case, we’ll be meeting on July 7 at 8:00 PM to discuss Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle, and all are welcome.
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Images: Amazon.com, Unsplash Christin Hume
