Book Oblivion

Reading community

The heartbeat of Book Oblivion is our creative reading community. Join generous readers from all over the world for live online lectures and discussions.

Online courses

Learn more about the intersections between literature and philosophy and culture in our self-paced online courses. 

Read More

Surround yourself with living books and the people who read them. 

How to Read More by Creating a Reading Habit

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke

Read With Us in 2022

A Global Reading Community

Book Oblivion 2022

For curious minds who love to discover the hidden influences in literature and philosophy, Book Oblivion offers live lectures and discussions throughout the year for readers all over the world. 

Our online reading community of passionate readers brings together diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and literary and philosophical interests. 

Instructors passionate about reading and gifted in leading conversations in unique areas like philosophy, rhetoric, theology, the craft of writing, economics, science, technology, math, literature, and reading will guide us through these difficult and timely books. 

Members of our community are insatiably curious and motivated to read, learn, and create everything from conversations to painting to fiction and beyond.  

Our reading community is academic in nature but we ditch the assignments, the jargon, and the imposter syndrome and emphasize conversation, friendship, and creativity.

Book Oblivion participants exercise intellectual humility and curiosity and are meet to kick back and talk about challenging books. 

Live talks

We host one live talk a month or season for each reading group. Participants unable to attend are able to watch the recording after.

Community Forum

We connect in our community forum, posting articles, sharing thoughts, and staying engaged with the books and each other.

supplemental resources

Articles, videos, reading guides, podcasts and more, including specific reading strategies to aid comprehension.

Reading schedules

Read along with our community by sticking to the recommended pages for each book that are broken down by week, month, and season.

Frequently Asked Questions

Book Oblivion is an online global community of readers founded by Jessica Schad Manuel. Readers are passionate about the intersections of literature and philosophy. We trace the way ideas connect to each other and over time through reading literature, philosophy, art, and rhetorics. Many of us are academics gone rogue. We are here to nerd out over books and ideas, ask questions, and grow intellectually. 

Participants enroll from all over the world, including the United States, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, and more. Most participants are college graduates, but this is not a requirement. Several participants are retired, some are working professionals, others are graduate students, and some are stay at home parents. The only requirement is a humble, intellectual curiosity and a desire to connect with others through conversation about ideas found in books.

This year we will offer live talks on Sunday mornings, Thursday evenings, and one Saturday afternoon a month.

Anyone unable to attend live will have access to the recordings within 48 hours. 

Jessica launched Book Oblivion with a desire to rescue books from oblivion and return them to the center of culture and conversation. We work really hard to create space and time for these conversations to take place and are often one of the only intellectual outlets for our participants. We all crave deeper connections to what we read and we have found that through discussing it with other curious readers. One of the greatest gifts of this community is given when participants move geographic locations. Despite relocating every aspect of their lives, they maintain the community connection with participants in Book Oblivion. 

Conversations take place in English, but we have participants reading in languages from all over the world. Discussions on translation choices make things really interesting. 

Jessica receives book lists from each instructor and arranges the readings for the year based on several factors, including participant feedback, accessibility of each text, and the overall schedule. Each instructor leads discussions based on their passions, expertise, and familiarity with the authors, books, or subjects. 

Our book selections focus on several themes: 

  • Critical Theory and Philosophy
  • Himalayas of Literature
  • In Search of Lost Time
  • Reading Beyond Murakami
  • Reading With Wonder
  • The Craft of Writing 

Participants can join for $97/month.

Definitely not, although many participants do. We offer the whole year as a bundle to encourage community and connection. 

You can enroll by becoming a Book Oblivion Member and you can cancel at any time. You’ll click on Join Now and decide if you want to enroll monthly or yearly.  

You can join our newsletter to find out more about Book Oblivion and receive updates on our reading community. 

We launched our first two courses in 2017 and moved to the community reading model in 2018. Each year offers a new reading list and opportunities to read and grow with the community. 

Membership includes access to the following 2022 courses: 

  • Reading Ralph Ellison’s Juneteenth (3 weeks)
  • Reading Dante’s Purgatorio (7 weeks)
  • Reading Salman Rushdie’s Shame (4 weeks)
  • Reading Dante’s Paradiso (9 weeks)
  • Introduction to Adriana Cavarero (8 weeks)
  • Reading the Aeneid (12 weeks)
  • MyStory Workshop (4 weeks)
  • Creative Reading Workshop (6 weeks)
  • Digital Ontologies (3 weeks)
  • Reading Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man (13 weeks)
  • Lament and Pearl S. Buck (4 weeks)
  • Paul Scheerbart and Glass Architecture (2 weeks)
  • Reading Joseph Campbell’s Primitive Mythology (8 weeks)
  • Reading the Bhagavadgita (4 weeks)
  • Introduction to Michel Henry (4 weeks)
  • 10 additional conversations focused on Andreas Weber, Bessel van der Kolk, Robert Macfarlane, Damon Galgut, Joy Harjo, Anne Carson, Tim Ingold, Miriam Greenspan, Arundhati Roy, and Sebastian Junger. 

Sadly, yes. There is open enrollment throughout the month of December. Enrollment will close at midnight on December 31, 2021 so that we can concentrate on supporting our current members throughout the new year. 

Book Oblivion is a global online community passionate about reading literature and philosophy. Contact Us

Book Oblivion - Read to Remember
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