Book Clubs New York

Saturday Afternoon at Brooklyn Public Library

Spend an afternoon reading with us at a jewel of Kings County — **[Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/locations/central)!** Bring a book or choose one of the many titles at the main branch of the library. We’ll socialize and read in the **Info Commons Training Lab** which **seats 50 people available on a first-come basis**.

New York Story Night #85

New York Story Night is a literary community event based in Manhattan founded to provide creative writers, amateur and professional alike, a stage on which to share their stories and an audience with which to road test their works. Consider an open mic for stand-up tragedy, stand-up horror, stand-up drama if you will. A night of bedtime stories for adults. **For those who wish to share a story, please arrive before 6:50pm and sign-up for a reading slot.** (Find Aïss at the front of the second floor event space.) For those who wish to be an audience, get a drink, find a favored spot, chit-chat with fellow story lovers if you like! At 7pm story night begins. **Each writer gets 20 minutes in front of the microphone. (15 minutes for the story + 5 minutes for workshop/Q&A with the audience)** We have a 10 minute intermission at the end of every hour. **Rules for stories:** * Stories must be under 15 mins (around 2,300 words) * All stories must be written pieces * Stories can be fiction or non-fiction but must contain a narrative arc * No poetry, no essays We encourage you to email us at newyorkstorynight@gmail.com if you have questions or concerns on if your story is a good fit for our event. If you cannot attend this particular event but would like to be in tune with our next ones join our MeetUp group or email us at newyorkstorynight@gmail.com to be added to our e-mailing list! New York Story Night is a free event. *\*By attending, you acknowledge that you may appear in photos and videos used for social media or promotional purposes.*in

Manhattan Smutty Book Club - Guarded by the Snake

The book for this month is Guarded by the Snake by Layla Fae. She stole her way into my cold, serpent heart like a thief in the night. The tiny human hires me to shield her from the vengeance of a powerful organization. There’s nothing wrong with that, except she stole from them, got caught, and now I have to clean up her mess. Add to that her incessant chatter, and I’m in for the most unpleasant job in my career. Until her enemies bring out the big guns, turning the irksome protection assignment into a lethal fight for survival. Necessity pushes my principal closer and closer—too close for comfort. Forced to hide in small spaces, her skin rubbing against my scales, her warm breath on my face, my exasperation gives way to lust. It’s just physical attraction, I tell myself. All I want is to bury my two spikes in her tight body and feel her writhing under me in pleasure. Nothing more than that. Because it’s impossible I could want her–the annoying, ballsy little thief who makes the sun shine with a smile. One thing is certain: this is no longer just a job. I’ll butcher everyone who wants to hurt her. Monster Security Agency is the most elite bodyguard service in the world. These monster bodyguards are lethal, powerful, and determined to protect their clients at all costs. They shouldn't fall in love with their principals, but if they do? Things are bound to explode. Here come spicy, romantic, and action-packed tales by your favorite paranormal and monster romance authors: Cassie Alexander, Layla Fae, and Cara Wylde. Dive into the world of the Monster Security Agency. Please join us at Cornerstone Tavern, 961 2nd Ave, New York, NY (51st and 2nd) for great conversation, laughs, and friendship. Look for our signs, and listen for the laughter. We are often in the back of Cornerstone behind the curtain, which is actually a different restaurant called the Stags Head. We start at 7pm, but feel free to come early before happy hour ends at 7. People usually start to drift in by 6:30pm.

Booze & Books in Brooklyn

In addition to draft beers, **LoFi Bar in Park Slope** features craft cocktails, curated wines, and small bites. Non-alcoholic options are also available. Bring your latest read (and maybe a book light!) and **enjoy $1 off all drinks**. **[LoFi Bar](https://www.lofibrooklyn.com/)** is conveniently located near the F/G/R lines. Please note, this is not a private event and LoFi will be open to the public. **There is seating available for 40 people, available on a first-come basis.**

Start your weekend at New York Historical's library

The [New York Historical](https://www.nyhistory.org/) invites you to the Reading Room of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library! Even though we are meeting in the museum's library, there will not be books available for you to silently read. **Please bring your own book.** Sometimes the museum has events that can be noisy. If you have trouble reading with noise in the background, you may want to bring headphones. **IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR FINDING THE GROUP INSIDE THE NY HISTORICAL** 1. Enter the building through the Central Park West entrance and go through Admissions, where you will get an entry sticker. 2. You may be asked for a donation but it’s Pay As You Wish so you may pay as much or as little as you like. 3. Once you get the sticker, you may head up the grand staircase opposite Admissions. 4. As soon as you get to the second floor, you'll see the entrance to the Reading Room on the left. We'll have a sign noting the room is reserved for Silent Book Club. Readers are welcome to **hang out in the Museum until closing at 8:00 PM**. **About the library** The Patricia D. Klingenstein Library is one of the oldest, most distinguished research libraries in the United States and a vital center of research into the history of New York and the nation. The Library's historic Reading Room has been a key stop for generations of scholars and researchers.

Evening Book Club - Atmosphere

Writers Meetup in Williamsburg

**Itinerary** People are welcome starting at **6 o'clock**, and you can come and meet other writers, enjoy a happy hour, socialize and hang out as you like until 7 when we will start readings. At **7 o'clock** we formally get together as a group to listen to readings from those looking for feedback. * We do not select readers based on order of arrival or a sign-up sheet, so if you have work until late but still want to come and read, you can! * Each reader gets five (5) minutes to read, so please select a section of work which is appropriate for that time limit. * We welcome narrative prose (fiction and non-fiction), poetry, the occasional essay, and scripts (be they for screen or stage), so long as it is writing that you're serious about. Please no ad copy, journal entries, memes, musings, idea pitches, works where performance is more critical than the writing, or other errata. Nothing AI, if that needs saying. * We'll then spend another five (5) minutes in discussion. This is time for the listeners to provide feedback on the reading and discussing the craft in general. We welcome (and encourage) constructive criticism, so long as it is done with respect. This is just as important as the reading, and is done as an open conversation not lead by the reader or the host, so no hand raising required! * We try to get to as many people who want to read as we can, so if there are a lot of attendees we will be very strict on time. * We take a short break at **8 o'clock** . At **9 o'clock** we finish readings and start our formal social hour. Meet new friends, connect with old ones, exchange longer works for review, or just let loose.

Writers Meetup in the West Village

**Itinerary** People are welcome starting at **6 o'clock**, and you can come and meet other writers, enjoy a happy hour, socialize and hang out as you like until 7 when we will start readings. At **7 o'clock** we formally get together as a group to listen to readings from those looking for feedback. * We do not select readers based on order of arrival or a sign-up sheet, so if you have work until late but still want to come and read, you can! * Each reader gets five (5) minutes to read, so please select a section of work which is appropriate for that time limit. * We welcome narrative prose (fiction and non-fiction), poetry, the occasional essay, and scripts (be they for screen or stage), so long as it is writing that you're serious about. Please no ad copy, journal entries, memes, musings, idea pitches, works where performance is more critical than the writing, or other errata. Nothing AI, if that needs saying. * We'll then spend another five (5) minutes in discussion. This is time for the listeners to provide feedback on the reading and discussing the craft in general. We welcome (and encourage) constructive criticism, so long as it is done with respect. This is just as important as the reading, and is done as an open conversation not lead by the reader or the host, so no hand raising required! * We try to get to as many people who want to read as we can, so if there are a lot of attendees we will be very strict on time. * We take a short break at **8 o'clock** . At **9 o'clock** we finish readings and start our formal social hour. Meet new friends, connect with old ones, exchange longer works for review, or just let loose.

Outdoors Book Club: 438 Days

August’s selection is 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin. Location has been updated to Pier 57. Genre: Survival, Adventure, Nonfiction Pages: ~288 Goodreads: ★4.1/5 After setting out from the Pacific coast of Mexico on what was supposed to be a routine fishing trip, fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga and his young crewmate are swept far out to sea by a violent storm. With their engine dead, radio destroyed, and thousands of miles of open ocean surrounding them, rescue quickly becomes impossible. What follows is one of the most astonishing survival stories ever documented. Adrift for 438 days—more than a year—Alvarenga survives by catching fish with his bare hands, drinking rainwater, eating birds and turtles, and enduring relentless isolation, starvation, storms, and despair. The psychological battle proves every bit as daunting as the physical one as he struggles to maintain hope while drifting across the Pacific. Drawing on extensive interviews and investigative reporting, Jonathan Franklin reconstructs the ordeal in vivid detail while also exploring the controversy surrounding Alvarenga’s incredible claim and the science of extreme human endurance. *For all book club events, we ask that participants come with an open mind. Opinions shared reflect those of the individual, and we ask that all discussion remain respectful so we can exchange ideas freely and without judgment.

The Archaeology of Knowledge by Foucault Week 1

Are there any proper facts which belong to the subject of epistemology? Or are we simply learning the language and way of life which has been invented and passed down to us? In The Archaeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault we find a careful analysis of the hidden assumptions which form the bedrock on which we build the rest of our lives. By challenging these foundations Foucault invites us to discourse analysis and genealogy as a way of re-imagining what the future could look like. As is often the experience in philosophy, a tension between freedom and weightlessness is cultivated as we ask how we should live on a foundation we did not choose. Participants should read the entire reading before attending this in person meeting. We will read pages 1-55 for the first week. I will be reading from this version [here](https://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Knowledge-Discourse-Language/dp/0394711068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TBF86VW1FDPE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4Eka-w7c4eSAU4l404xgpjNzTWGWk1CF0n4fyAPfDZZ0PvOLXu8z1mj7ZejrohnjWicKRoFdOaQiwbJYJN1oTsVCCAZ8eV84BtKb5x99TXtaoE4GvwcBg6C0mXCY3EwkQSJaRH00zQgKW6M2OJ4E6rbxYyI4EsgQe9YgtpV0mWi7tCAA4Cq2fVQhrZdIgTijOYZ7IjPBXniJBvWnwvoZ9_3FgfMfsnrVDjpUGU5e8-4.o2KumcsSP8p_pQMTFa7BzST80ImxBgwzi2cvgM8w0TQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=archaeology+of+knowledge&qid=1785190321&sprefix=archeology+of+knowledge%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-1). For questions please send me a message or post to meetup. Best, Brian

Attention Must Be Paid: The Boundaries of Human Knowledge and the Problem of AI

What can a person know? Philosophy has often framed this question in dualistic terms: the mind is “inside,” the world is “outside,” and knowledge requires the mind to somehow bridge the gap and “know” the world. But what if this picture is wrong? What if the boundary of knowledge is not primarily a wall between mind and world, but a limit of attention, embodiment, habit, language, and action? And what if that boundary is not static, but changing and changeable: different for individuals, groups, cultures, and technologies? This session explores an alternative tradition in philosophy that treats human beings not as detached spectators of reality, but as living organisms already situated in the world. Drawing on thinkers such as Thomas Reid, William James, John Dewey, and related work in embodied cognition and psychology, we will consider how knowledge grows out of perception, attention, practical activity, and our ability to navigate a shared environment. We will then turn to technology, including artificial intelligence. Large language models can process vast amounts of information, imitate reasoning, and produce fluent language. But do they attend? Do they perceive? Do they know? Or are they better understood as powerful extensions and reorganizations of human attention rather than knowers in their own right? The central claim of the session is that older philosophical debates can help us frame the problems and opportunities facing us today. By gaining a clearer understanding of how we attend to the world, we can question inherited assumptions that still shape our thinking, often without our noticing. To effectively guide new technologies, we may first need to understand what human knowledge has always been: not a view from nowhere, but a situated, selective, active engagement with the world. The session will begin with a 40-minute presentation, followed by 20 minutes of open Q&A and discussion. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- This event is part of the NYC Philosophy & Psychology Readers Conference 2026. For full details please visit: [https://www.meetup.com/reading-philosophy/events/314020228/](https://www.meetup.com/reading-philosophy/events/314020228/) \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- This room holds a maximum of 40 people seated or 74 people standing. It will be first come first served. If you cannot make it please update your RSVP to decline to allow others to use your space. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-

Fiction Series: Immortality, Recognition, and Spectacle (Kundera, Hegel, Debord)

Hi everyone! Welcome back to fiction group! Please join us on Thursday, August 27th for the first section of Milan Kundera’s ***Immortality***. We will have quite a few philosophical selections paired with this piece, so buckle up. The first meeting will be paired with excerpts from Hegel’s ***The Phenomenology of Spirit*** and Guy Debord’s ***Society of the Spectacle*.** (I know that sounds pretty hefty, but I believe in you all!) Though definitively unclassifiable, *Immortality* is a novel of seven parts, exploring the nature of eros, longing, nostalgia and images under the reign of mass ideology. As we observe conversations between Hemingway and Goethe, the revolving lives of Agnes and Paul, and even Kundera’s own commentary, our essence (and our limitations) are left exposed. Required reading includes the following: * **Part I and Part II of Milan Kundera’s *Immortality*** (pages 1-90 of the Harper Perennial Modern Classics Edition) * **[Section B “Self-Consciousness,” from Hegel’s ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AGfDLUAaijfC6qi5NlR9hb2OJ_J2k62Q/view?usp=sharing)*[The Phenomenology of Spirit](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AGfDLUAaijfC6qi5NlR9hb2OJ_J2k62Q/view?usp=sharing)*** (pages 102-135 in this linked edition) * **[“Chapter 1: Separation Perfected,” from Guy Debord’s ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHqkM5PSmnExpJ32UD0O0K3XjpTz59cZ/view?usp=sharing)*[The Society of the Spectacle](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHqkM5PSmnExpJ32UD0O0K3XjpTz59cZ/view?usp=sharing)*** (pages 10-21) * BONUS: **[“Approaching Literature’s Space,” from Maurice Blanchot’s ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_vLCMu1LGcZpXtlDFtdegD-_B4TNKfU/view?usp=sharing)*[The Space of Literature](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_vLCMu1LGcZpXtlDFtdegD-_B4TNKfU/view?usp=sharing)*** (Just one page! Please use the hyperlinked table of contents) Unfortunately, I do not have a PDF copy of *Immortality* available. If you need any help acquiring a copy, please reach out to me directly, and I’d be happy to help! Additionally, I’d like to provide a quick quote from Kundera’s *The Art of the Novel* to be thinking about before our meet-up: "*As a model of this Western World, grounded in the relativity and ambiguity of things human, the novel is incompatible with the totalitarian universe. This incompatibility is deeper than the one that separates a dissident from an apparatchik, or a human rights campaigner from a torturer, because it is not only political or moral but ontological. By which I mean: The world of one single Truth and the relative, ambiguous world of the novel are molded of entirely different substances. Totalitarian Truth excludes relativity, doubt, questioning, it can never accommodate what I would call the spirit of the novel.”* We will be meeting on Thursday, August 27th at 7pm at Spritzenhaus33 in Williamsburg. If you have any difficulty finding us, please don’t hesitate to message me directly. See you there! \*Please excuse any anomalous typographical errors in here--I think MeetUp is going a bit haywire on my end!