Hi everyone, Samarth here!

Thank you for signing up for Friction. But to be totally honest, I am having a bit of a (good) crisis. 

When I thought of starting this book club last Saturday evening, I thought it’s worth doing it even if just three people showed up to sit with me in a cafe and discuss The Fall by Albert Camus. So I quickly wrote the Linkedin note and posted it on Sunday. 

And man, in six days, 320 of you filled the form. Of which ~150 have said a definitive yes for the June 7 meetup, and another ~100 have said a maybe. 

I can’t host so many of you. That’s the crisis! :) 

Friction meetups will be small. By design. I have been in many book clubs before, and most haven’t worked for me.

If there are too many people, it’s hard to have a good conversation. Or if half of the room hasn’t actually read the book, you keep wondering how much to actually share because you don’t want to spoil the book for them. Or if people show up for differing objectives—one for a casual Sunday hang and one for talking through existential dilemmas—it’s misalignment and boom. 

I want to try and solve for this. Which means two things: I cannot have more than 10-15 people in the room, and I will need to apply a filter to choose. 

So here is what we will do. 

Camus is hard to read. And The Fall is dense. The book chat will only feel rich if everyone who gathers has actually wrestled with the text. So if you want to join the June 7 meet, I want you to email me back with a few things:

Did you actually like the book or not? Why? Was there any section that hit you the hardest? What are you thinking about after?

I know, I know. Part of me did wonder if it feels like "homework". A writeup to just join a book meet? Is it too much? 

But then I put myself on your side, and thought: 

"Yeah, I'd love to go to a book meet where I know everyone in the room has engaged with the book enough to send the host a quick write-up. Yeah. Amazing. I will write back!"

Once that self-talk happened, I got total clarity. We will do this.

And no, it’s not an it’s not a magazine book review submission or a literary criticism competition. I just want to hear, in your own words, what Camus's words did to you.

Send your write-up to [email protected] by June 2nd. The book is 100 pages, but if you have say made it to page 70 by then, that’s okay. Call that out too and write based on where you are.  I'll choose based on the emails and confirm the cohort by June 4th. 

If there are way too many of you who are ready, I am completely open to running two separate cohorts on June 7 to fit more people in.

I am currently sorting out a nice space for us (have three good options). There won't be any ticket fee.

And since you're doing the hard work of reading Camus, the coffee and snacks are on me.

Let the friction begin.

— Samarth