WEST SPRINGFIELD — Book lovers can exercise their bodies and minds while discussing books in a new program offered by the West Springfield Public Library that puts a new spin on the traditional book group.
Instead of sitting in a room discussing a book, participants will be outside walking along a scenic nature trail. The library recently partnered with the town’s Park and Recreation Department to offer the program, called the West Side Walking Book Club, at the Bagg Brook Heritage Trail off Morgan Road.
The inaugural book walk was scheduled for April 18, but it was delayed until June 20 because of rain on the April and May meeting dates. The club plans to meet at the trail on the third Thursday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon.
“We can only hope the weather will work out in our favor, but we did not anticipate it would take three months before we started,” said Lyndsay Neffinger, adult services supervisor at the library. ”We’re hopeful the rest of the series will have better weather.”
Neffinger said attendees should expect casual conversation along the flat three-quarter-mile trail loop, with opportunities for breaks along the way. She said the program will run until October and book selections will focus on climate change, conservation and sustainability. The books tie in with the library’s summer reading theme, “Read, Renew, Repeat.”
Neffinger, who has been at the library for about a year, brought the idea with her from the Simsbury Public Library in Connecticut, where she previously worked.
“We offered a walking book club and I thought it’d be a good fit in West Springfield. When we brought the idea to Park and Rec, they were enthusiastic about it from the start,” Neffinger said.
Her inspiration came from an article in which the American Library Association encouraged libraries to incorporate walking into programs for all ages, and included a brief overview of walking program ideas developed by other libraries. It also noted that with programming space often limited or at a premium in libraries, taking some programs outside and incorporating walking into them also helps free space for other programs.
The club will feature a different book each month. The June selection was “American War” by Omar El Akkad. The book — the first novel by the Canadian-Egyptian journalist — is set in the United States in the near future. The country, ravaged by climate change and disease, is in the midst of a second civil war that broke out over the use of fossil fuels.
Upcoming book selections will include “No One is Too Small to Make a Difference” by Greta Thunberg (July 18); “Flight Behavior” by Barbara Kingsolver (Aug. 15); “All We Can Save” by various authors (Sept. 19); “The New Wilderness” by Diane Cook (Oct. 17).
“The book choices are a mixture of fiction and nonfiction,” said Neffinger. “The selections were made on availability in our library systems and connection to the summer reading theme.”
Neffinger said getting the word out is always a challenge when starting a new program or series such as the monthly book walking club: “We’re also competing with summertime activities and the busy-ness of everyday life.”
She said the program will be evaluated after October to determine if it is worth continuing next year.
“Some measures of success we will use to evaluate it include participation, engagement within the community — did our patrons enjoy it? — and general feedback we hear from our patrons,” she said.
Neffinger said books for the walking club are set aside a month in advance on the library’s second floor. To register, visit www.wspl.org or call 413-736-4561, ext. 3.
The interpretive nature trail is on town-owned land that borders Bagg Brook and includes the Morgan Road Pavilion, behind the Irish Cultural Center of Western New England. The trail officially opened in April 2021 after improvements were made using Community Preservation Act funds.
