My Reading Journey: 2 Read, 2 Await

The Readers Club, in collaboration with the Library & Information Center, organized “My Reading Journey: 2 Read, 2 Await” on 5 September 2026 at Christ (Deemed to be University), Pune–Lavasa Campus. Conducted as a special Teachers’ Day reading initiative, the programme aimed to strengthen the reading culture on campus by encouraging faculty members and staff to reflect on their reading experiences, share book recommendations, and identify books they wished to explore in the future.

The initiative followed a simple and engaging concept: participants were invited to share two books they had read and enjoyed and two books they wished to read. This encouraged participants to look back at their reading journey while also setting future reading goals. The activity created an opportunity to discover diverse authors, genres, subjects, and perspectives through the reading choices of colleagues.

As part of the initiative, the Library & Information Center team and The Readers Club members personally visited faculty and staff members in their cabins to extend Teachers’ Day greetings and introduce the activity. As a thoughtful gesture, specially designed Book Tags prepared by The Readers Club members were presented to participants. The team also explained the purpose of the initiative and guided participants to submit their responses through a QR-code-based Google Form.

The QR information sheet highlighted three key objectives: promoting regular reading habits and future reading goals, understanding the reading preferences of the university community, and encouraging the sharing of books, authors, genres, and recommendations. The use of a QR-based form made participation simple, convenient, and accessible while allowing the Library and Readers Club to collect useful reading-interest information.

A total of 16 faculty members participated in the initiative. Their responses reflected a wide range of reading interests extending well beyond academic requirements. Participants shared titles from areas such as fiction, literature, biographies, psychology, philosophy, history, law, technology, artificial intelligence, personal development, social sciences, and Indian writing.

Popularly shared titles included The Alchemist, Being Mortal, When Breath Becomes Air, Norwegian Wood, A Train to Pakistan, Azadi, I Am an Atheist, Atomic Habits, The Metamorphosis, The Idea of Justice, India After Gandhi, Man’s Search for Meaning, The Courage to Be Disliked, My Experiments with Truth, 1984, and The Palace of Illusions, among several others. Some participants also expressed interest in contemporary subjects such as Explainable AI, Computational Intelligence in Cybersecurity, Agentic AI, programming, and research methodology, demonstrating the role of reading in professional and academic development.

The collected responses provide valuable insights for the Library & Information Center and The Readers Club. The information can support future collection development, thematic book displays, reading campaigns, book discussions, author interactions, and other reader-focused initiatives based on the interests of the university community.

The initiative also strengthened collaboration between the Library and The Readers Club and demonstrated the value of personal interaction in promoting reading. Rather than waiting for readers to visit the library, the team took the reading initiative directly to faculty and staff members.

Overall, “My Reading Journey: 2 Read, 2 Await” successfully transformed individual reading experiences into a shared community activity. Through personal interaction, creative Book Tags, and QR-based participation, the initiative promoted reading, knowledge sharing, lifelong learning, and personal growth, contributing to the development of a vibrant and collaborative reading culture at the Lavasa Campus.