A weekly reading group · Edinburgh

A book club where everyone’s done the same prep.

Free, weekly, drop-in. One of our book experts brings the texts. We read them in the room together, and then we discuss, disentangle, and critique them all together.

Sundays · 10:30—11:30 Tills Bookshop · 1 Hope Park Crescent Edinburgh EH8 9NA
01About

No homework.
Just read.

With Bookless Bookclub, there’s nothing to read in advance. A facilitator brings a constellation of short texts — fiction, poetry, theory, song lyrics, visual art — and we read them together, in the room. Then we talk about them.

That’s it. No preparation, no homework, no book purchase, and no prior knowledge required. We turn up, we sit together, we read together, we discuss together.

It’s free to attend, and open to anyone.

02Our Rolling Themes

Our
rolling
themes.

Our themes are determined by the expertise and interests of our facilitators, so they shift over time. Each one brings a constellation of texts into conversation.

The Bookless Bookclub poster — riso illustration of theme covers: Hauntings, Global Sci-Fi, Motherhood, Bodies.
Theme 01

Haunting

Led by Ella Williamson

Ghost stories, grief, memory, and the spectres of the past. Ella holds an MA from NYU in transatlantic modernism and has a forthcoming anthology essay for the 50th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Theme 02

Global Sci-Fi

Led by Javiera Steck

Non-anglophone science fiction: climate, automation, reproduction, utopia. Javiera holds an MSc in Comparative Literature and lectures at Universidad de Chile on Contemporary Global Science Fiction.

Theme 03

Women in Translation

Led by Claudia Marzollo

Women writers from around the world, with attention to making translators visible. Claudia is a bookseller and co-founder of In Other Words. Her MSc in Comparative Literature (Edinburgh) focused on Angela Carter and Luisa Valenzuela.

Theme 04

Motherhood

Led by Kate McNamara

Global perspectives on birth, mothering, and the labour of care. Kate holds a PhD from SOAS, is a literary translator and co-founder of In Other Words, and co-runs Cultural Commons CIC.

Theme 05

Nature

Led by Sofia Rytters

Landscape, ecology, and the more-than-human world — readings that ask what it means to belong to a place, and to share it.

Theme 06

Beasts Within

Led by Katia Trevino

Exploring human transformation into animals and beasts as lyrical and narrative tools to explore themes of pain, love, and resilience.

03Where & when

Sundays.
Every week.

10:30—11:30. Walk-ins welcome!

The address
Tills Bookshop
1 Hope Park Crescent
Edinburgh EH8 9NA

A short walk from the south side of the Meadows. Nearest bus stops at Newington Road and Clerk Street.