A 'novel' approach to inculcating life skills

ABSTRACT

Reading is an important life skill and competency. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the reading culture got threatened as the purchase of books declined significantly, and encouraging reading skills emerged as a bigger challenge. However, setting up a reading club online in the postpandemic world and discussing books while using kindles, e-books, and open-source materials might hold the key. This chapter deals with the set-up of a 'Novel Room' at Jai Hind College, India (Autonomous higher education institute), which is a book discussion club, and the success had with it. Seventy-two individuals are mapped in the data, which is by and large positive. Through the feedback data collected, this chapter analyzes a semi-quantitative study that highlights the role of such student-centric clubs, especially book discussion clubs can foster healthy reading habits and developing other soft skills such as empathy, self-confidence, creativity, and ability to deal with social problems. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.