We have followed this particular bookclub online for some months considering the unique nature of its set up – no physical meetups. Cue in Omphile Raleie who has been running Bookamoso Book Club as an online based profile since inception and the format was to encourage reading and attendance of book launches, book readings etc. in our community.
Omphile Raleie is the founder and curator of Bookamoso Book Club. She is an outdoor advertising professional for a Johannesburg-based firm, is technologically savvy and a social media fundi-extraordinaire. Her hobbies include health and fitness and of course, social responsibility projects, collecting and reading books.
“I have a massive collection of cookbooks!”, says Omphile. “Between fiction novels, autobiographies, and inspirational books, among others, you will always find a cookbook or two” These fuel her passion for cooking and love of great food, which her husband, Lesego, is always keen to sample.
Omphile is an active member of the Red Wings Project a project that is close to her heart which assists girls and young women by collecting sanitary towels and distributing to them.
The word Bookamoso is derived from the Setswana word bokamoso which means future. With the extra ‘o’, Bookamoso has come to mean ‘our future in books’. The purpose of the Bookamoso Book Club is to establish reading as a fundamental building block to South Africa’s progress, through the acquisition and sharing of knowledge found in books. We believe that if people know better, they do better, and there’s no better way to improve the quality of one’s thinking than to pick up a book and educate oneself. Young or old, newbie or ardent reader, everyone is welcome at Bookamoso!
Bookamoso Book Club is a community of readers and book enthusiasts. We are primarily an online based community where members encourage each other to read and discover great books and reading materials, events and places to read. Members are encouraged to meet and exchange ideas at Bookamoso-affiliated events.
On their website, you can expect to find exciting news about a wide variety of books, must-attend book launch events, author profiles and informative book reviews. Want us to list your book, promote your event, or publish your book review? Feel free to contact us for more information.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Bookamoso Book Club was founded by Omphile Raleie in 2012 and started as a monthly gathering with a few friends at a book shop in Omphile’s hometown of Bloemfontein. Each friend would bring a different book, summarise the content, and recommend new books that may be of interest to the group.
After Omphile relocated to Johannesburg in 2013, coordinating the Bloemfontein meetings remotely proved challenging, as was coordinating new meet-ups with Gauteng-based friends who were spread across the province. In the connection age, this challenge presented an opportunity to reach more people virtually. Although this meant less physical meetings, it meant the establishment of an online community of readers and book enthusiasts.
Things became more formal in September of 2013 when a Twitter handle was registered to be the common source place of interaction and information with the community. To date, they have a vibrant community of book lovers, from Cape Town to Mahikeng, sharing information on their favourite books, via social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, with over 600 followers, on each platform!
To be “Bookamosoed”, connect with Omphile via Facebook (Omphile Raleie), Instagram (@OmphileRaleie) and Twitter