SLEEPY HOLLOW BOOK CLUB | Introduction

Dear Friends, We’re excited to announce a new endeavor and invite you to join the Sleepy Hollow Book Club. We hope this will be a creative space for book lovers, writers, and storytellers.

It was quite serendipitous to launch the club on the bicentennial of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” first published in the “The Sketch Book” by Washington Irving March 15, 1820. We could never have imagined the weeks of quarantine and social distancing that were ahead of us and how this club would become a candle in the darkness.

But first, let’s make some important Sleepy Hollow Book Club introductions.

We’d like you to meet Jules lovely proprietor of Horsefeather, Tarrytown’s local haunt since 1981. A family run restaurant that’s full of heart, comfort food, and a host of legendary authors.

Once upon a Halloween time in Sleepy Hollow, we befriended Jules and bonded over our mutual love of all things strange and unusual. Jonas even designed custom jack-o’-lanterns for their spooky holiday decor. Over the seasons, the 3 of us became great friends and spent much time chatting about charming classic books until one day the thought occurred to us to form a fellowship for literary lovers based in the legendary Hudson Valley.

Next step was to design a logo that would reflect the theme of the club and Jonas did a beautiful job capturing that antique leather book cover feeling and cozy candlelight. We decided not to use the Headless Horseman simply because we are going to read other books along the way. A candle symbolizes the classic era, before screens were used to light the way. We want the logo to give the feeling of a step back to simpler days, if not for only a brief moment. Which do you prefer, the candle lit or blown out?

Naturally, our first official read of the #sleepyhollowbookclub was the short story of the same name, contained in Irving’s collection of 34 essays and short stories entitled “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.” First published 200 years ago and is one of American literature’s earliest examples of fiction. Have you read the Legend before? We have a feeling this won’t be the last time we do for the club.

We’re lucky to have Sleepy Hollow in our backyard so we took some promotional style photos of Jonas in Ichabod fashion around the cemetery and at Horsefeathers. We think it’d be fun to always try to get into character and hope our members will depend on what book we’re reading. Lindsay plans to make some audio style books for our Charming YouTube channel. Together, we had a lot of fun coming up with graphics designed with antique fonts and borders for which to post quotes from the reading.

It was a bit more challenging than we thought to come up with discussion questions for Instagram and the private Facebook Group. Thankfully we already have so many lovely members that are teachers or historians who are lending their expertise and making it a better club for all! We hope to have guest hosts for different books and conclude with a final video call where we can all have a cozy fika time to discuss the reading together.

Since we are not charging for membership we do some have some ways that you can help support us to keep it going. Jonas offering a special “Bicentennial Bundle” of his Headless Horseman art prints and is designing original artwork for book club merch such as notebooks, bookmarks, and tote bags.

We’re very excited to be partnered with Bookshop.org where you can shop for charming classic and legendary literature through our affiliate link which not only supports the club but also independent bookstores, a win-win!

So, dear friends, do you have a thirst for a good story? We hope to see you in the Sleepy Hollow Book Club! And before you go, don’t forget to subscribe to our, “It’s a Charming Life” newsletter.
Bye For Now,
-Lindsay & Jonas

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