Wedgewood writes first blog for NHL.com about online book club he created

Colorado Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood has started a book club through Fable, an app designed to discuss books, as well as Instagram and TikTok apps. Wedgewood will be writing a monthly blog on the club for NHL.com. In his first installment, Wedgewood talks about why he started the club, its meetings and reception.

I love to read. It’s been something I’ve enjoyed in my past times and on the road and all that fun stuff. I was kind of joking with the fans via Instagram and the social-media aspect that I could run a book club, and I’d get a bunch of interactions of people being like, “Dude, I want to join! I want to join!” So I waited through the summer and when the Avalanche came out this year saying they have five theme nights, I kind of teased it again.

The Fable app is where the official book club is run under Wedge’s Book Wall. The book is split by chapters, so if you want to read the first chapter and go into Fable and talk about it, there’s a tab there where you can interact on the first chapter. You can interact on the second, the third, all the way down. It’s kind of that spoiler-free chat room, which is a cool way to do it. You don’t have to read the whole book to talk about it.

Wedge’s Book Wall is a new Instagram and TikTok account I created. It’s been freeing because I’m just posting book stuff on what I’m doing and reading, and it’s been cool in what it’s opened up with the community. There’s no right or wrong to read there. People have their opinions of what they love. It’s just been a way to have a conversation I’d have at a coffee shop with 20,000 people online, which has been a lot of fun.

I wanted it to be hockey-wide and reader-open. It’s been really cool to see there are people in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, hockey fans that used to live in Denver that moved to Detroit, St. Louis Blues fans that don’t like Avalanche fans but they’re in here for the book. I’ve been on multiple teams myself, and there have been a lot of people that have continued to follow my journey, and I get messages in there like, “Oh, I was a fan of the Albany Devils when Scott was in upstate New York. Now I’m following him and excited to join this book club.” I think when you open stuff up in this life, and I’ve always been approachable and talkative with the media, people seem to gravitate toward the personality that I seem to give out that is me and it’s been rewarding to have support and the good-natured comments that kind of come my way with it.

The way the club on the Fable app is going to run is everyone has a set date. I do a book a month right now. We started with “Bodies of Magic” by Freya Markse. I had the club vote on four books and this one won so we’re all reading it, so it’s not forced by me.

I’ve been toying with the idea of maybe at the end of the month doing an Instagram live, maybe on a road trip or something, for 30 minutes, and just have people if they would like to do a virtual meet with me. People can throw their questions into a chat, so it won’t be a 500-people-in-a-Skype call. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a once-a-month recap of the book on Instagram live but we haven’t gotten to that yet.

The theme nights will be a spot where a bunch of the fans that are in the book club will have their meet and greets at Avalanche games and get to enjoy that, so that’ll be a big plus for them. But the book club itself is a book a month. There are different chatrooms, there’s a book recommendation chat room and there’s a lobby. People are showing their bookshelves and where they’re reading and where they’re watching the games from. There’s an intro tab, so everyone introduces themselves if they’d like to.

Then we have a bookstore recommendation around the NHL, so people are recommending bookstores, if I have time to go see them, or bookstores that they like.

My first post about the book club was Sept. 13. There are almost 25,000 followers on Instagram and we’re around 5,600 inside the Fable chatroom book club. Reading and hockey are my two loves, and this crossover is always looking for a space to meet new fans.

I’ve always liked to talk with everyone I meet, from Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic to the guy who helps cut the ice for us. I don’t find that there’s a hierarchy in the world. Everyone has a conversation and it’s always fun for me. I think when you’ve read a book and have been addicted to it, it’s almost like you’re part of those gym communities and food trends: you just want to explain why you like it and having the space to do that is really fun to see.