MAY 13, 2013 12:20 PM

Topless Pulp Fiction Club: beating out Oprah's book club, one topless read at a time

BY ILIA BLINDERMAN

Some book clubs have more red tape than a mall at Christmastime (“People wore their hats and dressed up and if they were late they had to pay a dime. They could miss three meetings a year. It’s all in our bylaws”). We call these book clubs “extinct.”

Today’s book club is far edgier, less constrained by various social mores, far more… naked. At least, that’s the premise of theTopless Pulp Fiction Club.

A. A., a co-founder of Topless Pulp who wished to remain anonymous (obvious reasons — one day you’re soaking in some chest-rays in Prospect Park while making your way through “The Zombie Room,” the next, half of the book’s fan base is tracking you down for a sexy undead photo shoot, all because you’ve dropped your name online), said that the club sprouted from the desire to match men’s topless displays in public parks.

“A friend and I decided to start a group to take advantage of the legal rights we already had but weren't using,” A. A. told the New York Daily News, and remarked that going topless doesn’t have to be an expression of lasciviousness for women, much like for men.

Despite the name, reading fodder isn’t limited to pulp.

“We’ve had members turn up with Steinbeck and Faulkner, ‘The Hunger Games’ and Anais Nin, ‘Lolita’ and ‘House of Leaves.’ Something mischievous and fun seems to fit the spirit of the thing, maybe something with a hint of provocation to it. But really there's no book that can't be improved by being read outdoors while the sun and the breeze play across your bare skin. Why do you think the term ‘beach reading’ was coined?” said A. A.

Initially, pulp formed the bulk of the club’s selection, according to A. A., since it’s “fun because it’s one of the few genres in which the women on the covers of the books might be wearing less than we are.”

While the male Page Views staffers debated on the consistency of this reasoning with the group’s feminist ethos, everyone agreed that scantily clad girls reading books featuring scantily clad girls was both meta, and a good thing