Motivating students to read textbooks or assigned readings is a widely acknowledged challenge for college instructors. Trade books written for a popular audience represent a potential resource for addressing this problem. This paper describes the adoption of a trade book in an upper-level agribusiness course. Utilizing a “book club” structure that included pre-class discussion preparation, in-class discussion days, and individual post-discussion reflections throughout the semester, this activity culminated in a class visit from the book’s primary author. We present student feedback, which indicated that students perceived the book club to be a valuable learning experience. This approach offers instructors a road map for increasing student reading and engagement with relevant literature and with their peers and is easily adaptable to a variety of classroom settings.
