Graphic Novel Reading Room @ Treehouse

Graphic Novel Reading Room is back at The Treehouse Board Game Café on Tuesday 15 December, running from 16:00 to 22:00. It's a quiet reading session rather than a talk or a workshop: the room is filled with hundreds of graphic novels and zines, and you just pick whatever takes your fancy and settle in. There's no group discussion at any point, so you can spend the whole time with one book or dip in and out of several.

The collection leans literary and covers a wide spread: fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, horror, graphic medicine and manga. It's a good place to browse if you're not sure where to start with comics, and you're welcome to arrive and leave as you please, so you don't have to commit to the full six hours.

The session is the brainchild of Gabi Putnoki, who describes it as a chance to sample comics in a quiet but sociable environment, as if discovering film for the first time in all its diversity and variety. It's been running in Sheffield and for organisations across the UK since 2021, and this particular session marks its fifth birthday. It also forms part of Thought Bubble Festival Week, which leads up to the main comic festival in Harrogate over the following weekend.

The Treehouse kitchen serves food, drinks and cakes throughout, and the room is open to over-16s, with under-16s welcome under parental supervision. The suggested donation is £3 per hour. You'll find it at The Treehouse Board Game Café, 41 Boston Street, Highfield, Sheffield S2 4QF.