This being a Saturday morning, in between the rainclouds, the Saturday Readers met for the first time in the British Council Library.
The aim of our first meeting was to get to know our reading tastes and try to choose a book we can read and discuss together.
After sharing some reading experiences both good and bad, we got down to the difficult business of trying to agree on a book!
Obviously we had to take some factors into account:
- the book has to be readily available
- it has to be of a genre we are all reasonably happy with
- neither too long nor too short - we have four more meetings on alternate Saturdays in which to discuss our chosen work
I had brought along a pile of books I'd grabbed off my shelves on the way out this morning. Given the amount of time we have I had foregone any real doorstoppers that I would have liked to include. Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong regrettably stayed on the shelf. Although, now I know that the Saturday Readers have an excellent level of English, I'm sure they would have devoured this captivating novel in no time.
Authors / Books that did make it onto the library table included:
- Pat Barker: Regeneration - part of a trilogy set in the First World War; could have been quite appropriate considering...
- Tracy Chevalier: Remarkable Creatures - the relationship between two women, set in the male dominated world of fossil hunting
- David Lodge - I'd taken Deaf Sentence as it's his most recent work, but anything by him is worth reading, anything!
- Alexander McCall Smith - I could only find Friends, Lovers, Chocolate to bring along, but any of his books make an enjoyable easy read
- Kate Atkinson: Human Croquet and One Good Turn - again more as examples of a possible author to read rather than those two books in particular
- David Nicholls: One Day - interesting idea: the same day each year, what are the same two people doing?
- P.D. James: Death Comes To Pemberley - a murder in the world of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice couple? Mmmm
Final Choice
Inevitably, it was difficult to agree. But then we knew that was going to happen - didn't we? Choosing is always hard, but at least there's plenty left for next time. Everyone was noting down names and titles of potential future reads as authors and books were eliminated from the table in a completely arbitrary manner. I think we rather rushed the final choice, although I'm sure(fingers crossed)it will be an enjoyable read.
So, what was the final choice? Persuaded by my enthusiasm of all her work, Kate Atkinson's Life After Life was agreed on.
Here is the official Kate Atkinson website
After reminding everybody that our next meeting is on the 22nd February, we all scurried off, umbrellas at hand and minds (mine at least) a whirl of names, words, stories waiting to be told...
Bottom photo: http://kerrymurray.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment