Friday 18/4/03 - Saturday 26/4/03
SW Scotland and The Lake District
Thursday 10th April
We joined a local book club recently, or "Readers Group" as they prefer to call it. When I initially phoned the library to enquire, the woman on the other end of the phone seemed quite bemused when I asked about the book club. When I explained that I had seen an ad for it in a local publication and I thought they met once a month etc the penny dropped and she said" Oh, you mean the readers group". How could she have possibly known what I was talking about without the precise definition!? :-)
We weren't able to contribute much at our first meeting as we'd only read about 2 chapters of the book! (Bad Blood- Lorna Sage). Not having much to say gave me a chance to observe the other members, the kinds of discourse they had and how everyone interacted.
The host who is also
one of the librarians- it's held at the local library after hours, something
about being in a library after it closes makes me want to run around, shouting!-
was a quietly spoken man. In his early 40s I'd say, self-effacing and
good natured. Not the stereotypical image of a librarian :-) He made
us welcome
and served up tea and biscuits, custard creams to boot!
The only other female
there that night was a ex-headmistress who I thought was in her 40s but have
subsequently found out she is 60 so I will call her "well preserved"! She
seemed very vivacious and I have since found out she was the registrar at my
sister's wedding and is a friend and neighbour of my auntie.
She organised
a talk given by a local author, Joan Jonker, which we went to
this evening.
Joan was the founder of "Victims of Violence" and was quite an inspiration
although we were told quietly "don't read her books!" I believe they
are a little dull but she seemed to have her fans on the night! We also
recognised and had a chat to a member of the cast of a play we went to see
recently, playwright is a local woman but that's another story. The talk
was held in the local church and sitting on a pew for nearly 3 hours (I thought
she was never going to stop!) was highly uncomfortable. A tip for the
church, if you want to pull in the crowds, get some cushions and while we're on
the subject, perhaps serve refreshments? Just an idea you might want to
consider :-)
Anyway, I digress. There was an ex maths teacher who seemed a little officious, I need to observe him a bit more I think as I don't quite know what to make of him just yet! People say that first impressions last, but they don't tend to for me, they count but they usually don't last.
Last but not least a tall, slender man in his 60s who told the group he had met plenty of prostitutes in his time. I can't remember how the subject cropped up but I felt a little less uneasy when I found out he was an ex officer of the law!
At our second meeting
we were able to contribute a little more and I bemused the group by saying I
thought the author over-used the "omniscient point of view". Nobody knew what it
meant! (book was "Four Letters of Love- Niall Williams")
There were 3 other members there on the second occasion who I think have been members for
some time. An elderly lady who was very sweet but didn't have much to say
and seemed to be the only one who enjoyed that months book! Another lady
in her early 50s I think, who had even less to say.
Finally, a woman in her
late 30s early 40s? who was loquacious and quite dynamic! She's getting
engaged in new York this weekend and her fiancé is arranging to do it in a very
special location, although it's not up the Empire State building and she met him
at Christmas and they're getting married in August and she never knew that
"blurb" was a proper word etc etc.
So, quite a mixed bag all in all, looking forward to the next meeting.
This month we are reading "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks and the blurb on the back (apparently blurb is a proper word) says it is quite erotic which is in stark contrast to the picture on the front of a WWI soldier standing on a dark horizon, still you know what they about books and their covers!..... I am also reading "Schopenhauers Telescope" pre-publication.
Excuse me now, I have reviews to compile ;-)