Organiser Dianne Bennett

4th Tuesday 11.45 - 12.45 Monthly September to July

Haslemere Hall Annexe

Attendance Fee £1.50

Dianne says: In September 2015 I wanted to join Reading for Pleasure but discovered the group was full. That's how Book Group 2 came into being when I launched it myself. I'm afraid we too are full. But running a book group is SO EASY and I would urge anyone who loves reading to take the plunge and start another. As Organiser I collect fees, send out reminders of meetings, pass on info to absentees. Apart from that the group really does run itself! If you're interested in starting a Book Group do please email me for a chat.

Book Group 2 decided at the start that we would read only fiction, wouldn't have a leader/teacher, would ask each member to lead in turn. And that's how it works! Someone chooses a book, does some research on the author, prepares some discussion questions, then on the day does a short presentation before we all start to chip in. There has never yet been an occasion when we've dried up, and we all agree that we are sometimes reading authors we would never have chosen ourselves. So it keeps the brain cells stimulated! And with 15 in the group reading 9 books a year, our turn to lead doesn't come round that often.

One year we decided to read only prize-winning books or authors and this year we've had three modern Irish writers to date, but generally members are free to choose what they like. We have very few rules: Don't choose an author we've already discussed (that's easy because there are so many wonderful books appearing all the time), maximum length circa 500 pages, paperbacks only at £10 or less. We try not to indulge in personal chit-chat as meetings only last 60 minutes. We reserve the nattering for a quick lunch afterwards in town when we catch up on each other's doings and have a laugh. We have a Festive Lunch around Christmas plus other social gatherings, and on occasion have seen the film version of one of our books eg Where the Crawdads Sing. Our best outing to date was a Gourmet Cruise to St Malo after reading Doerr's 'All the Light we Cannot See' which is set there.

We kept going all through Covid by learning to cope with Zoom. It was just like being back at school with Hands Up before speaking! We hugely enjoyed our first face-to-face meeting in 14 months when we lunched out doors at The Mill to discuss 'The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock'. Since then we've enjoyed a variety of other authors. If you're looking for inspiration, please see the list of Books We Have Read.

In December all three 'fiction' Groups got together for the first time at the Punchbowl Hotel. Local author Margot Shepherd came to talk to us about her first novel 'Never Closer' and it was fascinating to learn what hoops she had to jump through to get it published. The Q and A session was enjoyed by all, as was the excellent Lunch afterwards!

/

Links

• Books we have read