Another select meeting of 3 due to a last minute flurry of cancellations, you missed a corker! We tried the food at the Warwick Arms (£10 for starter and main, Thai food) and it was delish. The start of the meeting was mainly in silence due to food appreciation but we soon got started on the book 'Engeby' by Sebastian Faulks. Feelings were mixed with Lisa having not finished it and Rachel not really getting into it. I, on the other hand, loved it! I didn't have a clue that this book was a murder mystery so my expectations were a life story of a strange man. I think that made the story more gripping than it was for others, they were waiting for the disappearance and eventual confession while I was happy reading about his university life. With questions supplied by Gail (thanks Gail!) we had quite a meaty discussion about his motivations and whether people really can suppress memories as he claims to.
Result: 2 people liked this book (I think - correct me if I'm wrong).
Our book choice this month was restricted to 'Classics'. This was the first time we tried having a theme and I think it worked quite well. We chose our book from the following:
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The next meeting will be in the Warwick Arms, Thursday 8th October. No food this time, we decided to do food maybe once in 3 months as we know not everyone wants to eat Thai every month.
The theatre trip last month to see 'Twelfth Night' at Oxford was a huge success, 5 of us clustered together to watch the open air performance. It was rather chilly but great fun and something we'll definitely do again.
Lisa has volunteered to organise our next outing, a guided walk around Reading. I've set up a doodle poll here so please put your availability if you're interested.
We also discussed the themed book choices, I think they worked rather well as it focuses our choices on unusual books instead of choosing from the best sellers. If you have any ideas for future themes, please leave a comment on here so others can see them. The list so far is:
- Christmas (this will obviously have to be the book we choose in November to read over Christmas)
- Biography (auto or not)
- Historical Fiction
- Fantasy
