A night of Orwell without Big Brother

No "1984" and no "Animal Farm" but we still had an engaging discussion, online, on Tuesday April 21st when we considered "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" and "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell. More members were convinced of the classic status of "Homage to Catalonia" than "Keep the Aspiditra Flying", but a divergence of opinions is …

What we thought about Cannery Row

Seems like everyone enjoyed, and was impressed with, "Cannery Row". One person described the book as a "stonking good read". Some of the topics we discussed were: Could Cannery Row have been written about a community in England? Is the old Chinese man a real character? What does the book say about animals? Why is …

What I thought about … a Tale of Two Cities?

At our initial meeting in October we discussed "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. Most of us who had read it before had done so some time ago, and found it a bit difficult to get to grips with the style. I hope that everyone found it was worth the effort. Topics that came …

Our next book will be Frankenstein

Our next next meeting will be on Tuesday 21st of January at 7:30 pm in Harbury Village Library when we will discuss “Frankenstein; or the modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley. At the previous meeting the following suggestions were made as to which book we should be reading: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Brave New …

It’s Tale of Two Cities Tuesday

The first meeting of the new Harbury Village Library Classic Book Group takes place at 7.30 on Tuesday 22nd October in the library. Drinks and nibbles will be available. In addition to discussing the book we'll be deciding when the next meeting will be, and what we will read next. Since not everyone who has expressed an …

What is a Classic?

In his book "Why read the Classics" Italian writer Italo Calvino  produced 14 definitions of a "classic" book. The classics are those books about which you usually hear people saying: 'I'm rereading…', never 'I'm reading….' The Classics are those books which constitute a treasured experience for those who have read and loved them; but they …

How long are Dickens’ novels

Having decided that the first book to be read and discussed by our new Classic Book Group would be a Dickens novel, and having specified that we wouldn't choose a book that was longer than 500 pages in a standard edition, we needed to work out how long Dickens' novels actually are. Fortunately most of …

The Classic Book Group

As a library we thought we ought to have our own Book Group, but we wanted to try something a little different. So, we asked if people would be interested in joining a Book Group which concentrated on reading, and discussing, the classics of literature. You know, all those books you knew you ought to …