Reading Group
The Reading Group is one of the oldest groups, having been started by June and Eve very soon after the Ridgeway U3A was founded.
We meet once a month in the afternoon (which is a pity as we don't feel we can have wine) in the house of one of our members, we now have nine members (including four of the original people) which is a good number, more people and it would be hard to find a house we'd fit into, and even though there is always someone who can't make a meeting we always have a enough for a good discussion.
The Group has joined the Oxfordshire Library Reading Group Service, they provide our books for free. Over two years ago we had to give them list of 50 books we wanted to read and every month they deliver one of these titles (in 9 copies) to the Watlington Library for collection. That's almost five year's worth of books and it means we avoid one of the perennial problems of reading groups, how to choose the books. Of course sometimes a book turns up which non-one remembers being on the list, in fact we can't believe it was on the list, but they are always a surprise.
The vast majority of what we read are contemporary novels. The book which has generated the most discussion was The Slap by the Australian Christos Tsiolkas, but I have to admit our discussions often drift onto all sorts of topics.
I must say it is the easiest of chores, just collecting the books and securing the location of our meeting, there is no mediation, we are all too polite to argue too fiercely.
Caelia Pereira has now retired as convenor of this group after many years in charge for which we thank her. She is succeeded by Jane Kilroy jane_kilroy@hotmail.com