By Book Club Member David Castle
Despite Covid, Tattersalls Book Club has met every single month over the last two years, most of this online.
This year we have read six books with two more to go. How the book Club meets work is that six people, especially those who recommend the book prepare the discussion questions in advance, which really helps us to devote all our focus while reading that book.
We started the year with “Silence of the Grave”, a Scandinavian thriller and my first experience with Scandinavian noir. A great discussion on the art of writing books of this nature as well as going through our discussion notes. Each of us evaluated the book on a scale of 1 – 10 and came up with our own three-word summary. Interesting and challenging.
Reading a book like this, without preparing for a book club discussion, is not nearly as interesting or challenging.
Our second book of the year was totally different genre: Killing Sydney by Elizabeth Farrelly. While very detailed and intense, we all had different views about how and why planning for Sydney should take place in the future and to what extent the city had been ruined. We were extremely lucky to have the author Elizabeth join us online for this conversation, I think from Rome, courtesy of our General Manager. It is amazing what you can do if you have the Club behind you.
This was followed by The Leopard – a classic about 19th-century Sicily. Although I and some others Members had read the book when it first came out, still it was quite a revelation to read it again and have the benefit of full-scale discussion with fellow members.
Having diverse demographics in our Book Club team is a great value add as it opens our minds to a variety of viewpoints and possibilities.
I won’t talk about all of our reads but The Promise by Damon Galgut deserves a special standout, shortlisted for the 2021 Booker prize. It is a brilliantly written book about South Africa in the apartheid era.
So, I hope this helps you understand that reading with intent adds a new dimension to simply reading. You focus far more on the writing itself – and not just the story. It certainly gets your creative juices flowing.
All our discussions have been fascinating and all our books have been worthwhile, although some have been much more criticised than others. Everyone gets time to present his or her opinion and to fully participate in all discussions.
We would love for more readers to come and join us as we never want to fall short of appreciating new viewpoints and opinions.
Contact the team today at marketing@tattersallsclub.org to join the Book Club.
