What? Book group night again already! Time does not seem to have flowed with a rhythmic ripple through the intervening hours and minutes, but has hurtled through this short epoch of space. Little pieces of ‘self’ seem to have come adrift as this trajectory created bumps and collisions with objects and forces along the pathContinue reading “September book group”
Category Archives: Book Groups
August book group
The air is palpable with words. It is book group night and the participants of B.A.B.E.S are in good form. We’re meeting for the first time at the newly renovated home of one of our members. It’s cold out. A toasty fire is beckoning us to gather around the radiant timbers. The ‘bubbles’ are chilledContinue reading “August book group”
Dark, dark, dark
Those of you who have read my earlier blogs will know that over the past dozen years, it has been my privilege to have shared in two separate book groups – both quite different in their membership and dynamics. At the last gathering of my current B.A.B.E.S (Bubbles And Books Every Session) group, the conversationContinue reading “Dark, dark, dark”
Book versus movie, round 1
‘In the beginning was the word’…and the word was good. We savour it, we roll it around in our minds and often on our tongues as we seek to squeeze every trickle of literary goodness from our favorite books. When we read a book we create our own perfect ‘internal movie’ version of the characters,Continue reading “Book versus movie, round 1”
Do good books make good movies?
Do you ever stop to really question whether you should see the screen adaptation of a book you’ve read and loved? I think it would be fair to say that you would rarely ever read the book after you’ve seen the movie. But we often head off to the cinema after we’ve read a book only to come awayContinue reading “Do good books make good movies?”
I refuse to engage with this subject again
I made a conscious decision in the early 1980s not to actively seek out literature or movies, or any material for that matter, that dealt with war. By about 1983, my tender soul screamed that I had engaged ENOUGH with this subject through various media: Schindler’s List (Ark as book was originally published in Australia)Continue reading “I refuse to engage with this subject again”
Books that make you LOL
When was the last time that you couldn’t stop yourself from laughing out loud as you were reading a book? Come on, never! I can’t believe it. Where would we be without side-splitting humour? Stating the obvious, in a sad, sad space. It’s refreshing to ‘poke fun’ at ourselves, to take the seriousness out ofContinue reading “Books that make you LOL”
Finding yourself in a Thomas Hardy novel
I can almost feel tear drops forming ready to splash down on my keyboard as I contemplate the content of this blog. Every year our Book Group aims to cover one classic. Last year Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf gave some of our ‘clubbers’ absolute grief to read but all (well most…) agreed it wasContinue reading “Finding yourself in a Thomas Hardy novel”
Books started but not finished
‘A masterpiece’ The Age ‘An unputdownable page turner by a master storyteller’ The Weekly Times This book is almost 6 cm (2.5 inches) thick, has 933 pages and is printed in the teeniest type. You would have to put it down, often, to rest your aching arms! Described as: This remarkable book can be readContinue reading “Books started but not finished”
What makes a book good
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families,Continue reading “What makes a book good”
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