Kelso Library Readers Group meeting 25th March 2008

On the last Tuesday of this month (March) we had ten members who came along, plus a variety of reading material. The books we had hoped to get from the Library were unavailable but Ruth says she will keep trying.

Most people at the meeting did not think much of Map of Bones, it seemed to be a weak copy of a Bond book or some such story. "The Historian" fared little better so we just discussed other books we had read or subjects that would interest us. The main one being the slave trade . William St. Clair 's book on this subject "The Grand
Slave Emporium" brought out many comments on this topic and appears to be a very worthwhile read. I mentioned that I had listened to James Naughtie's bookshelf programme when he had interviewed William Hague on his new book about William Pitt, which seemed interesting. Pitt had been very much involved with the slave trade, although during that period of history who wouldn't be? All of our members expressed interest in the subject and we will no doubt go into it again.

Other books mentioned by members were "When we were bad" by Charlotte Mendelsohn, "Love in the time of cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "He kills coppers" by Jake Arnott,
"The Gathering" by Ann Enright and other authors referred to were Michael Dibden and another book called "All the pretty horses" by Cormac McCarthy.We also discussed how films affect (or don't affect) the books we
read. "The Last of the Mohicans" was one...the book being much better than the film, or films. We all appeared to agree that last Sunday'representation on TV of "The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency" was good, especially the detective Precious (Jill Scott). It was very colourful and I loved the comment in the "Scotsman"s 'Critique' viz. "It's like sharing a bubblebath with a big friendly Saint Bernard'!!!

Now to our poetry session. "My Masterpiece" by Robert Service; "Loveliest of trees" by A.E. Housman and "To leep" by Keats....please keep them coming. It's great to know what kind of poetry appeals to you. Finally for next month we are going to discuss books we have loved and read in the past and if they would appeal now.

The date of the next meeting is 29th April, 2.30 in the library - All welcome
IHE