Book Club - 30/01/13

I love book club! I always feel slightly hyperactive when I get home... Ok, so 'The Old Man And The Sea'.  Well to start off with a fight almost broke out between Kevin and Kelly as Kevin exclaimed he wished the old man would just die! (I hasten to add this was to invoke a reaction which Kelly provided)  It clearly wasn't Kevin's favourite book however the general consensus was positive and most people enjoyed reading it, thinking Kevin's review a little harsh! :)

It was nice to read a short story after the last one had been quite lengthy and personally I really liked it.  The language is quite simple and straight forward, not particularly descriptive but I was still able to build up a really good image in my mind of the characters and the story.  I sympathised with the old man and thought the relationship between him and the young boy who cared for him was really touching.  The old man seemed to be unlucky, for forty days he went out everyday and caught no fish.  He barely had enough food to live and slept on newspapers with his trousers for a pillow.  But his character was extraordinary.  He loved life, he was grateful for all he had and kept going out day after day with the hope of catching fish.  

He then encounters an enormous Marlin and so follows his adventure of capturing it.  I love the respect he has for the fish, for the sea, for everything around him.  There is an element of sadness but there is also hope throughout!  I like something Bill said tonight about how a lot of the story is unsaid.  It is short but there is enough to make you connect with it and it makes you think about the back story that could be behind it all.    

One of the main critiques was about whether he was a good fisherman.  He didn't have the right tools out with him, things he needed to survive, he talked to himself alot, was he mad? But to me I could see this old man had barely eaten or drunk in days, and he was a lonely man at sea, who wouldn't talk to themselves? He talked to fish and he talked to the fish! Maybe he was not prepared for a 5 day sea voyage but then why would he be? I think he certainly came back with his pride intact!

Great turn out tonight, it was lovely to see friends who haven't been for a while we missed you!! This time we thought we'd pick a book of a different genre that we haven't read before so we went for Science Fiction.  There were two on the list which we voted on but it came down to a tie so we flipped a coin and the result was:

'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins

'Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...'

I put this one on the list last year at the very first book club so I am excited to read it! 

Because of the many weird drunk people who decided to join us at book club tonight (people who weren't invited by the way) we have decided to change venue for next time and go to 'Matthews Yard' off of Surrey street!

Next Book Club Meet:
Date: 27th February 2013
Time: 7.30pm
Location: Matthews Yard

http://www.matthewsyard.com/