Group details:
Immaculate Conception Reading Group
Meets at In members' homes on Tuesday, 1st week of every month, 20:00-22:00
We are a group of women, aged roughly between 40 and 80, who have been meeting for about two years. A new priest at our church (Immaculate Conception, Portswood) was keen that we should set up groups within the church community in an effort to be more sociable. Some of us were very interested in a reading group so we advertised in the church newsletter and started with 5 members. We have 18 now! Ridiculously too large a number but because we are all friends (and friendly) we kept inviting more friends to join.
We meet every 4-5 weeks in someone's living room or kitchen. It can get tricky as not everyone can accommodate that many people. We do tend to spend more time eating and drinking than talking about the book, but we do all read the book so we feel the group achieves its aim. Because we are such a diverse group we usually read books that we may perhaps not have chosen to. We cover poetry, classics, children's literature as well as modern literature. We think the social part is just as important too.
Books are chosen either by looking down the recommended reading list from the library, or by recommendation from one of the group members. Summer reading is up to own choice and we bring our whole selection to the September meeting and that usually involves passing the books on to others.
At Christmas we have a Secret Santa - we each pick out a name from a hat and buy one book for the member of the group whose name we picked out. The rules are that it has to be brought from a charity shop and it has to be specific in some way for that person - joke other otherwise.
New members are always welcome although we do probably have too many at the moment. Members do not have to attend church - this is simply how we met and started. Men would be welcome to join too but none have been brave enough yet.
