- - - First official gathering - - -

Today was the first meeting of the group. Overall, 10 members attended - nine girls and one boy.  Four members of the group came from different houses which were still quite close by. The meeting time was arranged for 8pm as I thought this would work in with people making dinner etc. To begin with, we spoke about how we often we should meet up - and decided to play it 'by ear' as we all have differing schedules and would be busier at different times. I felt like the group atmosphere was informal and friendly although at times individuals had differing opinions on different topics. As this was an introductory meeting we went around the group and we all explained what types of books we were interested in and talked briefly about a recent read.

Common themes were: thrillers, historical fiction, books based on "real events" and fantasy.
I felt it was good to go through the different preferences of individuals in order to give me an idea on some books that would be of interest to the group.
To improve the session I would have liked to have organised some form of food and drink e.g. biscuits and tea. I will endeavour to do this next time.

One of the books that was spoken about was Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet which has been recently adapted into a television series. This book was highly recommended by the reader as it provided them with a new insight into the Catholic religion as well as the corrupt nature of the Church during this time. The challenging thing about this book was that there was so many characters and it was a very long book which needed dedication to finish!