The Shirehall Reading Group meets on a Wednesday lunchtime once a month to discuss a book they have all read. Members also pass on recommendations for other books they have either bought themselves or borrowed from their local library. The group has been meeting since 1999, and a number of founder members still attend regularly.
The most recent meeting was on 18 January 2012 to discuss A Passage to India by E M Forster. There was a mixed reception for this title - some people had read it before and enjoyed re-reading it, whereas others found the story hard to engage with, and couldn't sympathise with any of the characters. However, a number of people had seen the David Lean film from the 1980s, and felt that Dr Aziz and Fielding had been more sympathetically portrayed than in the book.
Titles on a similar theme include:
Burmese Days by George Orwell
The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
The Siege of Krishnapur by J G Farrell
Books recently recommended by group members include the following:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
If This is a Man by Primo Levi
Death Comes to Pemberley byP D James
The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
The Accidental Adventurer by Ben Fogle
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Eye of the Leopard by Henning Mankell
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard G Morais
The group's next meeting is on 15 February 2012 when they will be discussing Eric and Us by Jacintha Buddicom.