Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival : Spotlight on the Reader with Kate Bateman - Workshop 4 (Enhancing Your Reading and Building a Better Book Club)

Kate Bateman is a teacher, reviewer and seminar facilitator. She has given workshops at a variety of book club festivals in Wexford, Dublin and most recently at Ennis. As part of our 'Spotlight on the Reader' series Kate examined a variety of literary genres, focusing on works by authors participating this year's Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival.

Enhancing Your Reading and Building a Better Book Club

One of the best reasons to join a book-discussion group is that very likely you will encounter authors and read books outside your regular areas of interest. The counter is that the chosen book may not be of interest!

But then what is life without adventure? Or life without reading for pleasur?

What’s on offer in a Book Club?

(1) delight in the shared awareness of a book read for pleasure, later to be laced with intellectual discourse – sometimes with an added dash of hospitality;

(2) a contract – one usually fashioned from bonds of friendship, intelligence and good nature – good nature that may get tested! This implies that members’ commitment is as varied as there are books and should be allowed for when choosing titles and anticipating responses.

(3), a caveat: expression of an opinion may be coloured by circumstances prevailing during the private reading. We read enmeshed within our own unique history, memories, and mind-set; in good or bad health, down in fortune or on the crest of the (clichéd) wave. So, though members are reading the same book, everyone is reading a different book.

Selection

It’s a good idea to select books well in advance (three months?) and to be mindful of the possible difference between “a good read for private reading” and “a good book for a discussion”, though they may often be the same book. Characteristics of books with appeal for group discussion include:

books on philosophy, music , mathematics, history or science, topics of serious interest to members
well-written works that explore basic human truths.
novels & memoirs that have three-dimensional characters
shorter (200-300 pages) rather than longer novels
some groups like to read of characters they can identify with – a matter of taste
books with good characterisation - characters who, as they develop, are forced to make difficult choices, often under difficult conditions and whose behaviour sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn’t.
Good discussion books sometimes present the author’s view of an important truth and sometimes send a message to the reader – this is a matter of taste, also.

Books that are heavily plot-driven (mysteries, westerns, romances, and science fiction/ fantasy) usually don’t lend themselves to book discussions. In genre novels and some mainstream fiction (and often in nonfiction), the author spells out everything for the reader, so that there is little to say except, “I loved the book” or “I hated it” or “Isn’t that interesting.”
Other good choices for discussions are books that have ambiguous endings, where the outcome of the novel is not clear. There are also pairs of books that make good discussions. Some examples include Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys; E. M. Forster’s Howard’s End and Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. Brideshead Revisited and Austen’s Mansfield Park – are both estate novels; one 19^th, the other 20^th century – good for comparison.

Suggestions when reading for discussion

Think about the cover, the title and the blurb as contributing towards the shape of the work.
Make notes/use tabs on pages as you go and ask questions of yourself, possibly mark down pages you might want to refer back to. This slows you down but it but saves time later searching out important passages.
Look out for issues and paragraphs that may lead to in-depth conversations.
Be aware of the themes of the book.
Consider whether there was a premise the author started with.
Are the tone and style of the characters’ dialogues authentic?
Notice how the author structured the book. Are chapters prefaced by quotes? If so, how do they apply to the content of the chapters? How is time organised? Are there grand sweeps of narrative devoted to issues, characters or epochs?
How many narrators tell the story? Who are they? – close attention to narrative voice will usually deepen understanding and reveal ironies.
How does the sequence of events unfold to create the mood of the story? Is it written in flashbacks?
Make comparisons with other books and authors – themes, topics and authors’ earlier works.
Knowledge of the author’s life and times is not necessary but it will enhance discussion as the book’s internal drama will be seen as having another layer of meaning.

Suggestions for Participating and Leading The Discussion

Because discovery is everybody’s experience of a new book it can be difficult to propel discussion so as to get to the meat of the matter within the available timeframe. If one person is delegated to lead it helps. Here are some suggestions:
Read book reviews (online or in newspapers) A Dictionary of Literary Biography gives biographical and critical material. Come prepared with 10 to 12 open-ended questions. Questions that can be answered yes or no cut off discussion quickly.
Alternatively, ask each member of the group to come with one or more discussion questions. Readers will focus on different aspects of the book, and everyone will gain new insights as a result.
Questions should be used to guide the discussion and keep it on track, but let the discussion flow naturally. Often the prepared questions will come up naturally as part of the discussion.
Remind participants that “right” answers are not sought – but right questions are a boon.
Don’t be afraid to criticize a book, but get beyond the “I just didn’t like it” statement. What was it about the book that made it unappealing? The style? The pacing? The characters? Has the author written other books that you liked better? Did it remind you of another book that you liked or disliked? Some of the best book-discussions are on books members disliked.
If words never expressed anything more than their speaker's direct intentions, not only would psychoanalysis never provide insight into unconscious motivations and desires, but also irony and ambiguity would be non-existent. So, be alert; - words bear more than their surface weight.
Don't ignore intertextuality -- allusions to or echoes of other books. Saying that Ian McEwan's Atonement reminds you of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park is perfectly legitimate, especially when you can point to specific passages or plot points that set up such echoes. The overuse of personal anecdotes ("Chapter Three reminds me of that time when I ...") is to be avoided – unless they amuse, of course.

Top book club choices from participants in one of Kate Bateman's workshops

Author	Book Title

Agassi Andre	Open : An Autobiography
Ali Hirsi Ayaan	Infidel
Aslam Nadeem	The Blind Man’s Garden
Barbery Muriel	The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Bogarde Dirk	The Complete Autobiography
Chang Jung	Wild Swans
De Beauvoir Simone	Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
De Waal Edmund	The Hare with Amber Eyes x 2
Ford Jamie	Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Golden Arthur	Memoirs of a Geisha
Hamid Moshin	The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Hamilton Hugo	The Speckled People
Horan Nancy	Loving Frank
Hosseini Khaled	The Kite Runner
Kerrigan Gene	Another Country : Growing up in 50’s Ireland
Knatchbull Timothy	From A Clear Blue Sky
McCourt Frank	Angela’s Ashes
McGahern John	Memoir
Moorhead Caroline	Dancing to the Precipice : A life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin
Némirovsky Iréne	Suite Francaise x 2
O’Brien Edna	Country Girl
O’Faoláin Nuala	Am I Somebody? x 2
O’Faoláin Nuala	Best Love, Rosie
O’Rourke Mary	Just Mary
Paton Alan	Cry, the Beloved Country
Raverat Gwen	Period Piece
Seierstad Asne	The Bookseller of Kabul