My Father is nearly eighty and lives in the UK. I’m in my early fifties and live in Australia. We both love books. Every month we pick a book that we’ll read together, then one Sunday evening we’ll discuss it over the phone. One month it’s my choice and the next month it’s my dad’s. We have a tiny book club, a book club of two.
At the time of writing we’ve read 16 books together. Of the 16 book club books:
- 9 are literary fiction, 4 non fiction, 2 science fiction, 2 romantic fiction, 2 historic fiction, 1 crime fiction, 1 short story collection, 1 memoir and 1 novella. I know this doesn’t add up – sorry.
- 8 are written by female authors.
- 8 were published before I was born.
- 3 were published before my father was born.
- 12 were published before my daughter was born.
- The longest one was 692 pages and the shortest 140 pages. 692 pages is too long. We’ve agreed not to read a book that big again. It takes over all the other reading for the month.
I’m sure it’s true of all book clubs, but this mini-family-cross-generational-bi-nation book club has broadened my reading. My father likes to pick books from the fifties and sixties, like The Girls Of Slender Means, which I’d never heard of, let alone read. I’ve got a weakness for old obscure sci-fi, which I know he’s enjoyed.
The other thing that really pleases me is the good showing for female authors on the book club list. The members of the book club agree that men who don’t read female authors are missing out. They’re ignoring half the fictional world, and it could be the better half. Throw away your Nick Hornbys, Tony Parsons and Andy McNabbs, and swap them out for Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood and Lionel Shriver – you’ll be better for it. David Nichols and Arnold Bennett should stick around though.
And the best book we’ve read together? For me, it’s North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. It’s a perfect romance and kept me on the edge of my seat till the last page. I desperately wanted the lead characters to get together and I was really worried they wouldn’t. I love Margaret Hale, the protagonist. She is fantastic and a force of nature. The midpoint scene where she faces down the rioting workers is incredible, and the icing on the wonderful fictional cake is that it is set in the north of England, where I’m originally from. It drips with resonance.
I hope there will be many other book club books in the coming years. I’m sure there will be. I’ve just finished January’s book, Half of a Yellow Sun. My dad and I had a book club pre-meeting, and we both agree it is first rate, a truly moving story. A full debrief will happen shortly. Next choice is my dad’s. He was threatening Live Now, Pay Later by Jack Trevor Story; another book from the sixties I’ve never heard of. I don’t think it’s even in print, so my dad is exceeding himself on the obscure choice stakes. I might try to edge him away from that one – or maybe not, and broaden my reading horizon once again.
Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash
