A pint, a book and sausages & mash!  

Working in a library, it's perhaps not surprising that a year ago we started a book group. If anything's suprising it's the fact that a University Library has only just started one. I'd only been working here for a year but thought it would be a good opportunity to both get to know people socially and also to extend my reading diet. It's been excellent at both of those goals.

We obtained a list of books the public library could supply in large quantities and each picked a book which our leader assigned to a particular month and then obtained at the right time. Around a dozen or more of us meet after work in a pub and discuss the book that we've all been reading over the last month. Titles have ranged from the perils of two boys growing up in Afghanistan with "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini to the tragedy of the plague in a small village with "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks. On the way we've taken in other cultures with "Brick Lane" by Monica Ali and "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe; other times with "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell (the 1980s) and "Hawksmoor" by Peter Ackroyd (the 1700s); and even other worlds with "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke.

The discussions each month have been great fun. Any number of points of view put forward; some hating the books, some loving them; some devouring them, some unable to finish them; always full and frank debates which have only occasionally become a little heated. We've not been thrown out of the pub - yet! What's been most surprising about the book group however, is the opportunities that have arisen virtually every month to share my faith or share my testimony as the talk has ranged far and wide and often given very natural openings to speak up. "Mourning Ruby" by Helen Dunmore got us going on grief and the death of innocents; "Things Fall Apart" has a fair bit to say on the arrival of missionaries in Nigeria and how it affected local culture; "Courtesans" by Kate Hickman (the only non-fiction book we've tackled) brought up immorality and sexuality; and the last book we've read "Year of Wonders" has lots to say about suffering, the role of the clergy, and God's hand in our lives that proved to be a marvellous (if difficult!) opening to talk about what God's done in my life.

My work colleagues are very accepting of this - or at least listen patiently - I think mainly because it arises naturally out of discussions about the plot, or the characters or our reactions to the books. In turn, I've been able to learn a lot about what they think on many issues and how they feel about Christians, Christian viewpoints, or the gospel itself. The next months see "1984" by George Orwell and "Pompeii" by Robert Harris on the horizon which should provide lots more discussion yet! I pray that I'll be sensitive but bold in sharing Christ where appropriate.