The Not-New-Books club

📚 The Big Idea
Welcome! We are a community of readers aged 45+ who gather to discuss great books that have stood the test of time. We aim to choose books that should be readily available at your local library, or may even already be on your own shelf. Where possible, I'll provide a link to a YouTube audiobook. Let's work through our "I really must read that, one day" booklist, together.

⏳ What We Read
We skip the brand-new releases. Instead, we dive into:

• Modern classics from past decades.
• Hidden gems you may have missed over the years.
• Forgotten favorites worth re-reading with mature eyes.
• Biographies and histories that offer deep perspective.

🍷 Why Join Us?

• Life experience: Books that we read in our 20s can feel different, now.
• Less pressure: We're aiming to meet every six weeks, which should hopefully give us enough time to actually finish a book. I'll send out a few 'discussion prompts', a week before each meeting, to give us some food for thought.
• Real connections: This is a space to make genuine, lasting friendships with like-minded people who share your love of a good story.

🗓️ Our Routine

• When: Saturday, every six weeks at 2 PM.
  2026: Oct 10th, Dec 26,
  2027: Feb 16, Mar 20, May 1, Jun 12, Jul 24, Sep 4, Oct 16.
• Where: Currently at Pret in High Holborn, which has a quieter back room.
• Format: 15 minutes of settling in, 90 minutes of book discussion, followed by 15 minutes of voting for our next book.

You are welcome to nominate your favourite read, or we can randomly select one from The Guardian's "Readers' top 100 novels of all time" https://tinyurl.com/mwczm6d9

October's book is '1984' by George Orwell
Did you know that, according to a World Book Day survey, 42% of respondents who admitted to lying about reading a book falsely claimed to have read George Orwell’s 1984, making it the most commonly lied-about book?
I started it as a teenager, and found it boring. I picked it up, recently, and found it terrifying. Still haven't finished it, though...

As always, please only sign up if you are planning to attend. The event is free but the usual £1.50 is a non-refundable maintenance fee and meetup will also charge you £0.60.
We would appreciate it if you cancelled no later than 2 days before the event and please avoid cancelling on the day as that may get you removed from the group.