So… no more going out and here we were determined to carry on. Reading was however something we could all do.
Our problem was that not everyone either could or would Zoom.
We did have most members in a WhatsApp group but the decision was to try a ‘round the table’ email session (bring your own drinks!!).
The idea would be to write up your review and then on the day cut and paste in turn. The ‘host’ chose the running order based on who said they would join in and it was our normal Monday evening at 7.30pm once a month. Sometimes the reviews were very slow to appear but we waited and one could read them all and then free to comment at the end. We always give marks out of 10; sometimes a book is harrowing and yet still deserves a mark of 8.
We kept this up over the many weary lockdown months. Christmas 2020 we held a joint ‘phone-in’ which cheered us all up and surprisingly easy as we could recognise each others voices well and were very polite and did not interrupt each other too much!
Then, at last, we could meet in the pub garden and we were noisy enough to drown out the football tellies because it was so good to see each other again. This photo is our second outdoor meet. Our club is 12 to 17 folk who come along whenever they can and some send their written review if they cannot be there, and so we go from strength to strength.
