Bristol's newest book club, open to the public, had a successful first meeting a week ago with 14 people deeply engaged in discussion of the novel, Life of Pi. The next session of "Reading Between the Lines” will feature Watership Down by Richard Adams. The discussion will be at St. Michael’s Church Parish House on Tuesday, December 1, starting at 7:30 p.m.

The moderator and the person behind the new book club, Andy Brereton, was “really pleased with the way that the first meeting went. We had 14 people talking together – all engaged, curious and bringing up great observations." Brereton had covered Life of Pi before as a teacher and read it a number of other times, but he said he learned new things by listening to what others picked up on in their own reading.
Brereton started the club with the goal that participants think about what questions the text raises for them.

"Watership Down is an adventure story about a plucky band of rabbits, but I would argue that there’s a lot more there than just bunnies. My idea for Reading Between the Lines is that it’s really about stories – how we live with them, and through them, and what they do to us as human beings.“ In Watership Down one major theme is how stories function in a community.

Bremerton’s method of leading these groups its quite different from the traditional moderator session. At the first session, he gave a brief introduction to the book, then asked the participants to break into tables of four and five each and go through three basic questions: What?, So What?, and Now What? After approximately 20 minutes on each of the three questions. each table got a chance to recap its observations, which led to some overall interpretations.

Brereton attributes the approach in part to Iain McGilchrist, a researcher who has spent a lot of time thinking about how the structure of our brains influences how we experience the world. “For McGilchrist," Brereton said, “one of the most important things we can do as thinking creatures is simply to pay attention to the world around us… cultivating the habit of seeing through art, rather than just looking at art."

Brereton hopes that “by paying attention to literature, and thinking deeply about it in community, we can learn to see our world through the lenses that it offers.”

The club is being hosted by St Michael’s Church as part of a new outreach effort underway during the first year of its new Rector, Cannon Ginny Wilder. Wilder attended the session and said she “really appreciated how the interactions with fellow readers opened up and expanded my own experience of Life of Pi. I left feeling like I should read the book again to gain a different perspective. Reading is such a valuable way to spend our time. Talking about the book with one another helps expand our own understandings – and that is always a benefit.”

For more information email Brereton at ajbrereton@msn.com. Registration at the Church Parish office is requested at info@stmichaelsbristolri.org.