Minster readers - About us

The Minster Readers reading group has been going since the 1990's. It was originally an afternoon group at Wimborne Library, then it split and an evening group was formed. For many years we met upstairs in the reference centre at the library. Wimborne Minster is a picturesque market town in Dorset, and one of it's claims to fame is a chained library in the Minster.  The Chained Library

Early in the 21st Century, our librarian member, who was also working at Wimborne Library, moved to work in Dorchester, and since then we have been meeting in members homes. We generally have a membership of about ten. For a long time there were two males in that lot, then for awhile three, then down to one, and for the last few years there have been two.

We read two books a month. Over the years our evening has developed into a discussion of the books, followed by coffee and biscuits and a wide ranging discussion, and ending with the reading of the comments on the previous months books. Somebody always takes notes and writes up a bit about the books, including the marks out of 10 that we have given them. We didn't always grade the books. I don't know when this started.

Our age group is typically in the top half of the century, but we have had younger members occasionally.

We make suggestions for books to read, but this depends on whether there are enough copies in the Dorset County Council library. Sometimes Liz delves in the dusty basement of the library archives and surprises us.

This is just to start off this blog. The rest of it is going to be the reviews of the books that we have read. If anybody disagrees with my writings, they are welcome to edit and correct them. I hope that others will add reviews of the books that they have written, or send them to Liz or me to add.