INVITATION to join the Charles Dickens Reading Circle.
Members of the public are warmly invited to join the above reading circle which seeks to explore and engage with the works of the English novelist Charles Dickens.
Our aim is, primarily, to stimulate and sustain a love of reading (which appears to be dissipating in a rapidly changing world). The novels of Dickens, although written almost 200 years ago, have an abiding relevance to the times in which we live.
The reading circle, What the Dickens, is intended to function along the following simple guidelines on a WhatsApp group: we elect a novel and engage in a group read according to a schedule of five chapters per fortnight. During the course of a particular fortnight, contributors will be invited to post and share their thoughts, ideas, opinions and questions on whatever is of interest to them regarding the chapters under review.
There is no formal or rigid obligation to post as this is intended to be, purely, a fun-filled exercise without any of "the heavy academic stuff" or literary presumptions. The emphasis is on relishing the joys of reading and the art of storytelling (of which Dickens is the undisputed master).
The focus is on laughter as we reflect on the deeper issues which affect our everyday lives: politics, power, love, compassion, hatred, greed, hypocrisy and corruption, to name but a few.
Interested people may e-mail me (ipp30503@gmail.com) for further details. DR IVAN PILLAY Northdale Pietermaritzburg
