After 5 1/2 months we’re back at Lone Peak. We were supposed to meet to discuss The Fifth Season a week after the pandemic ended anybody going into the prison. Since then, I’ve received a few letters from some of the readers, and I was able to drop off the remaining books of the World-Building Narrative group, which were Little, Big by John Crowley, Dawn by Octavia Butler, and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
When we reconvened this semester, there were a lot of new faces. I believe we had 4 readers who have attended before, but the 7 others were all new to me. A few people had been transferred to other facilities or made parole. They are all excited to be meeting with someone and get some new reading materials. We went over the structure of the group, what it looks like when we discuss books, and things like that. One thing we’re going to add is thinking of questions to ask the authors. Since Jennifer Egan was kind enough to reply to one of our questions, it’d be fun to contact the authors that are still around and pick their brains.In getting to know the readers, they all want to expand what they read.
Many of them talked about various subgenres of SFF that they enjoy (dystopian, urban etc.), while others really like non-fiction or historical fiction. So I’ll be curious to see what we vote on for the group in January.Anyway, I gave them all a copy of The Shining by Stephen King. Since it’s a longer book, we’ll meet again on Sept. 17th. It feels really good to be back. I’m excited about this new group.
Until next time,E.