Today is National Book Club day, and today VANEL is launching a brand new book club from our community hub at 82 Grimsby Road.
“Curious” is a slightly different kind of Book Club. It’s non-fiction focused but we’re also not tied to the idea of a ‘book’. It’s much more about reading in general around a theme or topic.
So, ‘reading’ could include a non-fiction book, but it could equally mean a blog, a substack newsletter, a magazine, a long-form article online – or even connecting to very different media such as a YouTube channel or audiobook.
It’s still going to be very much about reading and enjoying the read and discussions together.
We’ll pick a topic or focus – maybe something historical or scientific or something else, and there might be a focal point like a particular book or article. Then we can discuss around the topic. Others might suggest other sources, different viewpoints, different resources.
Who know. The idea is to learn from each other, perhaps discover things we didn’t expect or didn’t know we were interested in. Who know where it will lead.
Face to face meetings will be monthly on the second Wednesday of the month, 11am-12noon (alongside our monthly Camerados sessions). The very first meeting will be on Wed 14th October 2026.
The group also has an online element. On the VANEL “Neighbours Together” discussion website (www.nelwatch.org.uk/neighbourstogether), we have a “Curious” Space especially for the Book Club and its members to ‘meet’, chat and discus the books or themes in question or even more. If you’re interested, visit the site, register and request to join the Curious Space.
Better still Contact Karl or Liz at VANEL (01472 231123 / karl@vanel.org.uk / liz@vanel.org.uk) who can get you connected to the group.
Karl Elliott (VANEL) leads the group and ‘curates’ the book and topic choices (for now). Once we’re underway we’ll work out the best way of choosing the reading for the month ahead.
Because we can’t expect everyone to buy every group book and read it all through every week, we’ll have a book to borrow/share, but the details of the book and topic will be shared so that others can perhaps read around the topic in advance of the meetings.
So…
First meeting in person, Wed 14th October. Please let us know if you are interested as spaces will be limited.
Online space to register yourself for is www.nelwatch.org.uk/neighbourstogether – look for the “Curious” Space.
Recommended book to read from Karl for September/October is “Oranges” by John McPhee. Who knew oranges (the fruit) was such an interesting topic!
Recommended online reading materials is the Works in Progress website (and newsletter) at https://worksinprogress.co/ – a huge range of eclectic topics to learn and think more about.
And the Group books for September/October are the “geography” books by Tim Mitchell – starting with “Prisoners of Geography”, followed by “The Power of Geography” and then “The Future of Geography”. A set of books that together are essentially a guide to how geography shapes human power and will reset your mental map of the world. If you’ve read any of them great, or you can borrow copies in advance of the meeting or just read reviews and think about the themes raised.
Looking forward to discussing the themes at the very first meeting.