A group of our community hub users at 82 Grimsby Road came together recently to kick off our new “Curious” book group. The discussion was lively and wide-ranging and signalled a great start to the group.
“Curious” is a non-fiction ideas and book group. Rather than collectively reading a single book, we’re going to explore non-fiction ideas and themes, perhaps with one or several books or reading sources, and then we’ll explore the ideas together.
But it’s still about the books themselves – does the book cover the theme properly? are there alternative books or articles or a counter-argument? did we enjoy learning about something we’d not explored or thought about before?
We’re planning monthly face-to-face meetings at our Community Hub at 82 Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes, but we’ve also got a supporting online, private discussion space where we’ll share more and support each other between sessions.
It’s all very much an experiment based on a simple idea of bringing people together to share an interest in reading and learning. Seven of us met for this first session, but we’re really keen for others to join us. (Ideally let us know if you can make it). And even if you can’t do the face-to-face meetings, why not join us online.
This month we chatted around the types of non-fiction reading that members read, were interested in or wanted to read. Themes were very varied. The first book choices (and theme) was around the concept of GeoPolitics (vs Globalism) as outlined by Tim Marshall in his Prisoners of Geography series of books. We touched on the theme for this meeting, but this set the scene for our first month of reading and discovery. We’ll be back to talk about the books and ideas at our November meeting.
Meetings at 82 Grimsby Road are monthly: 3rd Wednesday of the month, 11am-12noon. Next meeting Wed 18th November (and then 16th Dec, 20th Jan 2027)
The group has an online discussion space: https://www.nelwatch.org.uk/neighbourstogether/index.php?r=space%2Fspace&cguid=29095a78-d753-462e-ad51-af3ef5a2594f as part of our larger Neighbours Together discussion space.
Any questions about the group please contact Karl Elliott direct (karl@vanel.org.uk) or call the office 01472 231123.
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The “Curious” group is run by VANEL and led by Karl Elliott (Development Manager for VANEL).
Karl is a National Year of Reading Champion for VANEL. (Visit GoAllIn).
The Community Hub at 82 Grimsby Road also hosts our Little Library of books (adult, fiction, non-fiction and a childrens section). Anyone can pop in to borrow a book.
We’re grateful to The Literary Trust who have supplied a small amount of funding to Curious in order to allow us to purchase books and materials.
VANEL are keen to help people start up their own book groups, reading groups, little libraries or otherwise support local reading.
We have a Rural Neighbours Together programme (for North East Lincolnshire) and we’re here to help encourage and enable anyone who wants to get something started.
Visit our Neighbours Together website at www.nelwatch.org.uk/neighbourstogether
There’s info about local Book Clubs here.
We also have information about local Book Libraries on the site here. There’s even a Map here.
