Getting started...

Firstly, welcome to the Book Group BLOG. If you are reading this, the chances are you have registered with the BLOG (or at least tried to do so) and want to be a part of the Book Group this year.

And what is the Book Group? Well, it is, as the name suggests, a group of people who will get together this year to chat about books - THREE books in particular - which they will read in the SAME order, at the SAME speed, by the SAME deadlines. The difference with this Book Group, however, (unlike hundreds of similar groups which meet on evenings and weekends in libraries across the land), is that this group takes place entirely ONLINE.

Every week, I will set you the chapters I would like you to read, together with the date by which you must have read them. Then I will post my own response to what we read during that week, and the rest of you are free EITHER to respond to mine OR simply write your own (or both!). It's completely up to you.

Blog entries here give you an opportunity to talk about anything you like to do with the book we are reading, and to ask questions of the other members about the book too. You might want to think about:

• Plot/storyline: what has happened? is there anything you don't understand? what is interesting about how the author has created the narrative? what do you think might happen next? what was your 'best bit'? etc.
• Setting: what are your impressions of the places where the book is set? how are they described? what effect are they supposed to have on the reader? how do they differ from each other? what do we learn about the social/cultural setting? how were things different when the story was set?etc.
• Characters: which characters have you most enjoyed? which are the most important characters? do any of the characters fit any of Propp's archetypes? with whom do you sympathise? what have we learnt about the characters so far?
• Themes: what is the novel ABOUT? what are the key themes explored by the author? does the novel offer us any morals or messages about life? what does it appear to be saying about life/love/relationships/society? etc.
• Style: what do you notice about the way in which the story is written? what do you find difficult about the writer's style? what sort of narrator is used? what do you like about the way the author writes? etc.
• Quotations: are there any words or phrases from the novel you found particularly memorable/important/entertaining/effective etc.? what quotations strike you as especially useful for discussing the novel in more depth? etc.
• or ANYTHING ELSE YOU FIND INTERESTING about the novel, and the chapters you have read.

When I come to select those students who will come on the Bronte Weekend in West Yorkshire next summer, the main criterion I will use will be how often you have published a post or a comment on this site - so use it prolifically if you want to come.

Lastly, you will need to get hold of your own copies of the three books we will be reading this year:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
All of these are available for FREE from your local library, or from around £1 from your local bookshop. If you want to buy your own copy, but you or your family has financial difficulties, please come and speak to me in confidence and I will arrange for the school to buy them for you.

In the meantime, if you want to get started reading BEFORE you have got hold of the books, click on the book title above, and you will be directed to an online version of each one: very awkward on which to read the whole book, but just about OK for the first few chapters...

Follow this link as you go to find out useful web resources for the Brontes in general.

Look out for the next post for details of your first reading task...

Mr Savage