Pageturners hosted a great discussion about the father of science fiction Herbert George Wells. War of the Worlds was written in 1898 and the invasion of the Martians was compared to colonialism which generated much discussion. Comments included “showed a good understanding of people”, “liked the way he wrote descriptions”, “it was a calm, factual rendition with no hysteria”, “very poetic with black smoke, green vapour, red weed and brown Martians”, “I enjoyed it” and “the science was credible”.
The Time Machine was written in 1895 and provides a social commentary on class division. Comments included “he was ahead of his time talking with friends about the 4th dimension,” “travelling through time was a good description,” “it was very descriptive, I felt I was there with him,” and “he used unusual words in an unusual way”. The group also had a wide ranging discussion about grammar in one of its usual segways off topic.
Scores out of five for War of the Worlds ranged from 4 to 4.5, and for the Time Machine ranged from 3.5 to 4.5 – making them both the highest scoring reads this year!
The book for discussion on 14th September is Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler. The book is a retelling of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
In October, Wednesday 12th, we will be talking about The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith.
