VIRTUAL 'Reading for Wellbeing Group'
Event Information
About this event
This reading group warmly welcomes any UCL staff member who would like to meet and talk about how books – all kinds of books! – can help us with our sense of wellbeing. What do you go to for comfort? Inspiration? Escape? From cookery books to nature writing, crime fiction to romance novels, no matter what your preferences are, come along and join us! We’ll be meeting three times this term, all online, on Oct 22nd, Nov 19th, and Dec 17th, all 1-2pm.
The next Reading for Wellbeing session will be on 17th December, 1-2pm. This is an open session for you all to bring any book recommendations, and/ or any short readings, for a festive/ winter/ end of term theme! Bring your own hot chocolate, cup of tea, or beverage of choice, and enjoy!
Books Discussed:
Reading Group Week 1
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It, by Oliver Burkeman
- The Wild Silence, by Raynor Winn
- Venetia, by Georgette Heyer
- The Minor Bohemians, by Eimear McBride
- The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
- Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
- The Ayurvedic Self-Care Handbook, by Sarah Kucera
- Dear Reader, by Cathy Rentzenbrink
Plus, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Ian McEwan
Reading Group Week 2
- 100 Words of Solitude: Global Voices in Lockdown 2020 (Rare Swan Press). Some of the pieces can be found here: https://100wordsofsolitude.wordpress.com/
We welcomed Dr Philippa Holloway, who talked about the 100 Words of Solitude project she and her partner, Dr Simon Holloway, ran during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
some notes on Philippa:
Dr Philippa Holloway is an author and senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Staffordshire University. Her prize-winning short fiction/non-fiction is published on four continents and her debut novel, The Half-life of Snails, is due out with Parthian Books in Spring 2022. She is Writer in Residence at Hack Green Nuclear Bunker and member of Liverpool University’s Literature and Science Research Hub. She is the co-curator of 100 Words of Solitude, a global writing project responding to lockdowns, and co-editor of the collection 100 Words of Solitude: Global Voices in Lockdown 2020 (Rare Swan Press).
