"A Book Club like no other" ..Yes this is no ordinary radio show. I greet the task of reviewing a "book club" with mixed emotions. Here are the positives: Said "book club" is located in Bristol, Bristol is where my parents now live, so (and hopefully not too literally) I can kill two birds with one stone and visit them on the same train ticket. With any luck tea and cake will be force fed to me fo
r the entirety of my time in the west, I'm happy with that. Why this may not be all fun and tea cakes: It's a book club?? How do I review one of those! Surely I will only cause offence on commending Ms Atkinson's Victoria sponge over old Mrs Smith's sugar free Swiss roll and do I bury (in the journalistic sense) Mr Johnson for not reaching page 534 like everyone else? Oh wait, It's a radio show.
.well I guess my parents can wait another year. The Sunday Book Club is hosted by Rob and Pete, 4th year undergraduates at the University of Bristol. I am told that the hour long show involves tea but not cake. Rob and Pete do not study English Literature, English Language or Classics, they are Msci Physics students. Contrary to what you may (or now may not) expect, Rob and Pete do not gather a group of literature experts to discus the ins and outs of Tolstoy's use of body language. They do "comment" on the book at hand but the majority of the show is them reading out aloud and laughing when they can't pronounce words. In the short 3 year history of the show they have read the following:
"The Bridges of Madison County" - Robert James Waller
Pete: "With out a doubt the best book ever. The lead character is a photographer who describes himself as "the last cowboy". We particularly enjoyed the page long descriptions of camera settings, "Aperture F stop 10" will never mean the same to me again"
The first 10 chapters of "From Russia with Love" - Ian Fleming
Rob: "James Bond doesn't even feature in the first 10 chapters, got bored." "The Great Gatsby" - F Scott Fitzgerald
Pete: Was pretty good, characters were a bit dark compared to the hilarity of Bridges - excited for the film though! The pair confirm that they did consider reading 50 shades of grey this term but on reading the blurb decided that this was a better shout...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Country_Roads
Set your expectations low. Rating: 10 Gold Stars for effort
"Rob and Pete attempt to read a book" - Rob G (BURST Station Manager).
*The show isn't rated 5 star
**The stars are actually astrices
***Each asterix represents a fault with the show
****The astrices have no relevance to the quality of the show
*****The show is almost unlistenable
