“The Oldest Book on Your Shelf” was a topic posted by another group on the NWR Programme Planning FaceBook group, which we thought sounded most intriguing, so we used it for our meeting last week.
The suggestion was that the book could possibly be “a very old publication but only recently acquired, or a book which you yourself have had since you were a child. Does it have special significance?”
It was obviously a popular topic – we had 14 members attending! Which meant that we had a wonderful, wide selection of books to show. Many of us said it had required a fair bit of digging in dusty corners….
There was a miniature Bible, found at a car boot sale, and then an enormous and well-used Family Bible complete with details of family members going back well over a century; cookery books with cherished memories (Mrs Beeton & BeRo of course); a treasured copy of “Little Women”; books we had loved as children and kept safely over the years; and a beautifully illustrated “Peal Book” from 1872, discovered by a member who has no idea how it came to be on her shelf – it’s a bit of a mystery, but one she is determined to investigate …. đź”” 🤔🔔
One thing was certain: every item DID have significance – though maybe yet to be discovered – and it was lovely to share all the stories they represented.
We would thoroughly recommend this topic for a meeting!