Happy New Year, readers. Welcome to 2010. I look forward to reading and discussing with you high-quality English writing. May our conversation be bright and witty and profound.

(I stole this photo from Stardust’s blog. Isn’t it a great picture?)

We already had our first session, on Wednesday January 27th, in which we read a newspaper article about the pleasures and dangers of eating too much at Christmas (a common theme in many Christian countries), and also listened to a popular winter song, Baby It’s Cold Outside.

To make a change from last year, I proposed reading an English novel over several sessions, e.g. 2-3 months. This idea seemed to be accepted by those present last Wednesday.

The next session will be on February 3rd, and I have chosen a well-known children’s story by one of the most influential British writers and critics of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis (in Japanese here): The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  (This novel was made into a movie recently. I don’t think it was a movie that does justice to the novel. However, if you would like to see it, before you spend money at Tsutaya, let me tell you that it will be shown on Feb. 11th on the cable Star Channel.)

I have sent copies of chapter 1 to all members. You can also buy the paperback quite cheaply.

I have created a new page on this website to introduce our meeting place, Rifuan. The page includes links to a map and other details about Rifuan.