AFU Reading Club 2026/27 “Reading European Classics”

The Reading Club is an additional offering for students participating in the Age Friendly University Teaching Programme 2026/27. As such it also provides a monthly opportunity for participants to meet in a relaxed environment. 

Following the model of book-clubs it offers an opportunity to talk about books and reading experiences. Running against the ever-intensifying trend of reading texts in electronic format, it sticks to the traditional, slower and arguably more thorough reading and digesting of texts with a hard copy in hand that tends to be most appreciated by the older generation. 

In its first iteration, particularly appropriate in the year that Ireland holds the EU Presidency, the Club aims to provide an opportunity to discuss famous, ‘classic’ texts, both literary and non-literary, which have had an impact on European literary culture as a whole or respond to European experiences; the sessions thus broaden the participants’ understanding of our common European culture. The chosen books may include texts some may feel they should have read at some stage, others, though classics in their respective national or language culture, may not be widely known by Irish readers. Starting with an Ancient Classic text and the Reading Club will include texts from a variety of European literary traditions such as Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Spanish literature. All texts will be read in English translations.