READINGS
Please read and consider these primary texts in advance of each workshop. Copies will be handed
out at the workshops. A core copy is available to participants at the Wexford Town library desk.
Core Texts
Novels
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. (1926) Penguin, 1951. ISBN: 0140126708
William Golding, Lord of the Flies. (1954) Faber, 2002. ISBN: 0571191479
Cormac McCarthy, The Road. (2006) Picador, 2007. ISBN: 9780330447546
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four. (1948) Penguin, 2004. ISBN:
014118776X
Short stories
 Ray Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder in A Sound of Thunder and other stories,
Harper, 2005. ISBN: 9780060785697 pp 203 - 215
 Arthur C. Clarke, Before Eden in Science Fiction Omnibus, Penguin 1973. ISBN:
01400.3145 6
Poetry
 W. H Auden, Epitaph on a Tyrant & The Unknown Citizen, in
www.audensociety.org
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Alan Brownjohn, We are Going to see the Rabbit, in
www.poetryfinder.com
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Robert Frost, The Road not Taken, in www.bartleby.com
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Seamus Heaney, The Follower in www.poemhunter.com
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Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress in www.poets.org
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Edwin Muir, The Horses, in www.poetryfinder.com
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Dylan Thomas, And Death has no Dominion, & Do Not Go Gentle
into that Good Night in en.wikipedia.org
Supplementary Reading
Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man & life’s greatest
lesson. Warner, 2003. ISBN: 0751529818
WEXFORD COUNTY COUNCIL
PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE
Reading the Future:
A reading and appreciation course with
Althea Farren
March – April 2008
Wexford Town Library
Tel: 053 9121637
“There is a growing consensus amongst
scientists and economists that the planet is
in peril. But the solutions to our problems
depend less on technological advances and
economic growth than on human will guided
by a ‘moral compass’ requiring a change of
heart about how we live and work, how we
produce things and how we treat other
people and other species.”
Charles Birch. Scientific Magazine 21C.
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake. Bloomsbury, 2003. ISBN: 07475 62598
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Vintage, 2004. ISBN: 0099458160
Attendance is free
Places are limited
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let me Go. Faber, 2006. ISBN: 057122413X
George Orwell, Animal Farm. Penguin, 1951. ISBN: 0140126708
Elliot Perlman, Three Dollars. Faber, 1998. ISBN: 0571 1961167
Booking essential
Programme
François Jacob, Nobel prizewinner for Medicine, noted in “The Possible and the
Actual” that a sense of the future is one of the few properties that distinguish
humans from animals.
This reading programme will be held over five sessions on Wednesday mornings
from 10.30am – 12.00 noon, in March and April 2008. We will consider what
selected writers, poets and thinkers have said about the future.
Selecting the Participants
Attendance is free to all, but numbers are limited. There are 16 places.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 12 noon
on 26th February 2008 in Wexford Town Library, off Redmond Sq,
Wexford
Successful readers will be notified immediately and can collect or will be
posted the material for reading in advance of the first workshop.
A supplementary booklist developed by the group will be distributed after the
course.
Session One: Wednesday, 5th March 2008 : The end of innocence
Introduction: Two novels, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy and “Lord of the
Flies” by William Golding will be introduced. With a brief guide to aspects for
consideration, participants will read at least one, ideally both novels, in time for
the third workshop.
Session Two: Wednesday, 12th March 2008: Time’s Winged Chariot
Poetry and a short story discussed from the point of view of: (1) the choices an
individual makes; (2) the choices that may be imposed by governments.
Session Three: Wednesday, 19th March 2008 : Boats against the
current
Discussion of the two novels “The Road” and “Lord of the Flies”. A brief
introduction to the novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four & The Great Gatsby , for the
fifth workshop. These two novels will be circulated as before.
Session Four: Wednesday, 2nd April 2008 : Transforming the World
“Days that Changed the World”. Hywel Williams, British historian, journalist and
broadcaster, has written a book briefly chronicling the 50 defining events of world
history. Followed by poetry discussion.
Session Five: Wednesday, 9th April 2008 : Big Brother lives!
Althea Farren
Althea Farren was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She grew up on
a farm in Rhodesia, (later to become Zimbabwe). She has a B.A. degree
(majoring in English) and a Higher Education Diploma. She and her Irish
husband, Larry, left Zimbabwe in March, 2007 to settle in Wexford.
Althea has co-authored a book “Voices of Zimbabwe” (2001) and has
written “Raging Gently”, an account of a women’s reading circle in
Zimbabwe.
General discussion of the novels read with emphasis on “The Great Gatsby” and
“Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Feedback on course and reading list discussed.