Volume CXXXIII, Number 4 September 28, 2001 f

Storytime for Bowdoin students
HANNAH DEAN
Staff Writer

Have you ever wanted to read a story just for fun? Have you ever wanted to enjoy a story for the sake of enjoyment, without the hassle of a critical professor or the stress of a prospective grade? If so, the new Short Story Reading Group (SSRG) is a club for you.

Madeline Lee '04 patiently helps Dan Tobin '04 with a passage, but his attention drifts skyward. (Nicole Stiffle, Bowdoin Orient)

Pioneered by Madeline Lee ('04), a resident of Ladd House, and funded by the Mellon Grant the SSRG promises a relaxing atmosphere for the leisurely reader. Lee said that she is trying "to provide students with the opportunity to discuss a piece of work without the pressures of the classroom."

"It's like a book club except not, because there's not enough time for a whole book each month along with everything else going on at college," said Lee.
The club entails the reading of one short story followed by a discussion meeting over dinner on the last Wednesday of each month. The dinners will be held at the Ladd House. They will be catered by either the dining hall or nearby culinary establishments, chosen by the members of the SSRG.

Lee said that she wants the dinners to be "slightly more intellectual than just eating dinner" yet utterly geared towards "having fun." At the first meeting, club members expressed their desire to incorporate a variety of authors in the SSRG's repertoire. Ann L. Kibbie, an Associate Professor of English and the Faculty Advisor for Ladd House, wants the club "to beopen to uncharted territory" and "to mix in some really new voices" with some of the older,
more traditional ones. The attendants of Tuesday's meeting decided to do exactly this. Mixing the old Bowdoin College with the new, the November 24 discussion dinner will be centered around The Ledge, by Lawrence Sargent Hall, a former professor of Bowdoin, and a short story by the famed Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The discussion promises to be a lively one as it will be joined by William C. Watterson, Professor of the English Language and Literature, as well as Clifton C. Olds, Professor of the History and Criticism of Art. At each dinner meeting, the club members will decide on the short story for the following dinner.
As a resident of a social house, Lee realized that many social activities revolve around parties. She wanted to create an intellectual side to the Bowdoin College social scene, a "social activity that doesn't involve drinking."

The club is open to all who are interested in sitting down to dinner, discussing a short story, and allowing their intellect a break from the sometimes forced pursuits of college courses. Neither brilliance nor experience is a necessity. Rather, the SSRG is "for the science major. . . who thinks he's not reading enough" or for the creative writing major who can never get enough to read.