Further to chat on this thread, here are links to when The Articles Book Group is on. It is not a protest against the way the National Library of Scotland handled The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht in their Dear Library exhibition - it is just a book group...the fact that some of the group happen to be interested in the snapshot of Scottish Politics detailed in TWWWW, or are authors of essays in it, is a happy coincidence.
My name's Elaine Miller, I'm @gussiegrips on twitter and I am flattered to be "That Merkin Moment" in the book. If you haven't seen the book it's currently on offer on the big online retailer here
We meet on the first Friday of the month, 2-4pm, in the library's cafe, to tell the group about the book we read that month. Some of us might visit the exhibition or contribute to it by leaving a postcard. (Though, January 2nd is a public holiday in Scotland, so we'll meet on afternoon of Friday 9th Jan)
We are meeting next Friday 5th at 2pm, and all are welcome - it's not a single sex group. You can contribute anything from any genre, there are no rules, other than please try to not make the the Library staff feel unsafe by being polite and friendly whilst knowing what sex is.
Some staff have, again, written to the library to express their feelings about the inclusion of TWWWW in the exhibition. It's a long story, detailed in the thread I linked above.
I'm happy to say that the Library has been very welcoming and reserves us space to meet by the side of the main stairs.
Here's a tweet about how it works - TLDR: it's a relaxed couple of hours talking about books. We've had every genre apart from graphic novels so far.
I don't share details of those who come along, but I do put a photo of the books on twitter, and write them up on Substack. If you do come feel free to be as anonymous, use a false name if you want. There's a form in the twitter thread that you can print off if you'd prefer not to speak - be as private as you like, bear in mind it is in a public space.
Some MNrs and tweeters asked if we can do this online and I don't see why not - I just have to work out how to do it!