The Gentleman’s Book Club was inaugurated in April 2011 following late night deliberations during the count for the General Election of that year. After some discussion we settled on meeting in Smyth’s pub to share our thoughts on our first read. The location has remained our favoured haunt although we have on occasion strayed. Our numbers have remained constant and remain a very convivial 7 to today. December has become the month when we choose a ‘lighter’ read and gather to reflect on our reads of the year as part of a ‘Eurovision’ style ranking of the 12 reads of the year.
We remain vibrantly engaged with our reads (some of which have our brief reviews linked) which over the years include:
| Month | Title | Author | Genre |
| April 2011 | Nudge | Thaler and Sunstein | Non Fiction |
| July 2015 | Civilization: The West and the Rest | Niall Fergusson | Non Fiction |
| September 2015 | The Case for Books | Robert Darnton | Non Fiction |
| October 2015 | The Hare with the Amber Eyes | Edmund de Waal | Non Fiction |
| November 2015 | Cutting for Stone | Adam Verghese | Fiction |
| December 2015 | Christmas Carol | Dickens | Fiction |
| January 2015 | The Faster I Walk the Smaller I am | Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold | Fiction |
| February 2015 | At Home | Bill Bryson | Non Fiction |
| March 2015 | Ulysses 1 | James Joyce | Fiction |
| March 2015 | Black Dahlia | James Elroy | Fiction |
| May 2012 | Ulysses 2 | James Joyce | Fiction |
| May 2015 | HHhH | Laurent Binet | Fiction |
| September 2012 | Ulysses 3 | James Joyce | Fiction |
| September 2012 | Canada | Richard Ford | Fiction |
| October 2015 | Ulysses 4 | James Joyce | Fiction |
| October 2012 | Anatomy of a Moment | Javier Cercas | Fiction |
| November 2015 | Ulysses 5 | James Joyce | Fiction |
| November 2012 | Casual Vacancy | JK Rowling | Fiction |
| January 2013 | Cloud Atlas | David Mitchell | Fiction |
| February 2013 | From the Holy Mountain | William Dalrymple | Non Fiction |
| April 2013 | Prester John | John Buchan | Fiction |
| May 2013 | Stalingrad | Anthony Beevor | Non Fiction |
| June 2013 | Orphan Master’s Son | Adam Johnson | Fiction |
| July 2013 | 52 Loaves | William Alexander | Non Fiction |
| August 2013 | Town and Country: New Irish Short Stories | Kevin Barry | Fiction |
| October 2013 | Zealot | Resa Aslan | Fiction |
| November 2013 | Harvest | Jim Crace | Fiction |
| December 2013 | Lawrence in Arabia | Scott Anderson | Non Fiction |
| January 2015 | Purple Hibiscus | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Fiction |
| February 2015 | Guards, Guards | Terry Pratchett | Fiction |
| March 2015 | The Time Has Come – Ger McDonnell: His Life and His Death on K2 | Damien O’Brien | Non Fiction |
| April 2015 | The Undertaking | Audrey Magee | Fiction |
| May 2015 | How Music Works | David Byrne | Non Fiction |
| June 2015 | Look Who’s Back | Timur Vermes | Fiction |
| July 2015 | The Indian Clerk | David Leavitt | Non Fiction |
| August 2015 | An Officer and a Spy | Robert Harris | Historical Fiction |
| September 2015 | Eyrie | Tim Winton | Fiction |
| October 2015 | TK Whittaker – Portrait of a Patriot | Anne Chambers | Non Fiction |
| November 2015 | The Narrow Road to the Deep North | Richard Flannagan | Fiction |
| December 2015 | The Life and Loves of a He-Devil | Graham Norton | Non Fiction |
| January 2015 | The Princess Bride | William Goldman | Non Fiction |
| February 2015 | Einstein: His Life and Universe | Walter Isaacson | Biography |
| March 2015 | The Piano Tuner | Daniel Mason | Fiction |
| April 2015 | The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth’s Rarest Creatures | William deBuys | Non Fiction |
| May 2015 | Bel Canto | Ann Patchett | Fiction |
| June 2015 | The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long- Term Health | T Colin Campbell & Thomas M Campbell | Non Fiction |
| July 2015 | All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr | Fiction | |
| August 2015 | Black Lamb and Grey Falcon / Balkan Ghosts | Rebecca West / Robert Kaplan | Non Fiction |
| September 2015 | The Temporary Gentleman | Sebastian Barry | Fiction |
| October 2015 | Mother Tongue | Bill Bryson | Non Fiction |
| November 2015 | Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder | Evelyn Waugh | Fiction |
| December 2015 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole | Fiction |
| January 2016 | Autobiography of a Yogi | Yogananda | Non Fiction |
| February 2016 | Imperium | Robert Harris | Fiction |
| March 2016 | The Invention of Nature: Alex von Humbolt | Andrea Wulf | Non Fiction |
| April 2016 | The Pleasure of My Company | Steve Martin | Fiction |
| May 2016 | Five Socratic Dialogues | Plato | Non Fiction |
| June 2016 | A Little Life | Hanya Yanagihara | Fiction |
| July 2016 | The Silk Roads: A new global history | Peter Frankopan | Non Fiction |
| August 2016 | The Miniaturist | Jesse Burton | Fiction |
| September 2016 | Alexander Hamilton | Ron Chernow | Non Fiction |
| October 2016 | The Killing Floor | Lee Childs | Fiction |
| November 2016 | I’m Your Man | Sylvie Simmons | Non Fiction |
| December 2016 | A Dog’s Purpose | W. Bruce Cameron | Fiction |