London Bookgroup welcomes you 2009

[onemonkey]

Welcome to the Urban75 bookgroup, now entering it's 7th glorious year. We meet once a month, typically on the second thursday and typically in someone's house, typically in Brixton. However, none of these factors are set in stone, we are a very laid back bookgroup. You don't even need to have read that month's book. But it would be helpful if you like books. Even better if you also like wine and cheese.

In 2008 we read

Northern Lights --- Phillip Pullman
About the Author --- John Colapinto
With Their Backs To The World --- Asne Seierstad
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf --- Edward Albee
Brideshead Revisted --- Evelyn Waugh
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning --- Alan Sillitoe
The Edible Woman --- Margaret Atwood
Brave New World --- Aldous Huxley
The Naked Civil Servant --- Quentin Crisp
Running with Scissors --- Augusten Burroughs.


The first book of 2009

A Tale of Two Cities --- Charles Dickens

The first meeting will be on 21st January, at my house (PM for details)

REMEMBER

The first rule of bookgroup is:
You do not need to read the book.

The second rule of bookgroup is:
You should bring drinks and nibbles.

 

[ruffneck23]

sounds good, id like to pop along , dont know if il get a chance to read tale of two cities in time but il give it a go

 

[Guineveretoo]

To continue the discussions from the other thread, as requested:

I can see the argument for having the bookgroup on a fixed evening each month, but I can also see the argument for being flexible, to deal with things which may come up, and I thought the latter approach had worked reasonably well during the year.

The biggest problem I have perceived is that we don't have the date and venue confirmed sufficiently in advance. There were a couple of times when I would have gone, but didn't get the PM telling me where to go until I had got home from work that evening, after the scheduled start time of the bookgroup.

There have also been a few times when I thought I was going to be able to come, but then discovered, at short notice, that it was on an evening when I was busy, which was frustrating, too, as I had been looking forward to commenting on the book.

Would it possible/feasible to agree the date and venue at the previous session, and post that up when we post up the new book, so that everyone gets about a month's notice and can make their arrangements or send their apologies?

 

[Biddlybee]

I'm happy for the date to be flexible tbh, and don't really have a problem with the venue being decided a few days beforehand

 

[Rollem]

The first rule of bookgroup is:
You do not need to read the book.

my kind of book group

a little bit of notice, i.e. a week maybe, would be handy for me, just to make sure that relahni isn't working late that night, and therefore is around to look after madge

 

[han]

Lovin' your introductory paragraph, onemonkey. How can people resist a bookgroup like this?!

I can't make this first one as will be staying with my folks then. I haven't got the book anyway so might just jump to next month's book.

Have a good un folks! Deffo up for having one round our house sometime.

 

[zora]

That's me out then. Have to work until 0100 on most Thursdays.

We'll just have to have bookgroups again like we did in 2003 and keep going till 5am.

I dunno about dates tbh - we were unable to decide on anything at the last one.
I have always been in favour of sticking with the third Thursday of the month in principle, so that people know what's going on and we don't have to agonise over a new date and mess around with date polls etc each time. But if I wasn't able to do any Thursdays I'd probably be less happy about it.

And apart from being one of the most regular attendees last year, Ms T has got the cosiest living room and makes the best pizzas (and that's just on top of always having interesting book suggestions and something to say about the books!).

I'm happy for the date to be flexible, but can see how it'd work better for some people with roughly a month's notice, i.e. to be set at each meeting for the next one (which we kind of used to do.). Out of habit, I quite like the third Thursday as a rough benchmark though. And come to think of it, I find Wednesdays or Thursdays best - Friday being out as the beginning of the week, and Mondays and Tuesdays tend to be soberish days after the weekends' excesses and people more likely to go home at 9pm than tuck into wine and cheeses till 5am in true bookgroup style.

Err.. that is quite a long post to say I dunno and I don't mind.

Wednesday 14th Jan anyone? Or to mix things up a bit more and as people seem to struggling with Dickens a bit ('kin hell I can't understand a word of it - and I always assumed I hadn't read any Dickens yet because I wasn't that interested not because it is actually too difficult for me ) should we give ourselves some more time and have it on Wed 21st or Thurs 22nd?

Maybe we should let our host have a say in this?

 

[Brainaddict]

I also think the irregular dates contributed to poor attendance. They contributed to my poor attendance anyway

And let's be honest, 'irregular' really means 'disorganised' - at least with us.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I also think the irregular dates contributed to poor attendance. They contributed to my poor attendance anyway

And let's be honest, 'irregular' really means 'disorganised' - at least with us.

"irregular" can also mean "accommodating", though

 

[Ms T]

I also think the irregular dates contributed to poor attendance. They contributed to my poor attendance anyway

And let's be honest, 'irregular' really means 'disorganised' - at least with us.

I'm not disorganised, I just work irregular hours.

I can do Wednesday 14th and Wednesday 21st.

I think Zora's idea of having some flexibility but fixing the next date at the previous meeting would work. I have my rota for a couple of months in advance, and usually have a day off in the week.

 

[Orang Utan]

21st suits me - also working late next week

 

[Crispy]

Ok, I'll unclench my iron fist. But yes, some certainty about dates would be good

 

[Biddlybee]

I'm going to get the audio book of this one out the library can I still come to book group?

 

[Guineveretoo]

Maybe we should let our host have a say in this?

Who is hosting?

 

[zora]

sleaterkinney if he's still up for it (I'm not entirely sure if he volunteered or if we volunteered him ) or onemonkey. Either way it's going to be in Brixton.

 

[ruffneck23]

i know im a n00b with no real input but i cant do the 14th , but whenever it is i shall bring wine and cheese

 

[Spark]

another new person here
I can do both wednesdays and thursdays at the moment. I'd probably prefer 2 weeks time though, just because I haven't got very far with the book.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

21st please.

 

[ruffneck23]

picked up my copy of a tale of two cities at lunchtime

 

[sleaterkinney]

sleaterkinney if he's still up for it (I'm not entirely sure if he volunteered or if we volunteered him ) or onemonkey. Either way it's going to be in Brixton.

Unfortunately, onemonkey volunteered before I could. 21st is good for me as well.

 

[onemonkey]

okay, it's looking like wednesday, 21st is favoured option and I'm your favoured host

will pm everyone with my address next week. (and i might even try to get a copy of the book too )

 

[Mainframeguy]

I'm new around here and already do a bookgroup at my local library - but I'll try for another, especially since it does say you do not HAVE to read the book 21st is free for me ATM, so now wondering how/if this gets firmed up and I find more details? Does it work by PM from this thread? Anyway, having posted I'll tag along subscribed so no doubt all will become clear...

 

[Guineveretoo]

Unfortunately (well, for me, anyway), I have already got a commitment on 21st, so will not be joining you on this occasion. I haven't read the book recently, though, and will not now bother to dig it out to read again!

I have, however, prepared some ideas for books to suggest for future meetings, so I hope to be able to get to the next meeting, in order to propose said books.

I would like to host one of the meetings again, even though I don't live at all close to Brixton - I have quite a nice garden/patio, so perhaps we could have one of the spring meetings at mine? Just putting the idea forward, for consideration

 

[Mainframeguy]

I thought there'd be mucho discussion in a thread about selection of books - I was wondering about putting forward something by Roberto Bolano even if it does make me look a bit of a pseud. Anyway, I am hoping to make it to the 21st and observe the rule (no way will I get through a Dickens on this notice with what I have in my diary until the 21st, but meeting other book group people and participating in future book selection discussion is good enough for me).

I'm unemployed, but can cook; so hoping that rustling up home-made nibbles will compensate for inability to afford booze - will it be OK to bring a cake?

 

[Crispy]

cake is very good, oh yes

usually, we do nominations and selection towards the end of the evening, so work on that sales patter!

 

[ruffneck23]

My copy of T.O.2.C is in the original text and to be honest its bloody hard going ( imo ),

Does anyone know of an abridged / slightly less heavy version out there ?

 

[Mainframeguy]

Abridged Dickens! *shock" *horror* *gasp* I'm not even going to look for emoticons.....

 

[Orang Utan]

it's only 350 pages! You could Wiki it - it has an extensive Wiki page and pages for its main characters - so you can look at thay and pretend you've read the whole book

 

[ruffneck23]

well i am trying . i shall continue to do so . i dont want to pretend to something i havent.......

 

[sleaterkinney]

My copy of T.O.2.C is in the original text and to be honest its bloody hard going ( imo ),

Does anyone know of an abridged / slightly less heavy version out there ?

For other prospective bookgroup members as well, you don't have to like the book or even finish it, part of bookgroup is reading books that you normally wouldn't pick up. The other part - cheese and wine - is compulsory.