Book Group

Welcome to the Book Group Page here you can find out all about the forthcoming book choices and the why’s and what for of the new venture between Savidge Reads & Kimbofo!

Why start a new book group?

Back in May I had decided I wanted to join a new Book Group the previous one I had co-started, not Rogue Book Group, all went to pot (got very, very regulated, expensive and taken over by one voice). In fact I had been saying to a non blogging friend who will be attending that ‘we must do one’ and I would do some research. I looked around and contacted a few people and nothing really seemed to be happening other. I emailed fellow London Book Blogger Kimbofo and discussions started between us of the idea of a Book Group in London. Now if you are thinking ‘there must be lots of book groups in London’ that isnt actually the case. There are some but not any actually in central London and so we decided to start one and we would love for you all to join.

Is it one of those book groups where you have lots of rules?

No not at all. The idea behind the book group is that its a relaxing environment where we can all have a good natter about a particular book chosen every month amongst people who also have an unhealthy obsession (joke) with all things bookish, make new friends and have fun. The only guidelines are…

• The book group is the first Thursday of every month.
• The venue will be in Central London.
• Everyone gets a chance to choose a book in the group and that person’s choice is final.
• It won’t be pricey, we are in a credit crunch.
• If you have read it before that’s great, you might get even more from it the second time.
• Everyone is given a chance to speak; there are no right or wrong answers.
• No moaning, its fun hahahaha!

That doesnt sound to scary does it?

What if I dont live in London?

I will put up a blog post the day after we have all met with my review of the book and everyone from the face to face Book Group’s thoughts and then you can all go crazy and comment along too! I will give you plenty of advance notice of what the book is as it will be known after every book group.

When and how can I join?

If you wish to join the book group you can email me on savidgereads@googlemail.com its open to everyone and anyone but we arent giving details out on either of out blogs.

When is the next one and whats the book?

BOOK GROUP MEETING 6: Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

For our sixth meeting (how have we already gotten to the sixth meeting) of book group Jackie of FarmlaneBooks has chosen a “science fiction masterpiece” so following after last months book we are off into futuristic worlds as predicted by authors. “Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper, and the gentle butt of everyone’s jokes, until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental tranformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.” Jackie chose this because she things that “people will love it or hate it and it should cause some conflicts in the group”. We will find out when we meet on December 3rd, for more details email me.

BOOK GROUP MEETING 5: 1984 – George Orwell

The lovely Gemma has made the next choice for book group and it is the classic, which I haven’t read before so I am very excited about, ‘Nineteen-Eighty Four’ by George Orwell. “Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent – even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101. “Nineteen Eight-Four” is George Orwell’s terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime.”

The next book group will meet on the 5th of November, email me for more details.

BOOK GROUP MEETING 4: I Served The King of England – Bohumil Hrabal

Claire from Paperback Reader has chosen the next book for Book Group and it’s one that I havent heard of but sounds like its going to be really interesting and again proves how brilliant Book Groups are for making you read things that you normally wouldnt. “Sparkling with comic genius and narrative exuberance, “I Served the King of England” is a story of how the unbelievable came true. Its remarkable hero, Ditie, is a hotel waiter who rises to become a millionaire and then loses it all again against the backdrop of events in Prague from the German invasion to the victory of Communism. Ditie’s fantastic journey intertwines the political and the personal in a narrative that both enlightens and entertains.”

The next book group will be on Thursday October 1st 2009, email for more details. 

BOOK GROUP MEETING 3:  Voice Over – Celine Curiol

Armen (as we are going in alphabetical order) chose this book and it looks like a really interesting read from an exciting new french author. This is what I love about Book Groups finding books you had no concept of the existance of and getting to find new authors you may love. Here is the blurb… “A young woman works in Paris, at the Gare du Nord. She spends every day talking into a microphone, announcing platforms and timetables, invisible to the world. And then she falls in love with a man who, in turn, loves another. To our heroine, her rival is stunningly beautiful, as beautiful ‘as an angel’. So she decides not to pursue the man, rather, she is prepared to wait, alone. That is, until one night a male friend of the ‘angel’ asks her what she does for a living and without thinking she answers, ‘prostitute’. She decides to play her new role to the hilt.”

The next book group will be on Thursday 3rd September email me for more details. 

BOOK GROUP MEETING 2:  The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

I was lucky enough to get to chose the first official Book Group Book and its is  The Bell Jar, Sylvia Paths one and only novel. “Renowned for its intensity and outstandingly vivid prose, it broke existing boundaries between fiction and reality and helped to make Plath an enduring feminist icon. It was published under a pseudonym a few weeks before the author’s suicide. Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman’s mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly- written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman’s descent into insanity.”

The book group will be on August 6th 2009 email savidgereads@googlemail.com for more information.

BOOK GROUP MEETING 1:  Favourites

What is your favourite book that you have read so far in your years of reading? Is it something from your childhood? A book that you have just read recently and have been raving to everyone about? Is it a classic? Is it a guilty pleasure? For the first Book Group (we need to give it a name) all you need to bring along with you is your favourite book to date and be prepared to have a little chat about it, why you loved it and why other people should read it. It’s not a presentation you dont need slides or powerpoint on your laptop simply bring the book, yourself and your thoughts and we will take it from there! The favourites were…

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (Simon)
My Brother Jack by George Johnston (Kim)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (Claire)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Jackie)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (Michelle)
The Pursuit of Love/Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford (Dom)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Polly)
Diaspora by Greg Egan / Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (Kake)
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (Hatty)
A Place to Live: And Other Selected Essays of Natalia Ginzburg by Natalia Ginzburg (Armen)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Gemma)