Not The TV Book Group

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a book group where you could talk about a book with people all over the world for a whole day? Well odd you should all be thinking that as it seems there is and by popping here you have joined one of the virtual launch parties of the “Not The TV Book Group”, so grab a virtual canapé (the prawn ones are a delight) and glass of something lovely as I welcome you and explain all.

So what on earth is the Not The TV Book Group? Well I am thrilled that myself, Dovergreyreader, Kimbofo and Other Stories have brought together our bookish forces to bring you a fortnightly book group that you can all join in with. This is a chance to make a book group with a bit of a difference.

Before I go any further I do want to state that even though I may have been a little cross about the TV Book Club last week this is in no way designed to denigrate or mock or challenge the show in any way. Yes there is the title but think of the ‘Not The Booker Prize’ the Guardian ran and you will see where we are coming from. The TV Book Group isn’t going anywhere and in truth we all hope that it listens to its audience and prevails as there aren’t enough shows on TV about books here in the UK.

We also haven’t told any publishers that we are doing this, there is no marketing going on, in fact we discounted any freebies that we may have been sent to us by publishers in the past, as for Series One we wanted to bring you something that was just from us, something we are passionate about that’s gimmick free. We aren’t going to be checking on the sales of the books we choose, though if you did want to buy the selection then do feel free, we are just as happy if people head to their local library and check the books out. Anyway now that’s cleared up back to how it will work…

We decided a book a fortnight was a good plan as though I am sure the final list will be a delight I would like to read some other books along the way, as I am sure you all will too. So therefore over the next sixteen weeks we will be taking it in turns to share our virtual lounges/sofa’s/beanbags and thoughts with you all. We really do hope you join in with reading some books which could be gems and some which could be turkeys, time will tell and we will be honest with our feelings on them.

So what are the books? Well as yet they haven’t quite been whittled down, we have a “meeting of minds at midday” today to make a long list of sixteen become a unanimous eight reads. You wouldn’t think choosing books would be hard but choosing four books each for the long list was so difficult, the criteria was;

• Books we have not yet read or written about.
• Books available in paperback in the UK (and hopefully oversea’s)
• Books out now or published in the last five years.

The final eight and their dates will be announced as soon as we are all agreed and then we can only hope that you all decide to join in if you can, wherever you are, the more the merrier. I hope to see you all at each date with all your bookish thoughts at the ready! Until thats announced I wondered if you could guess what any of, or all eight of, the titles? At the moment of typing this I am as mystified as you, I only know what two of them could be. Go on have a guess!