The Readers Summer Book Club 2012

One of the projects I have been working on while away from the blogosphere for some time is The Readers Summer Book Club. I am really rather excited about this particular book based project because it is one that myself and the lovely Gavin have designed to be able to include all of you, no matter where in the world you are.

I try not to mention The Readers too much on here. I worry you will either think it’s using the blog for self promotion or come across as being a bit smug. My intention is never to be either of those things, if I bang on and on about something it is no doubt simply because I am bloody excited about it… so there! Anyway, as I say only too often on the show, ‘moving swiftly on…’

Recording the readers over the last six months has become one of my favourite parts of every week. Whilst I have only met Gavin in the flesh once, briefly, through endless hours of recording he has become a true friend. Recording a show takes roughly 2 – 3 hours and lots of editing afterwards (though if you are a subscriber and got an early version of Mondays episode you will notice there was an editing slip up and me saying ‘I couldn’t be a****d to say goodbye’ – how rude, many apologies). I can guarantee in that two hours of recording I will laugh the most I do at any point during the week, with the exception of Sarah Millican’s TV show maybe, for as well as the bookish banter that makes the show there is at least one hour of gossip and general madness that we cut but which adds to my week. So a little bit of thanks and a shout out to Gavin there, he’s ace, erm shall I get back on track and stop with the schmaltz?

Back to The Readers Summer Book Club 2012 though. A few episodes ago we were waffling on about Richard and Judy’s Book Club and the TV Book Club. We like both, don’t get us wrong, but when we were talking about it I was thinking ‘why don’t we do a book club?’ After all we have listeners all over the world, thanks to the joy of the internet, and what an interesting way of bringing a real mix of people together as we could have some of them on Skype with us to discuss the books and send in mp3 reviews etc. So the idea was born, the publishers contacted for submissions, and blow me down we got 146 suggested titles! Now, a good few weeks later, we have the final eight…

I am a little in love with this selection of books, if I say so myself. I think they show exactly where myself and Gavin’s taste for books merge and also reflects the fact that not everyone wants a throwaway read on their holiday. Reactions have been interesting both on GoodReads and on blogs like Curiosity Killed The Bookworm, Dog Ear Discs and Alex in Leeds, and part of what we wanted was to get people talking about the list, we are all about book based banter after all, but we didn’t make them calculatedly or to particularly surprise anyone (apparently I said this, but don’t remember doing so) because we haven’t read any of them. In fact scrap that, we have now both read ‘Pure’ as we are interviewing Andrew Miller tonight as he is a very busy man, but we hadn’t read any books on the list before we announced it, we may have dipped in but it was all done on what we fancied reading and might test us both a little (the fact I chose Ernest Cline, for example), I would say, and not as a plug, that if you want to hear why we chose them have a listen to the latest episode and you will see.

So how can you get involved (and I really would love you all to)? Well, the way the show will work is that Gavin and I will interview the author for the first part of the show, asking any questions you have sent in (thanks for those of you who have sent in some for Andrew Miller later, keep them coming) the second part requires three guests who will join Gavin and I on Skype to talk about the book like a real book group, only recorded for 30 minutes. We need volunteers for this bit!!! We would also love mp3 reviews, or written ones we can pop on The Readers website which you can email to me savidgereads@gmail.com or bookbasedbanter@gmail.com  and discussion points too. So get involved!!!

For more info you can visit The Readers website, where you can listen to the special Readers Summer Book Club show (dates for each shows ‘airing’ will be up next week, we may swap some around due to international release dates). But while you are here, before you whizz over there, what do you think of the list? Have you read any? Keen to? Oh, and please spread the word, lets get lots of people joining in!!

Books on the Nightstand & The Readers (and Some Questions About Book Podcasts)

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know that I have a favourite podcast called Books on the Nightstand. When Gavin and I started making ‘The Readers’ we knew that we wanted to have the chatty nature that the wonderful Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness have, like you have popped round to some friends houses for a cup of tea and lots of book based banter,  without becoming a copy of their show. Slowly but surely I have become ‘twitter acquaintances’ with Ann and Michael, emails can often fly across the ocean, and they are as lovely off the podcast as they sound on it, as you may have seen Michael even got Hillary Jordan to sign her new novel ‘When She Woke’ for me and sent it to me from America (as its not out in the UK till next year) just because he knew I was a big fan. This is all leading somewhere honest…

After we recorded the first few episodes of ‘The Readers’ we were both really nervous when we knew Ann and Michael were going to listen to it. Would they like it? Would they think we were trying to copy them? Well the answers were yes and no. They really like it and whilst we have *hopefully* got a lovely banter we have got two very different shows yet this week the two meet, sort of, as Ann and Michael have kindly each done their Top Five Books in a lovely chatty style and I have come away with some more books to add to/take from Mount TBR, which you should too. You can listen to it here. Do, its great.

They also left a lovely message at the end which made me and Gavin grin a lot, oh if you want a laugh listen to the first few seconds of the podcast to get my ‘personality’ – poor Gav what he has to work with. Anyway, we are hoping this won’t be the last Books on the Nightstand and The Readers collaboration; we are plotting away in the background so hopefully something will flourish. We are joining forces with another blogger in the form of Kim of Reading Matters who is joining us as our first guest host for next weeks show, should be fun.

Don’t forget we want your involvement, if you want to send us an mp3 recording of your Top 5 Books (email  bookbasedbanter@gmail.com and we will pop them up) then please do or even if you fancy being a co-host in the future sometime we would love to know… or any other feedback can be left in comments here or comments on The Readers website. Oh and I would love to hear what your favourite bookish podcasts are, I am working on a directory of sorts, so which ones do you listen to regularly?