Twitter Book Club (part three)

Last month Twitter Book Club discussed Normal People by Sally Rooney. 

This book was chosen in a Twitter poll, from a shortlist of 4 books, based on suggestions from people on Twitter. 

It was discussed via a DM group on Twitter, so as not to fill everyone else's timeline with chat. There are currently 50 people in the Twitter Book Group. Not all of these people read the book (and I wouldn't expect them to), but hopefully, those in the group who didn't, got an interesting insight into the book!

In fact, I am delighted to tell you that 26 people (at least) read the book in the Group. I know this because, I asked those who had read it, to score it out of 10. And, as you might have guessed, 26 people did just that. 

The discussion about the book was VERY lively. It really was mixed. 

Some people found the lack of punctuation frustrating. There was a good chat about how likeable the characters were and how this impacted on their enjoyment of the book. 

Some found it very powerful and thought provoking and a true insight into two people's struggles to find a place for themselves. 

However, I think the biggest discussion was about the ending...

I am mindful of not spoiling the book for anyone who hasn't read it, so that's all I shall say. 

The book has led a few people in the Book Club to search out Sally's other book, so that's a good thing!

26 people gave it marks out of 10 (and the marks given ranged from 1 to 10!) and the average mark for Normal People is a very creditable 5.9. 

Thanks to everyone who joined in. If you want to be added to the group for next month get in touch with me on Twitter (@biggreenbooks) and i'll add you to the Group. 

We are now going to choose next month's book, which will be discussed on Tuesday September 10th.

A Twitter Poll will be going up in the next hour. This month, the shortlist will be from a selection of books that may have gone under the radar or may not have been seen stacked up on the tables of Waterstones. You know what I mean.

anyway.

EVERYONE CAN VOTE. 

Twitter Book Club - continued

Last month our Twitter Book Club was born. And d'you know what? It didn't go too badly at all!

HERE is a link to a blogpost I wrote about it.


The concept;

• Agree a book you're going to all read. 
• Buy it. 
• Read it. 
• Talk about it. (this is the important bit)
• Give it marks out of 10

So last month, Circe by Madeline Miller was chosen.

I'm delighted to say that more than 20 people asked to join the Book Club. 

I'm equally delighted to say that more than half of these people read the book and joined in the discussion on Twitter. 

It was universally loved. 

I'll give you a couple of quotes from people. 

"I adore her writing, it’s so lyrical and mysterious, a very fitting tone, whilst still being accessible and light. I’m really quite new to Greek Mythology, I know the real basics but not much else and I love the way other characters are described and their relationships weaved in. Enough to spark and interest and to not make you feel ... lacking but done smartly enough to let those with more knowledge fill in the gaps"

"It made me want to go back to the old Ray Harryhausen films as well. And I can't help thinking about how excruciating it would be to give birth to a Minotaur!"

"I loved the tone of the book, how the Gods had (often flawed) personalities. Great feminist undercurrents- strong women throughout, good slant on relationships." 

"I've never really been interested in Greek Mythology and this book has certainly changed that. I'm also really interested now in how the original myths shaped the worldview of Greeks and then Romans."

Anyway, there was loads more too (you'll have to join in if you want to hear all the comments!). 

So we then gave it points out of 10. 

14 people marked it. The lowest mark was 7 and the highest was 9 and the average was 8.375. 

Boom! That's a pretty impressive start. 

We have now chosen August's Book Club book. 

We shall be reading Normal People by Sally Rooney next. 

I am a bookshop. I would like you to buy the book from me. So, if you'd like to get involved, please paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, using family and friends and then send me a DM, letting me know your address.

Alternatively, you can buy it from the website (it's £9.99 on there, cos paypal take a quid if you buy it this way and i'm not charging P+P). Link HERE

The Book Group will start the book discussion on the second Tuesday of each month from now on, from midday. The conversation can continue for a day or so, or for as long as you like!
We will then give marks out of 10 on the Thursday.
So in August we will start the chat on Tuesday August 13th.
That should give us all plenty of time to read the book!

If you want to join the Book Club, tweet me (@biggreenbooks) with the hashtag #BGBookClub

and i'll add you to the group!

If you have any questions, please get in touch and i'll try and answer them. 

Thanks!

Bloody Paperwork

When the shop closed at the end of January, I thought, "OK, that's that". A lovely person wanted to take on the lease for the shop, so I reckoned it'd get sorted in a few weeks.

I'm a simple soul. Sometimes, being a simple soul is great. But sometimes it isn't...

Today is June 27th. I am still paying rent for the shop. 

It's a bit of a tosser.

I should have known it might have taken longer, having experienced a similar thing when we tried to get the lease to the shop ourselves in 2008. If you want to read about our woes, we did a blog. It's here.

Anyway, whilst I really want to spend ALL my time banging on about books and trying to save the world from angry unicorns pretending to be rhinos, I've been spending a load of my time doing bloody paperwork trying to finalise the lease thing.

So, apologies to all the rhinos out there. And also soz about not smashing the world in the face about how ace books are in the last couple of weeks.

I'll be back in full action very soon.

Ta.

New Life - an update

I don't use this blog as much as I should.

This is my second post in as many days. This level of blogging can never last!

Anyway, it's a bit of a personal one.

It's kind of an update about how things are going.

The Big Green Bookshop (the physical bookshop)  closed at the beginning of this year.
Katie and I moved out of London to the south coast in January with our kids. It's been the best thing we've ever done. 

Katie and I had always wanted to live by the seaside, but having the shop and owning our flat in London, we felt a bit trapped.

Much as I loved the shop, it had kind of taken over my life. It was all I thought about. I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about what needed to be done. I got the train to the shop at stupid early o'clock to try and catch up with stuff. I didn't realise it at the time, but it was doing my head in.

I was not in a good way and it affected my life badly.

Thankfully, I have the most incredible girlfriend in the world and the most brilliant kids, who I love completely and have been nothing but amazing.

So, we did it. We moved.

And it has been incredible.
Katie now has a brilliant job, that she loves. The kids are really happy at their new school. And I am getting my priorities right. Yes, the Bookshop is ace, but there are far more important things. And I'm not going to ever forget that again.

Looking back, I thought things were OK. But they weren't. Now, I can focus on my family and our new life here. And that's really all that matters.

Don't let this stop you buying books from me, we need the dosh! But I thought it was important to let you know.

#buybooks

Twitter Book Club

Recently I had the idea that maybe I should try to do a @biggreenbooks Twitter Book Club.

Book Clubs at the Big Green Bookshop were really great.

The concept;

• Agree a book you're going to all read. 
• Buy it. 
• Read it. 
• Talk about it. (this is the important bit)
• Give it marks out of 10

So a couple of weeks ago I asked what people thought the first Twitter Book Club book should be. 

And here is the result. 

The winner is Circe by Madeline Miller. 

So, how does @biggreenbooks Twitter Book Club work?

Here's what I thought. 

We need to have some time to read the book, so let's set a date in early July to discuss the book. 

I have chosen Friday July 5th. Book chat will start at midday.

We can discuss the book on twitter without annoying everyone else who isn't involved. 

So I can set up a DM (direct message) group, so that nobody else has to put up with our book chat. 

If you want to join this group, send me a message using this hashtag #BGBookCirce 

You can send it to me any time between now and then. I'll add you to the group.

We can, of course still discuss it on normal Twitter, using the same hashtag. 

Most book groups meet for a couple of hours, but the beauty of #BGBookCirce is that the conversation can continue longer (you don't have to be around on July 5th, but you can catch up later and still get involved).

After the discussion, we will give marks out of 10 by Monday 8th July and the results will be announced on Tuesday 9th  July. 

I am a bookshop. I would like you to buy the book from me. So, if you'd like to get involved, please paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, using family and friends and then send me a DM, letting me know your address.

Alternatively, you can buy it from the website (it's £9.99 on there, cos paypal take a quid if you buy it this way and i'm not charging P+P). Link HERE.

I will do a new shortlist for August's book just before the meeting, so that if you want to join in again, you'll know what the next book is. 

If you have any other ideas, i'd be delighted to hear them. This is all new to me, so I want to get it right. 

Hope this all sounds good. 

World Book Night

Today is World Book Night. 

It's pretty cool. 

It's a national celebration of reading and it's run by The Reading Agency (who are also pretty cool). 

You can read all about it HERE.

One of the big aims of World Book Night is to give people who, for one reason or another don't read regularly, a chance to get their hands on a book. And getting a book into someone's hands is something i'm all for. 

So I was delighted when they got in touch with me recently and asked if I could do a special #buyastrangerabook day on Twitter to help mark World Book Night. 

And so here we are. 

For those of you who don't know what #buyastrangerabook is, then it's pretty simple. 

People can either ask for a book, which is then paid for by another person, or else people pledge money, or tweet me that they will #buyastrangerabook and then, when someone asks for a book, they pay for it. 

The Big Issue wrote about it HERE.

The Independent wrote about it RIGHT HERE.

So, to kick off this very special day, the lovely people in the World Book Night cave have asked me to give away five books. 

For FREE!

Just because they love books and they want to do it.

Tweet me at @biggreenbooks and five lucky people will get books. 

If you would like to #buyastrangerabook today, tweet me and let's make this the most amazing World Book Night ever. 

Another Catch Up. I went to Twitter HQ!

I really need to add "write a blog post" to my daily list of stuff to do...

Anyway, what's happened recently?

Well, I guess a rather exciting thing for me was that last Wednesday, I went to Twitter UK's headquarters, to talk to about 100 people about #BuyAStrangerABook!

Twitter have been huge supporters of this initiative. Before Christmas, they contacted me to ask if I could send them a mix of books for them to send to some of their favourite people off Twitter.

So, I did. 

And they did. 

a parcel sent to @greg_jenner

And then, last month, they asked me if I could come and talk to people about #BuyAStrangerABook, for a thing they were doing called #StandWithThem. 

So, I did. 

yikes!

It was nerve racking, but everyone there was amazing, and it was such a great opportunity to tell more people about it.

Oh yeah, the other people on the panel, who btw do superballistic things on Twitter, were:

 Femi Oluwole (@femi_sorry)

...and Susie Dent (susie_dent)

Follow them both immediately, if you don't already.

What else happened...?

Oh yeah. There's a thing the shop does, called The Big Green Book Club. 

It's a subscription service, where we post you a book each month, based on your own personal tastes (we send out a simple questionnaire, which gives us an idea of the kind of books to send out)

It's great, and at the moment, there are around 150 people in the Club. 

Well, anyway the questionnaires were sent here to my new place from the Bookshop in early January. 

But they didn't turn up. 

That was a bit of a blow. Thankfully, there's a record of Club members names on the computer (which also got lost in the post, but has now arrived!), so I spent a fair time going through emails and piecing together all the details from there. 

It's done (I think) and apart from about three people, whose books are finally being sorted today, I have posted them all off. 

I sent off the "I am in a train" badges to all the Patreon members (if you want to join our Patreon, you can join HERE), and have arranged a meeting with someone from Patreon, so that I can use the darned thing properly!

A huge thanks to the publishers who've sent us books. My kids are delighted and have got stuck into them already. 

Reviews will be forthcoming very soon, I promise.

Those are all the main things I've done.