As a longtime member of a book club, I love to hear about other groups who meet to share books and good company. There aren't too many in Malaysia yet, sadly. (Guys, do you know how much fun you are missing?).The 2008 Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers' Group Prize went to Laura's Book Group from Edinburgh, who have shown extraordinary dedication :
Its 13 members dined on deep fried crickets when reading Geoff Ryman's Cambodia-set The King's Last Song, eyeball gobstoppers when discussing Michel Faber's hitchhiker horror Under the Skin, and chocolate fountains and champagne for Jeanette Winterson's erotic novel Written on the Body. ... The group also tries to match its venues to its books, once meeting in a pub below the Forth Road Bridge when discussing The Thirty-Nine Steps. Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions saw members dressing up as characters from the book. "After a few glasses of wine it's quite fun, and it brings more to the books as it makes us fully experience them," said Wilkie. Laura's Book Group has won a visit from author Lauren St John who will lead a session on her book Rainbow's End, and a visit to Penguin's offices in London.An all-male reading group from Bullingdon Prison in Oxfordshire came second.
5 comments:
I've been coming to this blog quite often over the past week, for I find the tips on writing, especially, to be very useful.
But there's one thing that I dread the most each time I click on the bookmark - the downloading time!
All those pictures help to make the blog better, it's true. But for the unfortunates like me, they make the page super-heavy.
BTW, I'm only getting GPRS 53Kbps from my Celcom `Broadband' connection. But lest anyone condemn Celcom, I'm actually happy and grateful that I have any sort of Internet connection at all!
You see, I'm living in a very rural place in Kelantan. That means I can't afford to be too choosy.
Oh, keep the graphics, Sharon, for I'm in the minority (with a slow connection). I've figured a way to get around this - Use RSS and go straight to the newest post, without having to go to the main page.
And I've set the bookmark to point to one of the categories instead. Once I'm at the site, I'll then navigate to where I might find it potentially interesting.
Our small, fledgling bookclub will have our first anniversary in two weeks' time! :) we meet monthly at this cafe that sells awesome cake and makes awesome coffee and chatter/gossip about our lives as well as the books we read. Ahhh how I wish this will continue when I go back to Msia. We've read everything from classics to contemporary Australian literature to international bestsellers/booker prize winners. Book for this month is Bill Bryson's Down Under. fun! A must-read for anyone wanting to travel to Australia.
cendana - thanks a lot for reading me despite the difficulties. really hope you can get broadband soon.
it was also good to discover your blog.
lyana - your group really does sound fun! would you like to write a post for this blog about it with pics? (if you do, just email me at sharonbakar at yahoo dot com)
maybe you can set one up when you get back to malaysia
Never knew readers groups got a prize. Love the idea of the erotic novel reading with melted chocolate! :)
Whoa. An all-male reading group? Sounds like stuff for a movie!
Hi Sharon - perhaps a post is in the offing about book clubs, setting one up and what it involves? It sounds like a good wonderful way to socialise and to get more out of books.
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