http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ Penguin Readers Forum: Recent Posts en Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:48 +0000 http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=87#post-574 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:50 +0000 imgladimme 574@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi Kelly and Hoopeybird!</p> <p>If the 3 of us are actually all in/near Weymouth then maybe we should meet up in Weymouth rater than Bridport?<br /> Are you both free on the 22nd March? </p> <p>Even with just 3 of us I think that's a good start. </p> <p>What do you think?</p> <p>Laura :)</p> <p>PS - sorry I haven't replied 'til now, I've been on holiday. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=87#post-572 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:54:40 +0000 hoopeybird 572@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>I would love to join a book club&gt;I live near weymouth but happy to travel to Dorchester or Bridport or similar distance </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=393#post-571 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:55:03 +0000 alix 571@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hey,</p> <p>I'm looking to set up a reading group in this area for a 20's/30's age group.</p> <p>Let me know if you're interested!</p> <p>Either comment this post or email me on <a href="mailto:alixwithani@hotmail.co.uk">alixwithani@hotmail.co.uk</a></p> <p>Thanks </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=87#post-570 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:53:13 +0000 Kelly 570@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hello! I would also be interested in joining a new book club in Dorset. I too, live in Weymouth but can get to Bridport. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=392#post-569 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:25:29 +0000 Anglesey 569@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi<br /> Is there anyone in the Chester and North Wales area who would fancy joining a reading group?<br /> Jean </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=390#post-568 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:10:28 +0000 penguin 568@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>How does this book group work? A group of people reading the same book over a certain amount of time and feeding back their reviews/comments? </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=391#post-567 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:42:46 +0000 PenguinPam 567@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi - I am retired, collect Penguin books and ride a motor bike (Aprilia Scarabeo 250ie) around Tasmania collecting Penguin books and boxed kits. I take photos and have just started a blog of my adventures that will extend to the mainland in May for a month and Central Europe and London (not on a motor bike)in Sept/Oct. If anyone is interested in adding to my website and following mundane searches in Tasmania (photos of Tasmania and Penguins)the site is:</p> <p><a href="http://www.travelpod.com/z/penguinhunter/1/1267368838" rel="nofollow">http://www.travelpod.com/z/penguinhunter/1/1267368838</a> </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=390#post-566 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:30:20 +0000 Bis 566@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>I'm in a physical book group - just interested in hearing what you think and it will be good to have time to absorb comments. We've just read Edgar Allan Poe - I haven't quite finished - but I'd welcome your thoughts and I'd like to hear what you're reading. Before Poe I most recently read Jenkins' Churchill and, with the group, The Master and Margarita. Anything (almost) goes.<br /> <a href="http://whatimreading-zb.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://whatimreading-zb.blogspot.com/</a> </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=106#post-565 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:18:45 +0000 Roxy 565@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Yes but live in Newport on outskirts ! Maybe we could meet somewhere in between as it's not far I think ?! </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=98#post-564 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:08:23 +0000 Roxy 564@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi I live on outskirts of Cardiff near Newport and would like to join book club/ reading group . Have you made any progress since last post ? </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=87#post-563 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:59:14 +0000 penguin 563@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>At Penguin Readers' we're really happy you're starting a live book group - let us know the start date and the book. Very interested to know how you get on. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=87#post-562 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:57:28 +0000 imgladimme 562@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hello Kerry, Jack, Jack's girlfriend, Suzy, Vics and Mellionsofbooks!<br /> I hadn't checked back on here for ages and now there's loads of responses. Lets do it!</p> <p>I suggest we start off in Bridport next month and see how that goes, we can always be flexible with dates/venues and also lift sharing etc.</p> <p>Your starter for ten one month from now: Monday 22nd March 7.30pm somewhere in Bridport (lets sort a venue closer to the time). </p> <p>Suggested topic: Your favourite books and the books you love to hate plus choosing our book for the next meeting.</p> <p>If you can make that date or you want to suggest an alternative date/time then let's get the discussion going on this thread. Also good ideas for a place to meet....I only really know the Ropemaker's and I'm not sure if they have noisy bands/karaoke on a Monday night?</p> <p>This is very exciting - a real live book group! I can't wait to check this thread again tomorrow :) </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=115#post-287 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:01:05 +0000 Kate Gould 287@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>The Fine Line Editorial Valentine's Newsletter</p> <p>MYTH, OBSESSION, TRADITION: A LITERARY LOOK AT LOVE</p> <p>The Red, Red Rose</p> <p>Since kindly Aphrodite spilt blood upon a white rose to aid her wounded lover, Adonis, a red rose has symbolised love everlasting – or a passing passion if it’s simply a flower and not a symbol of the life blood you would give to save a beloved.</p> <p><a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/the-red-red-rose/" rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/the-red-red-rose/</a></p> <p>Obsessive Love</p> <p>In August 1937 writer Elizabeth Smart walked into a London bookshop, opened a collection of poems by George Barker and fell in love. By the time they met and began an affair three years later – resulting in the birth of four children, although he never left his wife – she was already so utterly besotted by his work that the writer and his writing had become fused into a single entity. In a sometimes terrifying account, she immortalised their relationship in By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept, exposing both its agonies and ecstasies, from infatuation to abandonment.</p> <p><a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/elizabeth-smart/" rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/elizabeth-smart/</a></p> <p>Valentine's Reading</p> <p>See Fine Line Editorial's recommendations for Valentine's (and any) Day reading. There's love to swoon over for the romantics and all manner of other pursuits for the anti-Valentines.</p> <p><a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/fine-line-recommends/" rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/fine-line-recommends/</a></p> <p>Mythical Love</p> <p>Mythical tales of love are many – countless, perhaps – and have a tendency towards the melodramatic at best and the tragic at worst. In an attempt to remain in keeping with the celebration of love that is St Valentine’s Day, I searched the scores of mythological lovers for a happy tale. The best I could come up with is one that bore a golden age, Ovid’s tale of Halcyone.</p> <p><a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/mythical-love/" rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/mythical-love/</a></p> <p>Romancing Traditions</p> <p>The card is bought, the flowers arranged, the champagne on ice, the restaurant is booked, the jewellery glitters, the perfume is sweet, and the chocolates so pretty in their heart-shaped gold-wrapped box. You’ve done it: every tradition fulfilled, every symbol of a romance that time will not fade, and every token of love everlasting is there to see. You could do no more. But, really, you could. Flowers, cards, jewellery, chocolate, dinner, champagne, and perfume are perfectly nice. They’re pretty and pleasant – a delightful way to say ‘I love you’ – but in romance of yore, they would have won you neither maiden nor squire.</p> <p><a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/romancing-traditions/" rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-criticess/romancing-traditions/</a></p> <p>Valentine’s Writing Exercise</p> <p>Love Haiku</p> <p>In the 17 syllables of a haiku, tell us why your Valentine is so very special. Or why you’re so right in being anti-Valentine. Click here to post it to the site.</p> <p><a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-blank-page/valentine-writing-exercise/" rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/the-blank-page/valentine-writing-exercise/</a></p> <p>Did You Know?</p> <p>Saint Valentine’s Day started because of early Christian Heretics. In 110 AD Valentinus was born and soon became the most prominent Gnostic in history. The Christian Church hated Gnosticism and saw its ideas as being a perverted and diabolical form of Christianity, hardly surprising when most Gnostics held that God was, in fact, an evil imposter and that all of the ten commandments should be broken and the baddies in the Bible celebrated. The Church found it all a bit hard to stamp out, particularly Valentinus’s take on it. It spread like wild fire, so in an attempt to replace him, the Church created a fictitious saint called Valentine who, in their eyes, provided a better role model to follow. His unfortunate fate was, however, to be clubbed to death in Persia. They celebrated his feast day on February the 14th, but for some reason later gave up on the idea and took him out of the Catalogue of Saints. However, everyone had such good fun on his feast day that they kept celebrating it anyway even though they didn't and, most likely, still don't have a clue about the truth of the matter. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=96#post-286 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:33:49 +0000 matthewtett@aol.com 286@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>A film would be great - I think the characterisation of Tim would be conveyed beautifully through the medium of film. I am sure it won't be long before it is snapped up and a screenplay written. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=112#post-285 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:40:47 +0000 dan 285@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>The first meeting will be Wednesday 7th April in Waterstone's in Walsall. We'll be reading "Heartland" by Anthony Cartwright. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=114#post-284 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:38:25 +0000 dan 284@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Bearwood Book Group, in Birmingham, had their first meeting in spring 2007 with five friends. </p> <p>Since then, there have been three children born amongst the members, but we've never missed a session every six weeks, read a wide variety of books verging from the bizarre (Milan Kundera's "Slowness" and Kinky Friedman) to the sublime (Sebastian Faulks's "Human Traces").</p> <p>Despite one member's impossible quest to find a happy book, we've only had one member drop out due to moving away, we've picked up four new (ir)regular members meaning there are potentially eight of us still meeting in and around Bearwood in pubs or our houses. </p> <p>We've had group outings to events as part of the Birmingham Book Festival, we've had four or five emails from interested people whom we suspect never quite had the courage to show up, and we've only ever put off one potential new member with our raucous discussion. Or it could have been the Kinky Friedman book. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=114#post-283 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:20:37 +0000 penguin 283@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>We're revamping the page on our Penguin Readers' site that offers advice for starting your own book group. It features the West Mainland Readers Group telling us about their first meeting in January 2003 - so it's time for an update. We'd love to hear other experiences of your first meeting, how did it go, how many people turned up and how many people have stayed the course. Post something up on the Forum and we'll pick a new group to feature. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=110#post-282 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:12:58 +0000 penguin 282@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Penguin publish some pretty good crime fiction - when you've got your group together, let us know, we may want you to review a book for us for our Penguin Readers' site.</p> <p>Editor<br /> Penguin Readers' </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=113#post-281 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:09:01 +0000 penguin 281@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Dear Elisabeth</p> <p>We're posting up a couple of new ones in March. I am glad you find them helpful, let us know what you think of the new ones which will appear at the beginning of March.</p> <p>Editor<br /> Penguin Readers' Group </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=42#post-280 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:07:06 +0000 penguin 280@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Dear Birmingham Book Group</p> <p>We're looking for Book Groups to review books for us on our Penguin Readers' site. If you're interested, please email <a href="mailto:readers@uk.penguingroup.com.">readers@uk.penguingroup.com.</a> We will give you a book (a book each, don't worry) to review and this will be posted up on our site. We are looking for reviewers for June/July if you would like to go ahead. It sounds as if you've got eclectic taste.</p> <p>Editor<br /> Penguin Readers' Group </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=42#post-279 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:26:17 +0000 JagSembi 279@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>The next book is 'Sacred Hearts' by Sarah Dunant, currently £3.86 on Amazon!</p> <p>The next meeting is Thursday 11th March, venue to be decided.</p> <p>A big thanks to everyone that attended the last meeting :-)</p> <p>Jag. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=112#post-278 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:15:18 +0000 dan 278@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>And the email address is <a href="mailto:dancarins@phonecoop.coop">dancarins@phonecoop.coop</a> - sorry, I thought member names had contact details available! </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=113#post-277 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:41:41 +0000 Elisabeth 277@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>The book group notes are quite a helpful service! Has anyone worked with them?<br /> @ Penguin How long do you already offer them and will you add new notes soon? </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=112#post-276 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:42:43 +0000 dan 276@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>I'm looking to start a new readers' group in Walsall to read fiction by authors in the Midlands.</p> <p>I'm aiming to start in April with at least six people on Wednesday afternoons from 4pm - 5.30pm in the town centre.</p> <p>If you contact me and leave your email address or phone number, then I can contact you nearer April with a date and venue.</p> <p>I look forward to hearing from you! </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=111#post-275 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:07:03 +0000 hertsbookgroup 275@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hertford Book Group<br /> We meet the first Thursday of every month in a local pub. Meetings are friendly and informal. Members are mainly in their 20s-30s but everyone's welcome. We're looking for new members as recently a number of people have moved out of the area etc. If you're interested in coming along please email <a href="mailto:hertsbookgroup@gmail.com">hertsbookgroup@gmail.com</a> for more details. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=110#post-274 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:28:36 +0000 Poppy 274@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hello! Anyone out there interested in joining / starting a crime fiction book club in Bristol? I love anything from Margery Allingham to Nick Stone (and even some non Penguin authors....) just no true crime.... </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=96#post-273 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:17:59 +0000 penguin 273@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Joshua Ferris reviewers, you have all made a similar response to the Joshua Ferris book. All of you seem to love it. A couple of reviewers, andyc and matthewtett have compared this book to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Many great books are made into less than great films, do you think it would be possible to convey Tim's experiences in a film? </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=108#post-271 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:22:45 +0000 penguin 271@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hello London Book Group - would you like to review a book for us? We're looking for a book group who would be interested in reading and reviewing a book in May. Get in touch with <a href="mailto:readers@uk.penguingroup.com">readers@uk.penguingroup.com</a> - perhaps when you've expanded your group a bit? We've got some great books coming up </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=87#post-270 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:52:18 +0000 Mellionsofbooks 270@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hello! Another person keen to join a book club in the Bridport area here.<br /> Has anyone made any progress in regards to setting one up? I'm happy to help:-) </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=108#post-269 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:01:23 +0000 Beer Books 269@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>We’re a small, friendly group of 30-somethings looking to expand. We’ve been meeting for nearly three years in a central London pub.</p> <p>We take it in turns to choose a book and to lead the resulting discussion.</p> <p>Favourite reads include Doris Lessing’s A Good Terrorist, Raymond Chandler’s Big Sleep and Antal Szerb’s Journey By Moonlight.</p> <p>Get in touch!</p> <p><a href="mailto:beer.books@gmail.com">beer.books@gmail.com</a> </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=96#post-268 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:06:43 +0000 andyc 268@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>The title to this, Joshua Ferris' follow-up to 'Then We Came To The End', presumably refers to the condition from which the protagonist, Tim Farnsworth, suffers, which is an uncontrollable urge to walk. And not just pace up and down or go for a stroll around the block but to head off for days, weeks, months on a tortuous trek that pays no heed to the weather, his physical condition, people, places or indeed any normal reference points that we normally take for granted in our daily lives. More often than not he wakes up on some gas station forecourt, miles from home, dirty, cold, hungry and confused. A phone call to his unbelievably faithful and understanding wife saves him as she interrupts her own increasingly fractured life to come and rescue him. Of course they seek extensive medical advice but despite some comical attempts to try and understand and diagnose his condition his doctors remain baffled and ultimately unhelpful. Once it's known that there is probably no cure there are attempts made to control this completely unpredictable urge (handcuffing him to the bed) and to prepare him properly in the event that he disappears again without anyone being able to stop him (his wife ensures that he wears a backpack containing food, clothes, medical supplies, etc at all times). But eventually it becomes clear that this formidably destructive impulse will have its way and the second half of the book is a dreadfully painful, poignant and horrible descent into physical degradation and a form of madness, all the more shocking because it's clear throughout the book that Farnsworth loves his wife and daughter dearly, wants to lead a normal life, but is completely possessed, helpless and hopeless. In its own way 'The Unnamed' is as desolate and disturbing a novel as Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' - it is as brilliantly written - and will, like that book, surely become an equally bleak film. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=77#post-267 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:05:18 +0000 glasgowmatthew 267@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>I've made a temporary email address <a href="mailto:CD20CA10@yahoo.co.uk">CD20CA10@yahoo.co.uk</a> if you want to get in touch directly. </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=77#post-266 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:16:59 +0000 pixie 266@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi,Sorry so late in replying-did not receive any automatic notification on "reply to topic"(not sure if Penguin have this facility?)<br /> Glasgowmatthew-if you'd like to meet informally for a drink/coffee either one to one or with pals please let me know,but I don't think Penguin have the facility for Private Messaging on this site and I can understand people being reluctant to put their e-mail addresses out on the forum-what to do? </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=107#post-265 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:17:34 +0000 Kate Gould 265@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>You have less than two weeks to provide Oscar Wilde with something to fill his empty head for the chance to win a moleskine at <a href="http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/caption-writing-competition/." rel="nofollow">http://editorial-consultancy.co.uk/caption-writing-competition/.</a> It's an essential part of any writer's wardrobe and could just be the start of that book you've been meaning to write your entire life. Good luck! </p> http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/topic.php?id=78#post-264 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:56:24 +0000 Seema 264@http://penguinreaders.campaignserver.co.uk/ <p>Hi Teyba,</p> <p>Were you ever successful in locating or starting up a group in the Luton area as I am interested also? There doesn't seem to be much happening locally. Look forward to hearing from you.</p> <p>Seema </p>