News and updates
The North London Reading Group is a reading group based around the Piccadilly line in North London. This is what we've been up to recently.
We've rescheduled our next meeting for Thursday 29 May. We will be discussing Julian Barnes' England England in Holloway.
Our next is on Thursday 24 April and it looks like it will be rather a special one. We'll be discussing Londonstani — the very first book we read as a group — with its author Gautum Malkani at Gordon's Wine Bar from 6pm.
Afterwards, we'll be moving onto Poejazzi, which as its name suggests is a poetry-cum-jazz night. We saw one of its organisers in action recently on a reading group extra-curricular night out and were mightily impressed.
Stuck for something to do this Sunday?
One of our members is organising an arts event on Sunday 13 April. Look Both Ways promises to be a fab night out featuring poetry, music, acting, comedy, photography and fashion. For more details check out its MySpace page.
It's at The Old Queens Head, Essex Road, Islington from 6pm. Come and join us.
Perhaps it's something to do with spring being in the air. In a fit of organisation, we've set dates for our next two North London Reading Group meetings. The next meeting will be on Thursday 24 April, with another on 22 May.
Excitingly, we are hoping to discuss one of our previous reads with the author at one of these, and England, England by Julian Barnes at the other. Full details and venues TBC.
We've also successfully spawned a second reading group, which is currently reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. We look forward to finding out whether they loved it as much as we did.
Joining a reading group seems to have been a new year's resolution for many as we've had lots of people asking to join.
Some of our members are therefore holding a get together to try and help kick off a second North London Reading Group. This will be happening at Smithy's Wine Bar in King's Cross on Tuesday 18 March at 7pm. The aim will be to decide on a format for a new group, and agree a date and book to discuss for a first meeting.
Smithy's is near King's Cross station but is tucked away at The Stables, 15-17 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HY. A map is available on its website.
If you are interested please get in touch or pop along.
The North London Reading Group will be meeting after Easter on Thursday 27 March to discuss Ukrainian satire thriller Death and the Penguin.
Since January we've had quite a few enquiries from people wanting to join us. There are now enough people on the waiting list to form a second reading group. If you are interested in helping to set this up, please get in touch with us.
Also, if you've stumbled across this website for the first time, you may well be interested in Bookslam on 28 Feb. Some of our members went to January's event and had an enjoyable literary night out.
We'll be meeting to discuss the first of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series - The Eyre Affair - on Wed 20 Feb.
We'll be straying just very slightly from the Piccadilly line and will be catching up at The Bull at Angel at 7:30. We've got a table at the back.
We've shifted to a Wednesday to ensure Reading Groupers can wine and dine their beloveds on Valentine's Day. But will we fall in love with Jasper Fforde?
Over the Christmas holidays the North London Reading Group will be taking a break from fiction with Tunnel Visions by Christopher Ross.
Tunnel Visions is an account of the human zoo that is the London Underground, penned by a corporate lawyer turned station assistant at Oxford Circus.
We'll be reconvening on 17 January to talk about it at The Gate in Wood Green from 7:30 PM.
With the Book of Dave swiftly dispatched, we have set our sights on The Road — an apocalypic American novel by Cormac McCarthy — for our first Christmas Reading Group.
We'll be discussing The Road at 7:30 on Mon 10 December in the fine Cittie of Yorke pub in Holborn. We may even have a seasonal shandy or two.
However, if The Road goes down like the Book of Dave, fellow revellers might want to duck from copies flung across the room...
The next Reading Group has been rescheduled for Wed 7 Nov. We will be discussing another London novel, the Book of Dave by Will Self. We'll be meeting in the Holloway area, location details to follow via email and on Facebook.
We gave Suite Francaise a good going over on Thursday 20 Aug in The Woodbine pub in Highbury. You can find discover the verdict in the books section of this site, which charts everything we've read so far and what we thought of it.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday 4 October at 7:30PM. We will be meeting towards the end of the Picadilly Line at Southgate, reknowned for its funky tube station and erm, being birthplace of legendary DJ Simon Mayo. Full location details on Facebook.
We will be discussing Iain Banks' debut, The Wasp Factory.
The 'get in touch' box on the right has been broken over the last couple of weeks. It's now fixed, so if you used it recently and not heard from me, please contact us again. Sorry!
The NLRG had a great first discussion on 2 August, where Londonstani was well received. Whilst some of us were initially put off by the lingo, we found it to be an enlightening glimpse into teenage Anglo Asian life, innit. We decided to mark it out of ten and the average was a respectable seven.
Meeting number two will be on Thursday 30 August at 7:30PM. We'll be discussing Suite Francaise by Irene Némirovsky, an unfinished book published some 65 years after its author died in Auschwitz.
In the meantime, I've set up the obligatory Facebook group for us to share messages and directions for the next meeting, which will be in the Arsenal area.
The North London Reading Group had an enjoyable first pow wow last night at Smithy's Wine Bar.
Our first reading group meeting proper will be on Thursday 2 August at 7:30 PM. We'll be discussing Londonstani, a debut by Gautam Malkani that follows four Asian teenagers in Hounslow. It sounded like a book that would generate some interesting reactions...
I'll email precise venue details to people on the mailing list once I've received them.
We also agreed a format:
- we'll be meeting monthly on a Thursday evening
- we'll be discussing fiction only
- we'll all take turn to host - whether at our homes or another venue
- the host gets to choose next month's book, but will also keep a reserve choice in mind
- we'll also take turns to chair - the chair will prepare a few questions and do a bit of research about the book and author.
Thanks to those who made it, it was great to meet you all. If you sent your apologies, hope you are able to join our first discussion in August.
I can confirm the date of our initial meeting. The aim is to choose a first book, agree on a format and get to know each other over a glass of wine or two.
Date: Tuesday 10 July
Time: 7pm onwards
Venue: Smithy's Wine Bar, 15-17 Leeke Street, Kings Cross, London, WC1X 9HY
Travel: Kings Cross/St Pancras tube - map available here.
We've a round table booked near the bar, and I'll stick some books on it to make it as obvious as possible.
See you there — glad to hear people seem to be looking forward to it!
Enough people are now up for a North London Reading Group, so I'll be sending an email around over the next few days to get people together. Looking forward to meeting those who responded!
Six people (including me) so far. Thanks to those who have got in touch to express interest. When there's between ten and fifteen people I'll be in touch to set something up.
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