Very much enjoyed last night's somewhat chaotic inaugural Firestation Bookswap. By now I'm sure you all know that this was a hybrid author event / book club hosted by Scott Pack and myself at Windsor's new(ish) arts centre, The Firestation. We'd invited guests Jessica Ruston, whose intelligent-yet-glamorous blockbuster debut Luxury has just come out, and Robert McCrum, who has a wealth of writing and editing experience encompassing fiction, memoir, biography and long stints at Faber and The Observer. We'd persuaded Scott's wife Rhian to bake delicious cakes and macaroons for our guests and audience. We'd got everyone, guests and audience alike, to bring along a book to swap with each other. And then we gathered everyone together, put the kettle on and off we went...
Chat was a mixture of bookish and non-bookish topics, bolstered by audience questions from the anonymous question jar, and less anonymous contributions from the floor. We covered a huge range of issues from broadsheet reviews (six pages in the Observer divide into new releases from big names, books related to news and current affairs, and only small provision for what McCrum referred to as "The History of Sand" type books) and the difficulty of reading Harry Potter out loud, to the most annoying places on earth (Ruston: 'a delayed plane', McCrum: 'the Hay literary festival') and the efficacy of cat worming tablets (no, really). Jess even brought a compilation CD for us to listen to as we mingled afterwards and swapped our books. I was delighted to pick up 'For Richer, For Poorer', Victoria Coren's account of her life as a poker pro, from McCrum but regretfully had to give up my copy of Luxury in return (I will be buying another).
I am sad to say that the number of audience questions means that I did not have a chance to ask Lilalia's question about the physicality of the written word, but I did manage to get in Persephone's regarding whether McCrum ever looks back on 'My Year Off', his memoir of recovering from stroke, and wants to footnote it saying he has changed his mind... His answer started as 'yes, the whole thing' and then swiftly changed over to 'actually, I wanted to write it as it was, and keep it detached but helpful for other stroke sufferers, so no', before settling on 'I have actually blanked out the whole experience so it's a useful record to remind me what happened'.
Thanks to all who came. Our next event will be on Thursday 17th September and I will announce the guests as soon as I can. Meanwhile here is a lovely review from Emma at the Independent blog who can verify the deliciousness of the macaroons... Surely that's incentive enough to join us next month?
'What can you figure out about a guest just from the way they check in?':
Front desk employees and hotel workers discuss different character traits
about guests that tell them how their stay will be
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Imperceptible traits can teach you more than you think!
Some people can tell you everything about themselves by just their
appearance, the way they walk, ...
10 hours ago
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4 comments:
Yes, good fun, I thought. And thankyou for doing the end-of-evening party hostess thing and demanding "SOMEONE SWAP THIS BOOK", so I didn't go home with my sodding copy of Hawksmoor. Much appreciated. I also second the deliciousness of the macaroons.
One thought I had – though this may go against the social aspect of the evening – was that people could leave their book on the table as they come in. Scott could then offer them up whenever the conversation flags. Mind you he seemed to be enjoying the Jeremy Kyle stair-perch stuff so maybe he’s happy as things are.
Glad I could sort of be there in spirit, so thanks for asking my question for me! I think the book-swapping aspect would drive me into fits of indecision --- beforehand. Which book would I give up? If I like a book, I wouldn't want to give it up, and if I dislike a book, I would feel guilty about foisting it upon someone else. Then I'd worry about being judged on the kind of book I'd finally brought to the swap...
McCrum's last answer to my question may become my standard excuse for the existence of my blog.
@prm: re the book swapping method -- I thought it was interesting to hear people sell their books, and we would lose that if the books just went on a table. As it happens, my swap took place in the later stages and I didn't need to do any selling: someone just walked up, asked what book I had for swapping, took one look and said she wanted it. Job done.
@Persephone: I nearly didn't go because I didn't I had a book I wanted to give up. In the end I setyled on a spare copy of a book I've read recently.
Sorry Marie, I seem to have taken over the comment page. It was a great event and I'll definitely be back next time. Many thanks to you and Scott.
I think the philosophy of the swapping is completely fascinating.... Like I thought I would bring two choices, one in case people brought really good things, one in case they brought bad. It turned out that the Windsor crowd were incredibly generous in their book-bringing - the first person I chatted to had a hardback of Nick Davies' Flat Earth News to give away. Almost everyone brought a book they loved - which I found incredibly expansive and friendly, given they didn't know who they'd be swapping with. It really made me smile to realise the level of generosity involved in turning up with a really good book, because it means you want a stranger to read it.... just as long as you both love reading. I thought it was intriguing and great and I loved seeing everyone's strategies....
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