Buffy's First Month

An incredible start to an incredible community

Well, technically it’s been one and a half months, but who is counting! I announced the book club on April 21st, and we did our first irl book club on the 29th May and again on the 5th June, so the week following on from that seems like a great time to reflect.

I feel so fulfilled by our first month discussing Big Swiss, both online and in real life. Connecting with so many like minded people has also made me feel more connected to myself and my love for reading. I check the chat section daily, and especially loved reading all of your thoughts on the book when we finally got around to discussing it. So thank you all for being a part of that!

The two events I hosted in London were incredible, both evenings didn’t feel nearly long enough and I wish I could have done so many more. At the moment, limiting the tickets each month to around 15 still feels right as it did create an intimate evening, but I do want to find ways to expand this in the future so more people can be involved each month.

What I have been reading outside of our book club picks:

Pew by Catherine Lacey

I loved this little book such a lot, it achieved a lot in very few pages! There are a lot of characters for such small book too, but every one of them was so brilliantly written, and Pew was especially wonderful.

Wool & Shift by Hugh Howey

Completely addicted to and simultaneously frustrated with these books. I finished the second one in the trilogy last night and just want to tell Howey to SLOW DOWN! The pace is also what makes it really readable but there is so much he is rushing through that at times I am struggling to keep up with that is happening. Every chapter ends on a cliff hanger, but with most chapters being 3-4 pages long and the book being 600 pages long, that is almost too many cliff hangers for me to follow.

The Wager by David Grann

Loved this and as always with any good non-fiction, I am left thinking ‘I need to read more non fiction’. It’s just an incredible story that Grann tells so well, it’s peppered with lots of nautical facts which I have SOMEHOW remembered… coming to a pub quiz near you soon.

Four Stars by Joel Golby

This had me laughing out loud in places and sobbing at the end. No one, and I mean NO ONE, writes a commentary on our day to day like Joel. His skill of focusing in on a minute detail of life (eg the pen he likes to write with), and scrutinising it is incredibly funny and relatable.

On my TBR:

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

…obviously. I am going to start this maybe 10 days before our book club and hopefully time it so I can read it up until the day before we start discussing it so it’s fresh in my mind.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

A few people mentioned this when we were discussing Big Swiss, and I have somehow never read it.

Dust by Hugh Howey

1200 pages into this trilogy, and I have to make it to the end.

The Sea by John Banville

I am trying to read every Man Booker winner since the year I was born. It’s just a vague challenge I have set myself and given myself no deadline to finish, but it is a good way to focus my reading choices. This one won in 2005.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

Same reasoning as above!

Biography of X by Catherine Lacy

Pew lead me to this, and it sounds like a really interesting read!!

Book adjacent things:

Floating Points - Promises

This has been my go to record to play when I am reading this week!

Loewe Candles

I am very lucky to be on their press send out list for candles but I have bought one myself in the past and would do it again. They are $$$ but are worth it!! And the pots they come in are so handy once the candle is finished and really are beautiful.

Arm Chairs

I am on the hunt for a comfy arm chair in New York. The sofa I have there is really comfy but I am compelled to sit by my window with a view of the fire escape and the street to really hammer home that I am in New York. And I want to be curled up on something very comfy with a cup of tea resting on the arm of the chair while I do this. A quite specific brief leading me to rather ugly armchairs. Some inspo below:

Thank you all so much for reading and supporting Buffy’s!

Lizzy

xxx