'Reading in General'

An introduction to a new thread in our chat.

Hi everyone!

A while ago (and I apologise for how long it’s taken for me to do this), someone asked for a ‘Reading in General’ thread on the chat, which as of today, I have started.

It’s a pretty broad theme so I thought I would also share a little newsletter with my own ideas around this, and how this could become a really big part of our Buffy’s community.

Last week I hosted my first ‘general’ event for Buffy’s with my the incredibly talented Simay. We titled it ‘A Place To Read’, rented out a gorgeous house in East London, displayed some rare vintage books from Simay’s collection, and lots of you stopped by to say hello, have a brew and sit and read. This, alongside the traditional format of a book club, is something I would like to do more of. The idea being that Reading in General connects us all, in ways beyond a book club.

I would love the chat to be a place to share photos you have taken of book/reading related bits! I LOVE seeing the photos of everyone reading the monthly books, and Kate shared this photo in the chat last week and I loved it so much:

Thank you Kate for sharing this in our chat!

It can be a space to talk about other books you want to recommend, ways you find more time to read, music you have been listening to while reading, places you recently visited that reminded you of a certain book… the list could be endless.

Some of my own recent observations about Reading In General:

1. Don’t take a 700+ page book with you on holiday, the glue will melt and it will fall apart.

2. Do you all write your name in your book? I am going to start writing mine and the date I started and finished it, partly for my own memory and as a nice personal touch for the ones I give away to friends. I found this book in a shop in Hampstead Heath with a poem written in the front, the book was just £15, and about an artist I haven’t heard of, but I bought it just for the handwritten poem.

   

3. I find it very hard to pick up a book for a few days (maybe even a week) once I am back from a holiday. Something about the general gear shift increasing again means I find no capacity for anything other than mindless scrolling.

4. Currently rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which yes, is the inspiration behind this being called Buffy’s. Apparently Buffy is short for Elizabeth (google it, no one ever believes me), and Buffy Summers is my lifelong hero and idol, so when it came to naming something that I didn’t want to be my own name, it was an obvious choice.

5. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was my holiday read (all 1000 pages of it, perhaps the longest book I have ever read). I enjoyed it a lot and want to watch the TV show, which I am going to save until winter to do. It’s way too long, and not a scratch on Piranisi for me, but it was so nice to feel so emerged into the world Clarke builds. Glad I read it but if you feel a little intimidated by long books, like I do, I wouldn’t hugely recommend.

6. I’ve been listening to this record a lot while reading:

7. Earlier this week I had my favourite sort of day. I had a few different meetings spread apart enough that I had time to take the bus between each one, rather than rush about in an Uber or short tube rides (I can’t read in cars without getting carsick, and if a tube ride is less than 10 mins I don’t find it long enough to open my book). It meant I managed to squeeze about 2hrs of reading time into my day, without feeling guilty for it as I was constantly on my way to my next meeting!

That’s it for now. I look forward to hearing all about your reading habits, preferences and musings in this chat, join in here.