Adelaide Hills Book Group

Hi

i would be interested in starting up a book group that meets in the Hills. I had a great group in the UK and wound live to join one here too! I was thinking more of a chatty, social group rather than intensely debating the book so if it sounds like something you would be interested in then give me a shout ?

Hello and welcome to the forum. Great idea.

I'm part of a book club here and enjoy it when I make it along. Alas not often enough as its usually on a Friday and we are always busy with kids sports clubs that night.

Hi Cherryripe,

I'm interested, depending where you are in the Hills, what time, night etc. It might be nice to see if my brain still works, but in a relaxed environment where we're not (necessarily) analysing each and every word!

LC

Thanks for replying I've been a browser for a while and finally took the plunge to post!

I'm near Hahndorf but happy to drive a bit so depending on where you are we can meet in the middle somewhere. We could arrange a night that suits us both and then see who else is able to come along. Prob Mon, Wed or Thur nights would be best for me. I was thinking around 7pm but flexible on time. What do you think?

Glad you decided to join

Those nights I'd be interested in, though other family members have things on some of those nights. But I'd try to make it along if I could.

I don't mind a drive up out Hahndorf way. Its not hard to get to from where we live. Even to meet in a pub or some such somewhere there or somewhere in between in one of the hills small towns.

The book club I am part of meets near the city most months, usually at someones house and we take it in turn to provide the nibbles, one makes savoury, the other sweet. We have a good crowd, about 10 of us now if we all are able to rock up. We all know in other from before the book club started, or knew some of the others at least so it wasn't we were all strangers meeting for the first time.

Handy thing is the library have a huge list of book club books and you can order the number of copies you want from the list and have them for the time. I think there was something like 5 pages of A4 list wise. So don't have to go buy a copy or borrow your own from a library.

We will be moving up to our house in Hahndorf later in the year, probably November. Never been in a book club before but do read a lot so would be interested. Would be nice to meet people up in the hills. Mind you have a visit to the UK and refurbishment to do before we move so may not have much time for reading!

Depending on where you settle on meeting I'd quite enjoy joining in; Hahndorf is about an hour's drive through the hills for me, and I definitely couldn't do Tuesdays.... So I'll watch this thread with interest and see.

Great ideas about the library sets Snifter I didn't realise that they did that! I'm glad that there is some interest so let's see if we can get a time and place decided How about 7pm on a Wednesday evening at The Haus in Hahndorf? Would that suit everyone? I'm happy to do a Thursday if that suits more!

Where would be an easier place for you Flossybeth? We could alternate meeting places so that you don't have to drive so far

Wow you will be busy Rammygirl! Hahndorf is a beautiful place to live. Hopefully you can join us one evening

Great ideas about the library sets Snifter I didn't realise that they did that! I'm glad that there is some interest so let's see if we can get a time and place decided How about 7pm on a Wednesday evening at The Haus in Hahndorf? Would that suit everyone? I'm happy to do a Thursday if that suits more!

A Wednesday for me will depend on what time I get back from swimming and can get out the door. Its about a half hour drive for me to get to Hahndorf via the back roads.

Thursday is probably a no go for me due to footy training and car being used elsewhere.

Great ideas about the library sets Snifter I didn't realise that they did that! I'm glad that there is some interest so let's see if we can get a time and place decided  How about 7pm on a Wednesday evening at The Haus in Hahndorf?

Sorry I went quiet there, I was thinking!

It's funny how quickly our weeks are taken up. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are all impossible for me, but although Wednesday isn't great either lol, I'm sure I can make it work!

How frequently were you thinking of meeting? I've never been in a book club so I don't know what the norm is...or even if there is one!

I'm ok with travelling up to Hahndorf, but I'm equally happy to move around to make it a bit easier for flossybeth. (I baulked at a forty minute drive, an hour would be !)

Love Snifter's thoughts re. using library sets; didn't even know they existed. Guess it shows how popular book clubs have become . Will you select a book before the first meeting, or decide at the first meeting?

I will be keeping an eye on your thread, Cherryripe, and look forward to meeting up with you all.

LC

Sorry I went quiet there, I was thinking!

 

It's funny how quickly our weeks are taken up. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are all impossible for me, but although Wednesday isn't great either lol, I'm sure I can make it work!

 

How frequently were you thinking of meeting? I've never been in a book club so I don't know what the norm is...or even if there is one!

 

I'm ok with travelling up to Hahndorf, but I'm equally happy to move around to make it a bit easier for flossybeth. (I baulked at a forty minute drive, an hour would be !)

 

Love Snifter's thoughts re. using library sets; didn't even know they existed. Guess it shows how popular book clubs have become . Will you select a book before the first meeting, or decide at the first meeting?

 

I will be keeping an eye on your thread, Cherryripe, and look forward to meeting up with you all.

 

LC

To chip in with a few things that may be useful from what I've experienced with the book club I am part of

The book club I go to meets once every 4-6 weeks. We meet a someones house so take it in turns to bring nibbles. Two of us usually do this, one savoury, one sweet and we usually have 5-10 people. Meeting at a cafe or pub would obviously solve the nibbles issues

Library sets - What we did to start us off was have a meeting so we could all meet each other (as some of us were friends with one person, didn't know the rest for example), chat, share what our reading likes/dislikes are, get to know each other and peruse a long list of books from the library that we could borrow a set of for the numbers we needed.

We all suggested a few books from the list that caught our eye. Then we whittled those down (ie if some of us had read one and didn't want to re read it, we crossed it off). So we tried to find all new books or ones some of us didn't mind to read again. I think we all came up with at least 5 books each we liked the sound of, if not more for some of us .

Then once the short list was agreed on, ie we had a good list to start us off and didn't mind which one of those the library had in stock, one of us would go collect them all. Then we picked them up from the persons house over the next couple of weeks but had also said we'd have another meet up if not to get them all out or if someone could not get over in the time could borrow from their local library. Then we had 3-4 weeks to read the first book and the second one was already waiting for us at the next book club meeting iirc.

My only suggestion re the book to kick things off, don't go for a really heavy going one. Some people struggle to get into a book and I know we started off with a good light one and then the second book was We Need To Talk About Kevin and all of us found that really hard going for various reasons and some could not, would not finish it (which is fine and it makes for interesting convo as to why they could not) but we all agreed that the really heavy material was perhaps better discussed on before we got stuck in in future. We usually discuss the short list and opt for 2 or 3 possibles each time from that to try to get and usually manage to get one of them. If none are in, we email so we can agree on which others ones to try for.

Occasionally, usually over the summer hols we tend to have a free for all where we can choose any book to read and then come back and talk about to the group. Often it has others going away to read the books discussed. Last summer my reading had been the Captain Underpants series as my son was wanting me to read them after him so we could talk about them. So I took them all along to book club, we had a lot of laughs about them. Also we sometimes suggest a new book out that is much talked about but getting copies can be tricky so can mean sourcing your own.

I'm a tentative follower too.

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OK so did anything ever come of this idea? @Cherryripe went quiet so not sure if anything happened.

If Cherryripe doesn't come back sometime soon to let us know, does anyone want to carry on and arrange a meet up one evening? If Cherryripe does then pop back up she can of course jump in on it all

We can plan ahead, say a months notice to give people time and hopefully have a clear night or two to choose from. I know in a few weeks I'll be down to being busy on a Weds evening only on weekdays but will need to wait for hubby to come home from footy training on Tues and Thurs but can hopefully wangle something.

PS - If we arrange a public place to meet the first few times and we get a nice little group going I am happy to offer to then have book club meet at my house once the weather warms up, if that appeals to others?

That sounds great, Snifter!

I like the planning ahead, meeting in a public place, and potentially borrowing a book from the library rather than necessarily buying a copy!

Anyone else still fancy it?

LC

Still dependent on where you're meeting but I'm still watching this thread.

So, a few of us ladies are still interested in a book club (and a chance to meet up and chat ) and we put our heads together and finally came up with a date, time and location for a meet up We are going for a southern hills area to meet up around Coromandel Valley way. Public place and all that to start us off.

Monday Sept 12 at 7pm is when we are getting together.

If you are interested in joining us feel free to drop a PM or reply here in the thread and I can let you know where we will be meeting. More than happy to have others from the forum join us

I'll go get the book club reading list for us to peruse on the night and we can see if anything appeals and make our own suggestions also of course. The idea to start is we can borrow the books we choose from our local libraries or the library book club rather than buying copies (unless you like to buy your books) and then arrange another meet up 4-6 weeks later to catch up and chat.

So, if anyone else is interested, give us a shout

Cheers

S

Hi

I am still interested. I am in the UK at the moment back on the 8th Sept. We are then decorating our home in Hahndorf which has been rented out ready to move in early October, so will be pretty busy and probably won't make the Monday meet. Let me know the book you choose though and I will read it and hopefully be able to come to the next meeting.

Sounds good @Rammygirl

Anyone else interested? Its a few of us so far meeting up next week.

Just giving this a bump to see if anyone else is interested in joining us next Monday

It's tonight!

Looking forward to meeting you .

LC

Likewise. See you there

Thank you for a very enjoyable evening...we might not have chosen a book, but we certainly covered a fair few topics!

Come join us, you people out there, I think this is going to be fun!

LC

We a lovely evening. Really enjoyed myself

Once we've settled on a book to read I'll put up a link to it on here. If anyone else is interested in reading it or joining us next time to chat about it (and lots of other things) they are more than welcome