Wood Green 2 Days Later.

As London and some of the big cities around the UK get pounded by rioters, I thought it would be useful to update you on what's happening in Wood Green.
The shops that got clobbered on Sunday morning are mostly open again now. However some of the worst affected, like HMV are 'closed until further notice' according to the signs.

HMV on Sunday and again this morning

The Body Shop spent all of yesterday cleaning up and doesn't look like it'll be open for a few days.

Body Shop on Sunday and again this morning

Last night there were a few idiots causing mischief on the High Road. It seems that this time they were more intent on smashing things rather than nicking stuff. Stones were thrown from the balconies in Sky City (a block of flats above the shopping centre) and windows of the shops below were smashed. I remember a few years ago having eggs thrown at me from here. That was funny. This is not.

Shocked? I'm appalled.

 

 

We have opened as normal. We held our Knitting Group on Sunday and we did our songs and stroytelling to under 5's on Monday morning. We're trying not ot let the situation affect us, but you cannot help but notice the strange atmosphere. Rumours flew around all day yesterday. According to various sources throughout the day I heard rumours that gangs were heading to Wood Green on about eight different occasions. Thankfully none of these rumours were true but at 4.00pm (after the trouble started in Mare Street in Hackney), a number of the shops on the High Street suddenly closed. The owner of the cafe next door to us came in and told us that he'd had a call from his friend up the road in Palmer's Green say there was trouble on the way and that he was closing. Then a rumour that trouble was brewing in Green Lanes just south of Wood Green. I then got a phone call from a friend in the Council telling me that all the shops on the High Road were being closed, although the police were stressing there was no trouble.

When we got a call from my daughter's nursery up the road, telling us that they were closing early and I should come and pick her up, we decided it was time to close.

All these rumours make it very difficult to carry on like normal and, as a precaution, we have cancelled our Book Group discussion tonight. Having 15-20 of our customers leaving the bookshop after dark while there's so much tension in the air seems like an unneccessary risk. We hope this is the only thing we'll have to cancel as the events and groups define the bookshop (in normal circumstances this would be the time where I link you all to the events page on our website).

I suspect this atmosphere will remain for a while, but it's a testament to the communities that have been affected that they have all rallied round to help clean up the areas affected. If you're on twitter, please check out @riotcleanup as they seem to be coordinating things very well.

Thanks for your messages of support They really do mean a lot.

North London Looting

I was going to write a lovely blogpost about figuring out what book you would hate to not have in stock if you owned a bookshop, but sadly things have turned rather ugly and horrible here in North London. Tottenham has taken the brunt of the rioting and looting and setting fire to anything that it is possible to set fire to, however at about 2am this morning things started happening in Wood Green.

People turned up, having realised that all the police were trying to control the stuff going on in Tottenham, and started smashing Wood Green to pieces.

Burnt out car on Wood Green High Road

The Body Shop. Where looters can stock up on their Jojoba.

These are two photos I took this morning as I came to work. They are both less than 200 yards from the bookshop.

We are not at all happy about this. The people who did this are not representative of how Wood Green (and Tottenham) feel. The people who did this, for example, to HMV...

are fucking idiots. They have used a controversial and tragic incident and turned it into an excuse to steal things and smash things and ruin things. They have no interest in anything other than what they can gain from this situation and I am furious.

I had a text message at 5.30am from one of our most wonderful and precious customers. She lives above a shop on the High Road (where these photos were taken). She texted me to tell me about how horrible things were and to give me a warning in case I didn't know. Now here's the thing. She is pregnant, and was due to give birth yesterday. The High Road has been cordoned off. All the police and ambulances are in Tottenham. Not a good situation when the looting and rioting in Wood Green has been going on for 2-3 hours without any police intervention (they are all still in Tottenham) and the likelihood of a taxi to take you to a hospital is zero.

This is just one example of the short sighted, ignorant, self indulgent and greedy nature of the actions in Wood Green and Tottenham. There are many many more.

Here are a couple more photos.

This is an independent clothes store, ransacked and destroyed. Insurance will not cover the damage caused.

The Carphone Warehouse

Many more shops got trashed on the High Road. Specsavers, Boots, H & M, Holland & Barratt, The O2 shop, and more.

Sometimes, when there is a protest about something and violence occurs in the back of your head you think 'I do not agree with this at all, but actually I can understand why they are angry'. This piss poor excuse for violence and mayhem has caused nothing but anger in Wood Green. Everyone I have spoken too is ashamed and angry that this has happened.

This is not representative of Wood Green. This little place in North London is a diamond and we will not let this terrible night of violence ruin things.

I don't have any solutions but I know that there are so many passionate and community minded people in N22. And we need to make sure that we remain proud and supportive of the area.

On Friday I was at a nursery just up the road, where my daughter goes. They were having a 'carnival' and there was music and dancing and lots of food and drink, and it was a wonderful atmosphere, where you realised what a wonderful community there was. This is how is still see Wood Green and i'm sure that in the next few days Wood Green will show how resilient it is to this dreadful series of events.

Catch Up

Here's a list of things that have happened recently. This blogpost is a precursor to more regular posts in future.

• I cycled 120 miles to Dunwich from Hackney overnight on July 17th/18th. This is what it was all about. Despite forecasts of thunderstorms and gales, an hour before we left peace descended and the weather for the whole journey was wonderful. It was one of the most memorable expereinces of my life and i'm currently looking for other similar bike rides that I can get involved with. So far we've raised about £400 for local schools, but the schools themselves are also raising money, so I won't know the final figure until September, when they come back from their holidays. Many many thanks to Azeem, who was my inspiration for this. He is a lovely lovely person.  
• It was my birthday last week.
• The local market was a big success at the bookshop. We aim to have a regular market in the bookshop, where people can come along and set up a stall selling stuff that's locally produced or made. We had six stalls, selling necklaces & bracelets, knitted stuff, Tottenham Honey, plums and berries, plants, cakes (and cupcakes). Next month (August 21st) we intend it to be bigger and we already have jam in production, a local artist who's interested in coming along and a lot more produce. If you know someone who'd like a stall, no matter how big or small, let me know. The stalls are free.  Check out the event page on the website for more news.
• We're teasing with the idea of selling second hand books
• Our attempt to break the World Record for the largest ever reading group sadly failed. That's the bad news. However the good news is that the systems we set up (the forum and the facebook page) were visited, and discussions took place. I have learned lessons from this. Firstly, I need to give myself more time to organise things. Secondly, I need to be less of a control freak, and accept all the offers of support and help I had to get this working. The book we discussed, Where Would I Be Without You by Guillaume Musso, got mixed reviews as we expected. It is a translated novel, and is part romance, part thriller and part paranormal. We chose it, as it is a pretty easy read, very accessible and there'd be lots to discuss. We asked everyone involved to give it a score out of ten and of the 31 people who replied, the average score was 5.6. Not to bad. We'll be doing this again next year, but we'll be giving ourselves a lot more time to organise it and i'll get a lot more help.
• We had a rodent in the shop. We don't any more.
• Our computer collapsed recently. Very badly. This meant that we couldn't send out our newsletter and we lost some very important documents. A nasty virus ate our backup (i don't know what any of that means). Anyway, a lovely person called Suze has given us her old laptop, so we can now send out the emails again. We still need to keep our old computer, as it has our stock control system on it and lots of other dreamy things. It stops working every 3 hours. This isn't much fun. This story isn't going anywhere. These are the facts though. 
• I have tried Blackcurrant Lucozade and I deem it GOOD.
• The Booker Prize longlist has been announced. This year there are some PAPERBACKS in the list! That means that people might be able to afford to buy them. That's much more inclusive. Well done. Oh hang on, 2 of them weren't actually published when the longlist was announced. So NOBODY, except those of us lucky enough to be in the book trade who occassionaly get books early, are able to read them. As you were. 

There we go. 

World's Largest Reading Group - The Rules

So we tried to organise the World's Largest Reading group and set some kind of Record.

This hasn't been easy to organise.

Our blogpost here will give you some idea of what we are trying to achieve. We've had further communication with the people at The Guinness World Records, but sadly a way to make this an official World record has not been found.
Thankfully there are still lots of you who want to take part, and we have done our best to get as much sorted out as possible. There's still time to join and read the book (Where Would I Be Without You by Guillaume Musso). It took me less than two days to get through it, so there IS still time.

We have a forum set up here (this is the main discussion area), which also links the Twitterfeed for the hashtag #readinggroup. If you are on Twitter you can use this hashtag in your message, and it will come up on the screen on the forum page.

In order to voice your opinion of the book on the Forum, you need to register. This just means clicking register (in the top right hand corner of the Forum) and putting a name and your email address. We need you to do this to calculate how many people are using the Forum.
We also have a Facebook Page (you need to log in to facebook to see this) which you can also use to join in the discussion on Saturday.

You can come to the Big Green Bookshop at 6.00pm on Saturday and join the debate WITH REAL PEOPLE. There will be snacks and drink to add to the enjoymant.

You can meet amongst yourselves and discuss the book this way too. But if you want to be counted towards the final number of people who were involved in the reading Group you must get in touch via twitter/facebook/forum/telephone/email and let us know how many of you there are.

The discussion will begin on Saturday morning. I'll add a couple of discussion points to the forum and the facebook account and see what happens. I suspect the main discussion will take place in the later part of the afternoon to the early evening.

Thrughout the day you will be able to vote (out of 10) on the book. This will be our most accurate way of working out how many people are involved, so if you are in a group please send individual scores to us (you can send them in one message if you like).

At 8.00pm we shall start to calculate how many people have been involved and what the average score for the book is.

At about 9.00pm we will announce on here, the website, the forum, twitter and facebook;

• The number of people who were involved in the World Record Attempt
• The average score the book was given.

Then I will go home.

We would have liked to have sorted out one or two more exciting things, like getting video links so that we could discuss the book this way.
Sadly our computer has for the last two weeks refused to work for more than 3 hours at a time, before deciding to stop. It has also started to chew up and delete important things, which hasn't made this any easier.
BUT ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
I'm really grateful for everyone who helped spread the word about this attempt. It seems like there will still be lots of people who are going to be taking part, so whatever happens, it will be good fun.
The whole idea of this was to try and raise the profile of reading groups and to celebrate how great they are, and if we've done that in the tiniest of ways, then we're happy.

Hope to hear from you on Saturday.

Newsletter.

Hello,
  here is a copy of our newsletter which we send out each week. I have added some pictures to make it look pretty. Yes, we do a lot don't we?

Hello,

this week's newsletter is a long one, but we thought it would be useful to remind you of some of the regular events we put on as well as letting you know about the special author events too.

There's news of a couple of events we've just confirmed at the end of the newsletter too, as well as news of the Big Green Bookshop Quiz.

Simon's training for the sponsored 120 miles cycle ride is going well and he's taken the stabilisers off his bike. The next step is turning corners.

We really need people to join in with our world record book group to make it a record worth breaking. You can join in as a group, or on your own. All you have to do is read “Where Would I Be, Without You?” by Guillaume Musso. There’s even a Facebook page and a twitter hashtag (#ReadingGroup) to make it easier for you to get involved. Put Saturday July 30th in your diary now.

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine and hope to see you soon.

Coming up over the next fortnight

Tuesday June 28^th 7.00pm-9.00pm

The Alexander Technique Explained.

Have you ever wondered what the Alexander Technique is all about? Yes, me too. Well, to shed some light on this little understood skill Jeremy Cassidy, an Alexander Teacher who works in Tottenham and Highbury, will be giving a practical talk here at the Bookshop at 7pm on Tuesday 28th June. You may have already sat up straight just reading these words.
Refreshments will be available.

Thursday June 30th 7.00pm-9.00pm

Hayley Campbell Takes us on an Autobiographical Tour of Horror Comics

When Hayley Campbell was between the ages of three and thirteen, her Dad (Eddie Campbell) was illustrating a 600 page graphic novel called From Hell, a book about Jack the Ripper and one of the grisliest and most over-theorised spate of serial killings in history. This is a talk about what becomes of a three-year-old whose father goes to the butcher and asks for bits of cow, places them on a hanky and uses them as picture reference for the insides of disembowelled prostitutes: she becomes totally obsessed with death. It’s an autobiographical history of horror comics – her own careening train of enthusiasm and the stuff it collided with on the way. There's stuff you've heard of, stuff you haven't, and stuff she'd be better off keeping to herself.
Hayley writes for the Comics Journal, London’s esteemed Gosh! Comics Blog, and is working on a book about Neil Gaiman.
Tickets are just £3, which will be redeemable on any graphic novel or horror title bought or ordered on the night.
Tickets can be purchased here, or by contacting the shop direct.
This is going to be a brilliant evening and we hope you can make it.

Friday July 1^st  11.00am

Songs and Stories for the under 5’s

Relax for an hour in the shop as we read stories and sings songs. Ideal for the under 5’s. Tea and coffee (and flapjacks) served. FREE, but all contributions very welcome.

Friday July 1^st 8.00pm-10.00pm

Working Title Comedy Club presents The Age of Treason

The Age of Treason's Edinburgh preview show will take place under the auspices of Working Title comedy club at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. Three stand up comedians will tell you hair raising stories of love and hate, heart breaks and heart attacks, skinhead weddings, fridge magnets, serial killers, and war and piss in the Middle East. And there'll be uplifting music too. With Liz Hobbs, Boris Witz and MissD. Guest MC: Mark Jeary.pounds.
Bring a bottle of wine or a few cans of beer, it is a bit like a house party. And do buy a book while you are there. So you get to see an Edinburgh Preview, support live comedy in London, support independent bookshops AND have a party. How much more worthy can you get? AND WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE??? And all this for meagre 3 British Ponds. Come!

 Saturday July 2^nd 10.30am-11.30am

Kids Reading Group (Artemis Fowl)

Hurrah! The Children's Reading Group is back. Aimed at kids aged around 8-12 we'll be meeting every month and discussing a different book each time.

The book that we're going to be talking about is Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.

Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit). For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own. Add to that the fact that Holly is a true heroine and that her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back and you've got the mother of all sieges brewing!

So, if you've read it and want to talk about it, or if you haven't read it and want to, or if you are just interested in coming along, then we'll be meeting on Saturday July 2nd at 10.30am.

Also, as a bonus to those of you that turn up, one of you will be taking home a very special signed copy of Eoin's book Airman. We have a pre publication proof copy which i'm sure you'll enjoy, so there's another reason to come along.

Biscuits and juice will be available.

Note to parents / guardians. You don't have to stick around during the discussion. You can head off for an hour and leave the kids in the shop with us.

Sunday July 3^rd 1.00pm-4.00pm

Knitting Day at the Bookshop

Join us for our monthly knitting day at the shop. No experience necessary, as there are lots of lovely knitters who are happy to help you. It’s a lovely relaxing way to spend a Sunday, so come along.

Tea coffee and biscuits will be available throughout the day.

Tuesday July 5^th 7.00pm-9.00pm

The Big Green Bookshop Quiz.

The Big Green Bookshop's now legendary quiz nights returns, due to popular demand. The theme of the quiz is mainly book related but we’ve introduced one or two rounds to test out your knowledge of other cultural joys (not the Simpsons again though).
Each team will have a MAXIMUM OF 4 people
It's £5 per team to enter. Payment in advance please.
The Quiz will start at 7.00pm prompt, so please try and get here on time.
You can buy a ticket online http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/quiz/quiz-entry/prod_415.html which will guarantee you a table, or else you can pay over the phone or you can actually come into the bookshop. Yes the bookshop.
Refreshments will be available, but feel free to bring your own as they usually run out pretty quickly
Your question master will be TheManWhoFellAsleep Greg Stekelman. He is very funny. This is his website. http://www.themanwhofellasleep.com/
Look forward to seeing you there.
Please come along. 

Wednesday July 6^th 11.00am

Elevenses Coffee and Cake Book Group

We meet at Café Nero on Wood Green High Road on the first Wednesday of each month. This month’s book choice is A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel.

Please come along if you’re interested in joining the group, even if you don’t have a chance to read the book.

Wednesday July 6^th 7.00pm

Writers Group.

We meet every fortnight at the bookshop. The group shares experiences and offers each other support and advice. The group is for genre fiction writers of all levels and experience. £3 entrance. This is a really useful group and if you’re at all interested it would be well worth coming along

Thursday July 7^th 7.00pm

Graphic Novels and Comics Reading Group

Whether you're a comic book veteran or an eager novice, all are welcome at our new group for comics and graphic novels. We meet on the first Thursday of every month at 7pm. This month we'll be discussing horror as a genre/theme, and Hellblazer: Original Sins is our suggessted reading material. A second reading option is Chew: Taster's Choice. Both these fine books are available at the shop now. FREE.

Friday July 8^th 11.00am

Songs and Stories for the under 5’s

Relax for an hour in the shop as we read stories and sings songs. Ideal for the under 5’s. Tea and coffee (and flapjacks) served. FREE, but all contributions very welcome.

Friday July 8^th 8.00pm

Working Title Comedy Club Edinburgh Preview.

Every Friday throughout July we’ll be hosting comedy at the shop, showcasing some of the best acts that will be performing at this years Edinburgh Festival. More details nearer the time.

Just confirmed

Wednesday July 13^th 7.00pm

Maggie Butt talks about & reads from her new book Ally Pally Prison Camp.

Few people are aware that Alexandra Palace in North London was used as a prison of war camp in the First World War. Although the 3000 men who were interned there were of German nationality, many of them had lived and worked in England for many years and had English wives and children.
Further research from Maggie Butt uncovered letters from these men, as well as photographs of life in the camp and a number of fine paintings by the artist, George Kenner, who was one of the prisoners. Maggie has brought this material together and with a series of her poems based on the Ally Pally Prison Camp, has produced a fascinating and moving record of a piece of little-known history.
The bookshop is delighted to be welcoming Maggie back for her first event to celebrate the launch of the new book, published by Oversteps Press and priced just £10.
This is a FREE event and refreshments will be available.

Thursday July 21^st at 7.00pm

David Pinner author of Ritual, the book that inspired The Wicker Man

Originally published in 1967, Ritual follows the trail of English police officer, David Hanlin, who is requested to investigate the murder of a local child in an enclosed small Cornish village. During the protagonist's short stay, he is slowly subjected to a spectacle of psychological trickery, sexual seduction, ancient religious practices and nightmarish sacrificial rituals.

 Pinner's poetic and hallucinatory sequences were transformed into the rural celluloid folk story for Robin Hardy's 1973 film, The Wicker Man, which has enthralled and inspired generations of British movie patrons and folk-pop enthusiasts throughout the world.

 Original copies of Ritual's short print run have been known to command price tags as high as £600, rendering reading copies, in any form, to be virtually untraceable... until now.

 Finders Keepers Record's debut print run sees Ritual painstakingly reproduced from the author's own personal copy, including its original striking wood-cut cover artwork and a new forward by The Guardian / The Times journalist and pop composer Bob Stanley.

 David has kindly agreed to join us to talk about this and also about his extraordinary career as an actor, author and playwrite. This is a not to be missed opportunity and we hope you'll be able to make it.

The book will be available on the night for £7.99 and David will be happy to sign copies for you.

This is a FREE event, but please get here early as this is likely be a very popular.

The Dunwich Dynamo

Hello.
 It all started during our appeal in March. We had been totally overwhelmed by the wonderful and generous people who wanted to keep the bookshop going, and by the incredible things that people offered to do to help.

 One morning a customer came in and told us that her husband, let's call him Azeem, was doing a cycle ride in July and wanted to donate any money that he made in sponsorship to the Bookshop. This was one of those *gulp* moments for me. One of those *hold it together Simon, don't blub again* moments. I held it together and after saying thank you thank you thank you, said that the least I could do was do the cycle ride with him too. I like a bike ride, me.

 She told me that the ride was known as the Dunwich Dynamo and that Azeem had done it last year and loved it. She then gave me a few more bits of information.

• It's an overnight ride
• It's unsupported (there was no organisation as such)
• Oh, and it's 120 miles.

OK. 120 miles. That's like cycling from London to Bristol. Or like Portsmouth to Coventry. That's quite a long way isn't it?

Here's the Route.



A gentle jaunt overnight from Hackney, through idylic countryside and along uncared for potholed roads, ending on the Suffolk coast in a little place called Dunwich. This is what I can tell you about Dunwich at the moment. Time Team are in Dunwich right now. HP Lovecraft wrote a short story called The Dunwich Horror . It's 120 miles away.

Well, it's happening. It's happening alright. And we're going to do it. And there'll be 4 or 5 of us doing it now. It's happening on July 16/17th and will probably take me until July 18th to finish and July 29th to recover. Just in time for the Reading Group World Record attempt (see previous blogpost).

But we're not going to be raising money for the shop. We're going to be raising money for six local Schools. The budgets for Schools have been cut somewhat recently (some may even go as far as to say they have been slashed), and as such there is less for them to spend on books. We like books and we like kids being able to read books, so any money raised will go towards buying books for the School libraries. It might not be much, but we all hope that whatever we raise helps a little bit.

I'M CYCLING 120 MILES!! IN THE DARK!!

The six Schools are Primary Schools that have supported us or that we know don't have a huge budget for books, and so we hope they will benefit from this. It is very difficult choosing Schools as there are so many that we'd like to help, but it seemed to make sense to choose six.

The six schools are;

• Noel Park Primary School N22
• South Harringay Infant/Junior School N4
• North Harringay Primary School N8
• St Michael's CE Primary School N22
• Broadwater Farm Primary School N17
• Chestnuts Primary School N15

OK, so here's a link that gives you a bit of information about the cycle ride we'll be doing. They make it sound so easy. I shall be tweeting throughout the night, so you can all enjoy the pain I will be suffering. I hope it doesn't rain.

If you want to donate/sponsor us, a special Dunwich Dynamo account has been set up. We wanted to do one of those Just Giving pages, but because Schools aren't charities we couldn't.

120 MILES!!

There's a button on the Top Right of this Blog which will link you to the Donation Account. It is sensibly called 'Dunwich Dynamo'.

Clearly, this is a very local appeal, but even if you don't want to donate, please spread the word. It's really important to us.
Really important.

Thanks.

Reading Group World Record Attempt.

Here's a copy of a Press Release we have sent out to push our World Record Attempt.
If you know anyone who may be interested, please let them know.
Ta.

To celebrate National Reading Group Day, the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green is organising a nationwide attempt to set a World Record for the Largest Reading Group ever. This is being supported by The Independent Booksellers Week and is aimed to raise the profile of Reading Groups and their importance in our communities.

The attempt will take place on Saturday July 30^th and will be made by joining people nationwide using social networking websites Twitter and Facebook, using a website forum and also Skype and video links.

 On the day of the record attempt itself, those wanting to take part will be asked to register online with a central administrator based at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. People can register as a group or as individuals. The online discussion will take place from 4.00pm until 8.00pm, and a central forum will be set up on which people can share their views.

 There is a Facebook page, “Reading Group World Record Attempt”, and also a twitter hashtag, #ReadingGroup, which will be linked to the forum. From 6.00pm until 8.00pm all those taking part will be asked to mark the book out of ten. The scores will be kept by the central administrator and at 9.00pm the average score and the number of people who took part will be announced.

 The book that’s been chosen for discussion is Where Would I Be Without You, a romantic thriller by one of France’s bestselling authors Guillaume Musso. The book is widely available in all good bookshops and libraries and the publishers, Gallic Books have kindly agreed to sell it at a special price for this record attempt.

They are also selling the book in packs of 3 and 6 to enable the Reading Groups who are getting involved a chance to get the book at an even better price.

Packs of 6 are just £30. (£5 a copy).

Packs of 3 are just £18. (£6 a copy).

single copies are £7.

Postage and Packing is FREE.

The more people that get involved, the more exciting it will be and we really hope that you want to be a part of this exciting World Record attempt.

For further information please contact Simon, Tim or Mark at the Big Green Bookshop on 020 8881 6767 or you can email at enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com.

You can also visit the website for updates http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/

So, I Wrote To Guinness World Records

About 2 months ago, March 23rd to be exact, I was chatting to some bookloving people about Reading Groups and the like. We now have 4 and jolly good they are too. Well, it turns out that June 25th is National Reading Group Day in the UK, and it got me thinking.
I wonder if there's anything we can do to help make National Reading Group Day go with a swing at the shop.
So then I had an idea, and I logged onto the Guinness World Records website.
I set up an account and I sent an application, which went something like this.

World Record Attempt for the World's Biggest Reading Group
June 25th 2011 is National reading group Day in the UK. We would like to attempt to set/break the World Record for the Worlds Largest Reading Group.
There are many thousands of reading groups throughout the UK and they are a great way of giving people who might not necessarily read regularly an opportunity to do so.
The record attempt will be made by joining people nationwide using social media websites Twitter and Facebook, using a website forum and also skype and video links
A book has been chosen and will be sent out to all the people who register that they would like to take part. This will happen around the end of May. This will give those people around 4 weeks to read the book.
On the day of the record attempt itself, those involved will be asked to log in or register with a central administrator based in a venue in London (possibly the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green). People can log in as a group or as an individual. The discussion about the book will start at 4.00pm GMT and there will be a centralised forum which will keep people updated about other peoples' thoughts. There will also be a facebook page and also a twitter hashtag which will be linked up to the forum. From 6.00pm until 8.00pm all the individuals taking part will be allowed to give the book marks out of ten. The scores will be kept by the central administrator and at 9.00pm the average score and the number of people who took part will be announced. I am by no means the most tech savvy of people, but I have been assured by colleagues who are that this is a very straight forward system to organise.
We have excellent links with the media and we will ensure that as well as coverage in the Local Press and in the Trade Press, there will be national coverage of this attempt.

Anyway, the application was something like that (I cannot copy the actual application I sent to the Guinness folk as it has been swallowed up like the frothy head on their delicious alcoholic brew).

I was told that I would need to wait 4-6 weeks for a reply and was given a claim number. 342992

So a couple of weeks ago I got a reply. Here it is.

** Please do not send a response to this unmonitored email address as it will not be read**

Claim ID: 342992

Membership Number: 301897

Dear Mr Simon Key,
Thank you for your enquiry regarding your intention to attempt the record for ‘Worlds Largest Reading Group'. We cannot accept your proposal as a new record category at this moment. However, we have searched our Record Database and this is the most similar record we currently monitor: ’Most people completing a questionnaire’.

The current record (current as at the date of this letter) is:

The most people completing a questionnaire is 3,461 and was achieved by Sanofi Aventis de México S.A. de C.V. and La Asociación Psiquiátrica Mexicana (both Mexico) at the Aguascalientes International Speedway in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on 21 March 2010.
(then lots of legal blurb etc)

Please do let us know if you would like to attempt that record instead. If that is the case, you may wish to check with us again closer to submitting your full claim to be sure that a new record has not been set in the interim.

We wish you the best of luck in your record attempt and we look forward to hearing from you!

Yours sincerely,
Kimberly Partrick
Guinness World Records

No, Kimberly Partrick, I would not like to attempt to break the World record for the Most People Completing a Questionnare. I would like to attempt to break the World record for the Worlds Largest Reading Group.

So we're going to try it anyway.

Here's how it works.
We will now be attempting to break the record on Saturday July 30th to give people a chance to read the book (and also this will give us a chance to organise everything properly). Also, we imagine that other reading groups will be busy celebrating National Reading Group Day on June 25th, so it might not be the best day to do this.

The book we have chosen is Where Would I Be Without You by Guillaume Musso.

Having read it, I can assure you it is a book where there's a lot to talk about, hence the reason it was chosen. We've talked to the wonderful publishers, Gallic Books and are able to offer the book at a crazy low price. We hope that reading groups around the country will get involved and so the book is also available as a bundle, so that you can get copies for the other members of your reading group.

We're doing packs of 6 for £30. That's just a fiver a copy.  

And we're doing packs of 3 for just £18. (£6 a copy).

single copies we're selling for £7.

And it's FREE Postage and Packing too.

We've set up a Facebook page called appropriately enough;

 The Reading Group World Record Attempt. 

We will also have a Twitter Hashtag #readinggroup

We will soon be introducing the Forum which will enable us all to discuss the book together.

This is going to be ace. I would love it if you could join in. I would love it also if you could tell everyone you know who loves reading. Reading Groups are cool, reading is sexy and sprouts are green. With a bit of luck these 3 truths will make this world record attempt work (except the thing about the sprouts).

Please let the whole world know. Thanks.

Sainsbury's. Chain Bookselling Company of the Year

Last night was the Bookseller Industry Awards. At a glitzy award ceremony (i'm assuming it was glitzy, I wasn't there) Sainsbury's scooped the Bookseller of the Year award.

"Sainsbury's was honoured with the Martina Cole General or Chain Bookselling Company of the Year Award after reinvigorating book zones, increasing book sales by more than 33% and attracting new book buyers to the market. One judge said: "We should celebrate the fact that they are embracing books and offering people an alternative place to buy—somewhere they can spend time browsing as well as buying."
I went into my local Sainsbury's today and after congratulating the person on the cigarettes and lotto counter (six items or less), I asked if they could show me where their books were.
Slightly baffled they said they didn't keep them.
That seemed strange for the winner of Martina Cole General or Chain Bookselling Company of the Year Award, especially after one of the judges says that Sainsbury's is a place that we can spend time browsing.

And I don't know about you, but anyone who uses the phrase reinvigorating book zones deserves a very stern talking to and a wedgie at the very least.

So, Sainsbury's are embracing books are they? Well, it's true to say that some of their branches are selling a small selection of general fiction titles at a ridiculously low price. It is also true that they have sold many many thousands of copies of Jamie Oliver's cookery books. They have nailed it with Jamie. Well, if I had 900 shops and sold Jamie Oliver's books for £2 less than I bought it for then I would probably have sold a few copies too.
They sell books, but this does not make them booksellers.

We have sold local honey in the past (Tottenham honey is delicious), but we don't expect to be acknowledged by The National Honey Association.

I have no problem with anybody selling books, but OUR INDUSTRY has recognised them as the Chain Bookselling Company of the Year. This says a great deal about chain bookshops but it says even more about our industry and where it sees the future of bookselling. And for that, I worry.

Our New Book Group for Graphic Novels

Last Wednesday we launched our new reading group dedicated to comics and graphic novels, and I think it’s fair to say the evening was a huge success. So before I go any further I’d like to thank all those who turned up and made it such a fun evening full of interesting ideas and lively debate.

As this was our first time, and indeed the first time for trying such a specific group, we began by talking about comics or graphic novels that we really like. I enthused about Batman: Year One, and from there we discovered fans of comics ranging from Naruto, through Deadpool, to David Boring. For those of you who were there don’t worry I shan’t mention Year One again, but Commissioner Gordon is very good in it isn’t he? Here he is looking moody and awesome.

Anyway... If this first meeting could be said to have a purpose it was really to set up the group and decide what we were going to read. Rather than follow the traditional book group path we decided to base our meetings on themes and suggested reading. For example, in June our Theme is Crime Noir as a genre and the main reading for this is Coward, volume 1 of the Criminal series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips. Ed Brubaker is an award winning writer who has worked on Daredevil, Batman and Captain America, though he first made his name with the comic ‘Scene of the Crime’ and is a great choice to kick off our Noir discussion. Coward is now available to buy in the shop at £9.99. Other reading suggestions include X-men Noir, a 1940s style take on the merry mutants, or 5 is the Perfect Number by Igor T. This is a fantastic Italian graphic novel exploring the relationship between a mob hitman and his father.

So even if you missed our debut it’s not too late to join us. This is what we're reading:

and our next meeting is on Wednesday June 8th at 7:00 in the shop. Any other examples of crime/noir comics are welcome and I hope to see you there.