Bookcrossing

[bakunin_the_cat]

I hate to deprive Cancer Research, but there is another way. It's called UK and Ireland Bookswap, and it's a yahoo! group I set up, where you can list books you don't want to keep. If someone's sees a book they want, they contact you and you send it them (and pay the postage). No money changes hands. Hopefully if you take out as much as you put in, it will end up balancing itself out, and you get great books for nothing!

So simple and stupid you'd think everybody would be doing this.

8)

[bakunin_the_cat]

Just thought someone might be interested. If anyone's in London town, tomorrow evening, and would like to spend a couple of hours drinking beer and talking books then there will be a bookcrossing Meetup in the Cittie of Yorke Pub, High Holborn (next to Chancery Lane Underground - Central Line) from 7pm, tomorrow. As the name suggests, it's also an opportunity to bring some books along, and get some others in return.

If you're up for it, just come along to the pub. We tend to congregate downstairs in the fridge, or Cellar as it's officially known, though if they have a party we'll be upstairs in the main bar. It's not hard to find us either way. The books on the table and the slightly manic appearance of the regulars, tends to give it away!

[amner]

Crikey, I used to drink in the Cittie of Yorke all the time when I worked along Holborn. Very atmospheric pub.
.

[wshaw]

The Cittie of York. Brilliantly strange place with all those whopping great barrels over the bar. I used to work in Clerkenwell and sneak down there after 6.30 when all the lawyers had gone home, leaving the snugs free. It looked like a place where people went to connive.

[amner]

And of course just up the road from there is the Princess Louise where Denis Nielsen picked up a couple of his victims. Oh, and where, on my first day in the smoke, I was told to "F--- Off you Northern C---" :shock:

Happy Days.

[bakunin_the_cat]

With such glowing recommendations, how can you resist?

Excuse my ignorance but is Denis Nielsen, Leslie Nielsen's little-known brother? It would make sense to me. One brother gets all the attention as he's a bit of a clown, and people think he's funny, while Denis is constantly admonished, even when he's just doing the same jokes.

'Nice beaver!' he says, pointing out a supreme example of the river-dwelling mammal.

'Go to your room, you wicked child!'

In the dark recesses of his mind, Denis plans his revenge on the world.

[Wavid]

No, Denis' modus operandi was to kill someone, cover himself in talcum powder and say "Come to Grandpa".

[John Self]

I won't be in London until this weekend so I will make a point of visiting the Cittie of Yorke pub after the event to wallow in the knowledge of being the only slightly manic book lover there. I hope and trust that said hostelry has actual factual practically medieval provenance to justify its Olde Worlde Wordes name?

[wshaw]

Harbottle's Pub Guide says: "The name The Cittie Of Yorke was purloined from an older tavern of that name which was situated over the road as part of Staples Inn. No carpets."

(I like the "No carpets", particularly. An essential piece of information for anyone planning a saturday night on the lager).

Apparently though, there was a 14th century pub there, then a 18th century coffee house before the present strange structure.

[bakunin_the_cat]

Also, it sells Hefe-Weizen which for anyone who doesn't know, is really nice German Wheat Bier, and cheap bitter for 1.60. In the provinces, you may still be able to go to the cinema, get a slap-up meal with a bottle of stout, and still have enough change left from a pound to get the tram home but in the Smoke, with a single pint of watery rat-piss approaching three of your English pounds, this is cheap indeed.

[amner]

In the provinces, you may still be able to go to the cinema, get a slap-up meal with a bottle of stout, and still have enough change left from a pound to get the tram home

In Cambridge a trip to the cinema, a slap-up meal and a bottle of stout would just about eat up the entire funds gleaned from re-mortgaging a single bed flat. And leave you potless on the way home, thus turning the tram into Shanks's pony.

[Jerkass]

er...sign me up?

[bakunin_the_cat]

Jerkass, are you in London?

The signing up procedure such it is, generally consists of walking over to the bar, ordering a selection of beverages, and getting them safely back to the table, without spillage. Successful completion of this initiation rite means you get crowned as a member of the order of the dog-eared page
and get recognised at future gatherings.

Alternatively there's an international bookcrossing website that I don't often bother with.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/home

Maybe CU there
Bak_the_Cat

[amner]

Belatedly:

Cittie of Yorke
22 High Holborn, WC1; find it by looking out for its big black and gold clock. Tube: Chancery Lane.
Lookig particularly splendid after a recent restoration, the main back bar of this unique pub can take your breath away when seen for the first time. It looks like a vast baronial hall, with vast thousand-gallon wine vats resting above the gantry, big bulbous lights hanging from the soaring high raftered roof, and its extraordinarily extended bar counter stretching off into the distance. It does get packed in the early evening, particularly with lawyers and judges, but it's at busy times like these when the pub seems most magnificent. Most people tend to congregate in the middle, so you may still be able to bag one of the intimate, old-fashioned and ornately carved booths that run along both sides. The triangular Waterloo fireplace, with grates on all three sides and a figure of Peace among laurels, used to stand in the Grays Inn Common Room until barristers stopped dining there...the pub has stood on this site since 1430, though the current building owes more to the 1695 coffee house erected her behind a garden; it was reconstructed in Victorian times using 17th Century materials and parts.

From the Good Pub Guide 2001.

[bakunin_the_cat]

For any of you coming to London, I'd definitely recommend it. Especially if you can get in one of the snugs or booths in the main bar. If they're all busy, you just have to wait (or go downstairs) for half an hour or so until the suits depart.

For me it is what a great London drinking establishment should be like. No ear-splitting techno, no karaoke nights or Sky TV, no flashing slot machines. Just a great building, with great beer, a great atmosphere and hopefully great company. What more could you want?

[rick green]

So did you score any good reads?

[bakunin_the_cat]

A couple. My to-read pile is pretty close to the maximum (10) so I resisted the temptation to bring much home, despite there being some interesting books being on the table. I ended up with a small book of poetry which I read last night, Neil Gaiman's account of the writing of The Hitchhiker's Guide (It used to be my favourite book) and a small book of French stories which I ended up with, because nobody else wanted it.

To be honest, I'd still go, if I consistently couldn't find any books I liked. It's too good an evening to miss.

[amner]

When's the next meeting, bakunin? Is it a regular thing?

[bakunin_the_cat]

Yep. It's always the 2nd Tuesday of the month, and the London chapter (there are others) virtually always meets in the CoY. If you sign up to the meetup website,
http://bookcrossing.meetup.com/

you get emails reminding you when and where it is. BTW there is an option to spend money, which means you get to nominate venues that I wouldn't bother with. Just click on no thanks and continue on your merry way!

I could post a reminder a week or so before each meetup. Alternatively, if there was enough demand, you could have an events/calendar area saying what is going on where.

[amner]

Thanks for that ... being Cambridge-based it's certainly a possibility. I'll try to remember for maybe a couple of months' time.

[bakunin_the_cat]

Cool. It would be good if a little strange, to meet up with some of you guys in the real world.

Just looking at the list, there is also one in Leeds, which might be of interest to at least one of our Palimpsisters.

[m.]

...I ended up with a small book of poetry which I read last night...

Whole book of poetry at one sitting? For me poetry is too concentrated sort of writing, it would be like drinking high percent alcohol by bottles. But that's just me. (And you said small.)

[bakunin_the_cat]

Whole book of poetry at one sitting? For me poetry is too concentrated sort of writing, it would be like drinking high percent alcohol by bottles. But that's just me. (And you said small.)

Small may have been an understatement. 60 pages of which half are illustrations in a book about the size of the palm of my hand.

Like you, I normally just have a shot or two of poetry and then savour it as I head off to the land of sleep.

[bakunin_the_cat]

Yes, it's that time of the month again folks.

Book Crossing Meetup in the Cittie of Yorke Tuesday April 13th 7pm.

If anyone is going to be in the Smoke and feels like getting together to rant about J2G2, rave about H2G2, or whatever, whilst quaffing a few jars of your chosen poison, then come along. If you want you can bring a book along to release into the wild, but it's not compulsory.

If you're not in London, there are various others happening up and down the country.This link (http://bookcrossing.meetup.com/?change=1&localeId=0) tells you where.

Happy birthday John, Happy easter everybody else!

[bakunin_the_cat]

I'm not sure you guys are that bothered, despite the initial flurry of interest. Maybe it was mainly reminiscing about the Cittie of Yorke that got your attention. Anyway, for anyone who is interested, the book crossing meetup is taking place on Tuesday 8th June in London, Leeds, Cambridge and various other places. The London one will, as usual be in the CoY from 7pm. If you're around it is a really good night. If you're not then ah well. You'll be spared the most hideous outlook of my visage (sorry, still reading Jane Eyre).

I probably won't bother posting a reminder again. Some combination of dead horse and flogging comes to mind. If anyone's up for it It's always the 2nd Tuesday of the month in a pub near you.Maybe CU sometime.

[amner]

If anyone's up for it It's always the 2nd Tuesday of the month in a pub near you.

Ah, I think that's the thing I was after ... will keep it in mind, bak, cheers.

[Ang]

bak cat - have a look at ReadItSwapIt (http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx)

It's very easy to use and you only pay the price of posting the book you agree to swap. I have swapped 185 books in one year. If you've got good scales you can buy and print postage on line, so you don't even have the hassle of having to go to the post office.

I got Amongst Women, our current book group read, through this site.

[bakunin_the_cat]

Sounds a bit like bookcrossing.com, might take a look later, if I can fit it into my busy schedule. Also I think I mentioned it before in the old days, but in big cities you also get bookcrossing meetups where everyone goes along to a pub with a book or two and leave with different ones. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the Cantlow chapter. There's a woman in the club who's on about making a shelf a bookswap, but since she's always telling me how good Grisham is, I can't see this really taking off.

Sorry high admin people, I know this thread is meant to be about Amongst Women. You might want to make this a separate thread or something?

[JunkMonkey]

Readitswapit is good, though it can be a bit frustrating at times when you find something you really really want and then no one wants to swap with you.
My list of books is in my sig. Mostly total crap, but I'm constantly amazed at what people do want.

[bakunin_the_cat]

Might add my own booklist later, but at this rate my TBR is likely to keep me going till around 2010 and I'm not too keen to increase it.

[Colyngbourne]

Mr Col found a BookCrossing book the other day on a bench in his workplace: doesn't look too enthralling - Shakespeare My Butt! (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-My-Butt-Marsupial-Pointless/dp/1904744737/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213455084&sr=8-1) by John Donoghue.

[JunkMonkey]

Glad this thread popped up again, it seemed an appropriate place to put this:

http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx?CategoryID=MostAdded&ResultsToGet=0

This is a list of the most common books on readitswapit.co.uk. ie the top 50 books people want to get rid of. Books they've read, or started to read, and just don't want to keep any longer.

[Ang]

The most popular (http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx?CategoryID=MostPopular&ResultsToGet=0) (i.e. most requested) has a somewhat different feel.

[vald]

Some are the same...?

[JunkMonkey]

No Dan Brown in the second one. He has the top three slots on the Get This Out Of My House list.