The London Gothic reading group. Or at least that's how it started off, though it's always been the plan for other groups in different cities to follow our lead, as has happened in Colchester (technically a large town, but same difference). We meet up roughly once a month having read a nominated book and discuss it, usually in the comfort of a pub.
Thunder and Sheridan did. As far as we can remember we both had the idea for a reading group aimed at Goths around the same time. After Sheridan moved to London we put the idea into practice, around mid-to-late 2002. Just over a year later Carl got in on the act, and started the Colchester chapter - this lasted until he moved to London. Sheridan moved out of London for a few years and, after covering the meetings a few times when Thunder couldn't make it, Ruth became the current organiser.
Any member of Bibliogoth can nominate a book (or three). The admin/s will decide whether it's suitable (being available is nice, not too long for a bunch of busy people to read in a month of lunch hours, and available in an affordable paperback edition). If it meets these criteria then it goes on the longlist, which is put online about a week or so before the meeting is due to take place.
Everyone on the list is allowed to vote for up to five books that they'd like to read, but also has an optional anti-vote if they don't want to read one of the books. If the list gets too long then this anti-vote may be enforced and everyone has to use it, to allow new books to get onto the list. These votes can be sent in the form of a reply to the mailing list post, to the LiveJournal community post or sent to the administrator/s of the list. Usually people choose to vote publicly, sometimes giving reasons for their choices.
The admin will note down all the votes and create the shortlist from these results. Normally we try to pick about five books, but sometimes the votes mean we pick three books, seven or anywhere in between. This shortlist then gets voted on at the meeting and from this the next month's book is chosen.
If a book has more anti-votes than actual votes then it comes off the longlist. It can be nominated again, but not for at least three months. Sometimes when the list has needed pruning, any book with no votes (or anti-votes) has been removed as well, but this doesn't happen often.
In the first two years we've held our meetings at various pubs each month. Following a run of not-entirely-suitable ones we've stuck with The Green Man for the last few meetings, though shall probably explore again in the summer (and have picnics, like we have for the last two years). Following is an incomplete list of the pubs we've been to in the last few years. I've put vague descriptions of the locations and shall include the actual addresses in one of these days.
I'll write out a list, shall I? All meetings so far have been held at 14:00 on Sunday afternoons except for one of the early ones which was on a Saturday. The Colchester meets are underrepresented here as I'm not the one who admins them, so haven't kept as close an eye on them as on the London meets.
The current books are in stronger type than previous books (watch this bit get out-of-date fast).
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory - Bunhill Fields noncomformists cemetery, followed by that pub near Spitalfields Hospital, then a restaurant in Brick Lane.
Joanne Harris - Chocolat - Primrose Hill for a chocolate-based picnic, followed by a pub (The Enterprise?).
Philip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle The Catherine Wheel, Kensington
Michael Marshall Smith - One of Us - Devonshire Arms
Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray - The Marlborough Head
Federico Andahazi - The Merciful Women - Regents Park, followed by the Green Man
Joseph Heller - Catch 22 - The Marlborough Head
Ian McEwan - The Cement Garden Albert Memorial for a picnic followed by Black Widow
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale - The Green Man
Artemis Fowl Bell Book and Candle, St Pauls
Hunter S Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Marlborough Head
Michael Marshall Smith - Only Forward - The Castle
Machiavelli - The Prince - The Devonshire Arms followed by Thai Veg.
Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray
Patrick Suskind - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Penderel's Oak - High Holbourn
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s - Hound of the Baskervilles at that big Wetherspoons that used to be a cinema.
J.G. Ballard - Crash - Marlborough Head
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash - Green Park station / Berkeley Square to go to I am the Last Running Footman, which closed about an hour after we all got there, so we reconvened at The Marlborough Head.
Yann Martel Life of Pi The Marquis of Granby / Ye Olde Marquis
Hermann Hesse - Steppenwolfe The Black Widow
Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude - Penderell's Oak, Holborn
Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto - Strawberry Hill House, followed by The Pope's Grotto, as it was starting to rain.
Pauline Reage - The Story of O - Was going to be a picnic in Regents Park, but rain stopped play and we went to The Green Man early.
Jeff Noon - Vurt - Bunhill Fields, followed by the Wetherspoons just around the corner.
Nick Cave - And the Ass Saw the Angel - some overpriced place in Greenwich with rude staff.
Lemony Snicket - The Bad Beginning - The Green Man.
Octave Mirbeau - The Torture Garden - The Green Man
J K Huysmans - The Damned (La Bas) - The Green Man
J.P. Taylor Shadowmancer The Marquis on North Hill
Jeanette Winterson - The Passion - The Green Man
Poppy Z Brite - Drawing Blood - The Forresters Arms, Roman Road (near the castle).
