The Thursday fiction club
First Thursday of the month, 7pm · chaired by Ceridwen
- This monthThe Weather at Nash Point
- NextA Hundred Doors
- After thatThe Lamplighters of Bute Street
2 seats freeAsk for a seat
Book clubs
Three clubs, and the next three books.
A book club with a bookseller in the chair is a different thing from one in a living room: somebody has read everything the author wrote, and can get the next book on the table by Thursday. Three clubs, twelve people each, free; the only cost is the book, at ten per cent off, or borrow it from the library.
The three clubs
The Sunday non-fiction club
Second Sunday of the month, 11am · chaired by Rhodri
- This monthSalt Marsh
- NextThe Tide Clock
- After thatA History of the Vale in Twelve Objects
Full; waiting list openJoin the waiting list
The teen club, 13 to 17
First Saturday of the month, 4pm · chaired by Rhodri
- This monthSixteen Streets
- NextThe Drowned Allotment
- After thatOrbit of Small Things
5 seats freeAsk for a seat
The seat counts are kept by hand and updated at the counter. When a club is full we keep a waiting list and open a second group once it reaches eight names, which is how the Sunday club began in 2019.
A club night
Ninety minutes, one book, wine from the café, and spoilers after ten minutes.
The chair opens with two minutes on the author and what the reviews missed, then asks the question everyone was thinking. Nobody has to have finished; we ask that nobody minds spoilers after the first ten minutes. Towards the end the chair puts three books on the table from a shortlist and the room votes for the one after next, so there is always a month\'s notice to find it.
- Free; the book at ten per cent off at the counter
- Twelve at most, so everyone speaks
- The café open on club nights: wine, tea, cake
House rules
Four things we have learned in nine years of clubs.
The members choose
We draw up the shortlist; the room picks. A club that reads only what the shop wants to sell dies in a year; we have watched it happen elsewhere.
Short books in December
And in August. A four-hundred-page novel in the month of the school holidays or the office party loses half the room, and we would rather have the room.
Disagreement is the point
The best nights are the ones where the room splits. The chair\'s job is to make sure the quiet half gets a go, not to settle it.
Start your own
Six people and a theme (a Welsh-language club has been suggested twice) and talk to Ceridwen. We provide the room, the chair, the discount and the wine.
Questions about the clubs
Do I have to have finished the book?
No, and you will not be the only one. We ask that nobody minds spoilers after the first ten minutes.
Can I start a club?
If you have six people and a theme (a Welsh-language club has been suggested twice), talk to Ceridwen. We provide the room, the chair and the discount.
Any book in print, by tomorrow. Tell us the title.
Title, author or ISBN on the order page, at the counter, by phone or by email: we order it this afternoon, text you when it is in and hold it a fortnight. Nothing to pay until you collect; posted anywhere in Britain for £2.95, free over £25.