Richard & Judy Bookclub 2007 - Best Prices?

Heavenly

Wee_Bargain_Hunter wrote:

As far as I can tell this is the book list:

• The Interpretation of Murder Jed Rubenfeld (Headline)
• The Girls Lori Lansens (Little, Brown)
• Restless William Boyd (Bloomsbury)
• Love in the Present Tense Catherine Ryan Hyde (Doubleday)
• Semi-Detached Griff Rhys Jones (Michael Joseph)
• This Book Will Save Your Life A M Homes (Granta Books)
• Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Harper Perennial)
• The Testament of Gideon Mack James Robertson (Hamish Hamilton)

I'm not sure what order they should be in as the Channel 4 site didn't have anything on it when I checked this afternoon

The dates for each book being discussed can be found here:
http://www.britishbookawards.co.uk/bba/pnbb_richardandjudy.asp?

If you can't get the books at your library, I highly recommend Readitswapit.co.uk as above.... you'l list what books you have to swap and then you could request those ones... if you have a book they want the swap will be accepted and you'll get their address to send your book to.

I think they may be a bit hard to get though as quite a few will be wanting them!

Any questions about RISI just PM me and I can help you out.

D

lolly5648

How much do you have to pay when you reserve a book at the library?

Sazere

Warwickshire Library (WILD) charge £1.00 for adults & 60p for juniors. They don't have any copies of the one I want to read - Lori Lansens, The Girls.

Butterfly24

If you are an Essex library ticket holder you now no longer have to pay to reserve books, as long as you reserve them yourself on the library computer/over the internet. Ask a member of staff for help and they'll charge you!

As for the cheapest place to get hold of the Richard and Judy books, in the summer the Richard and Judy website offered a set of 6 summer books for just £19.99, so it may be worth having a peek at their website to see if there are any special offers again - I've just looked at their website and it hasn't been updated, just says "coming soon".

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Just a quick update on my progress with the books. A friend managed to get one for me at her local library so that makes 5 - though I havn't actually got any in my hand yet as I won't see her for another week - I'll have to do some speed reading then!
Hopefully will get to my local library tomorrow to see if they can give me the book I reserved. BTW the reservation didn't cost anything (Northern Ireland libraries)

I checked the Amazon page & noticed that their price for the hardback version of This Book Will Save Your Life has gone down to £4.49 - but they only have 3 copies left!

Willxx

Am I the only person who is slightly disturbed by the fact that Richard & Judy appear to have become the arbiters of literature in the UK? I'm not suggesting there’s anything wrong with any of their choices, the books they suggest are mostly not my cup of tea but I guess that most lists are filled that way for most people. I just find it worrying that a media programme is effectively dictating success in another medium, a spot on Richard and Judy boosts sales enormously for a publisher.

What happened to people discovering new authors by themselves and telling friends about them sharing them and enjoying them, with the internet it should be even easier, I understand publishing is a business like any other but look at the way music has changed, grass roots is becoming popular once more.

No I'm not a frustrated or failed author, I'm a reader who has seen his beloved bookshops being filled with shelf after shelf of mindless tv tie-ins and formulaic genre fodder.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Interesting points:

Willxx wrote:

Am I the only person who is slightly disturbed by the fact that Richard & Judy appear to have become the arbiters of literature in the UK? I'm not suggesting there’s anything wrong with any of their choices, the books they suggest are mostly not my cup of tea but I guess that most lists are filled that way for most people. I just find it worrying that a media programme is effectively dictating success in another medium, a spot on Richard and Judy boosts sales enormously for a publisher.

I'm not worried about this - they seem to have made reading popular again & that can only be a good thing. I've read books I would never have looked at before & enjoyed them.

Willxx wrote:

What happened to people discovering new authors by themselves and telling friends about them sharing them and enjoying them, with the internet it should be even easier, I understand publishing is a business like any other but look at the way music has changed, grass roots is becoming popular once more.

My experience of the Richard & Judy Bookclub is that I have discussed their book choices with friends & colleagues & then gone on to discuss other authors or books that we've enjoyed.

Willxx wrote:

No I'm not a frustrated or failed author, I'm a reader who has seen his beloved bookshops being filled with shelf after shelf of mindless tv tie-ins and formulaic genre fodder.

Speaking for myself, I HAD got into a habit of reading lots of chick-lit - very lazy but very enjoyable! Since R&J have started their bookclub, I've expanded my reading choices a bit - giving the brain a bit more work to do!

lolly5648

I completely agree with Wee Bargain Hunter. I use a library regularly but have become lazy about the type of books I choose. I would not have read Labrynth or The Righteous Men if I hadnt seen them mentioned on R&J. I enjoy hearing what the author says about the book and the various reading groups and then decide which of the books I choose to read. I did try a couple of others which I didnt particularly enjoy but I am glad I tried them

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Got an e-mail from the Bookclub saying you can order directly from them at just under £40 incl a free reading notes folder with every order. That price isn't too bad for the convenience, but looking at the prices i got when i checked last wednesday (1st post), it's still cheaper if you shop around.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Just edited the first post to show the cheapest prices I've found. Feel free to correct me! (I've just checked Bookkoob & then confirmed the price on the appropriate website.)

A wee tip: if you go to the Amazon page for the Richard & Judy books it dosn't always show the best prices as it dosn't show all the paperback prices. To get the best prices on amazon
1 - click on the book to get its details
2 - click on the author's name to get the rest of their books
3 - scroll down till you find the price of the paperback version

This is the Amazon link. Also Tesco have got their R&J page set up now too.
HTH