Last night our Fullers book store reading groups met at Hadley’s hotel and met the people in the other reading groups. There are 150 people in the reading groups. They are designated into various groups that meet both in the mornings or in the evenings. The group I’m in meets on the second Wed evening of the month. We pay $10.00 per reading group meeting and that includes a 10% discount on the book if bought from the shop. This is the first year that has happened. It used to be free but we all understand the amount of work that goes into organising 150 people into groups.
People tend to stay in the same group year after year and get to know each other. One person facilitates the various groups.
The thing I like best in the groups is that people read the books and we have really interesting discussions about them. I have been in too many groups where discussion dissolves into what we did today, the problems at home, and on and on and on. Many times people wouldn’t the book. That really annoys me. Even if people work and don’t always get quite to the end they still come and participate in the discussions as much as they can. There are 15 in each group and because of various reasons we always get at least 12.
More Bookish News-
Tasmania is not regarded as highly as it should be by various publishers. Getting 150 copies of any book requires good relationships with them. A couple of publishers have been dropped as they are too unreliable. It is a good marketing tool for a book shop and we all know how important it is to keep independent shops open.
We met in a beautiful old tea room area of the Hadley;s Orient Hotel est 1834. I’ll try and find a photo of it. We were invited to get a drink at the bar and then find our seats.
We were all waiting to find out what the books for 2026 would be. We also completed a poll of deciding what the top 3 books of 2025 were for all the people in the groups. The top three books (from memory) were- 3—was a tie between Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca and sorry, I can’t remember. 2 was Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood and number 1 was Dusk by Robbie Arnott. Other books I remember were The Names by Florence Knapp in 6th place and in tenth and last place was The Season by Helen Garner. That surprised me and yet I can understand it. I just like her so much I thought it would score higher but I guess I’m biased.
The books for 2026 announced-
Feb: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
March: My Heart at Evening by Konrad Muller
April: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
May: The True True Story of Raja The Gullible (And His Mother) by
Rabbi Alameddine
June: Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
July: A Little Trickery by Rosanna Pike
August: A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
The rest of the year will be announced at a later date.
We had input in an end of year survey of what types of books we are interested in being chosen. We usually have award winners, translated fiction, Tasmanian, Australian and a classic.
I guess that fills you in on how we go with our reading groups.
Did anything else happen of significance this week?
Nope, not much. I went to my pilates class on Monday. I went for a very long walk into the city on Tuesday and got my nails done. Beautiful smoky green colour for Christmas.
On Wednesday I went into the Spa and had a swim and sat in the sauna and chatted to two other older women as we sweated together. It is a small spa. They do beauty things (which I haven’t experienced, ) massages, etc and have a lovely small pool with a waterfall to splash around in. No children allowed which is heavenly. They have a steam room and a sauna and two very new jacuzzis they were trying to bring down a stairway to the underground area where this place is. Last I heard it was stuck in an elevator shaft.
Thursday I went to a health appt that wires you up and down for an overnight sleep study. I’m trying to get better sleep so I’m not so fatigued during the day. Might need a cPap machine. Don’t have the report yet. But I had to remove polish from two nails as my finger was needed for the oxygen saturation thingy.
Thursday nights we had big fires around the state. Last I heard 16 buildings up the east coast were damaged or lost. The mountain behind our home was closed to visitors as another fire was out of control on the back side of it. We’re on the front side of it. We had 30 degree temps C and gale force winds that were frightening. I was so glad once a cold front moved in over night and all but one of the fires was controlled. Air personnel could not be used because of the high winds. Just scary.
Friday I went into town, enjoyed the weather sitting outdoors having a coffee and a piece of lemon cake. I also went back to the nail place and had the green polish put back on. The girl laughed and didn’t charge me. People can be good.
Today (Saturday) I came up with a new way to do my daily diary I’d like to keep up next year. I create a page and then just write down little snippets of what I did. I’ll show you the photo. I love using magazines, sticker books, different coloured inks, etc. I tend to choose a picture from a sticker book without looking and then build a page around it. Just 30 minutes of complete relaxation and getting creative.
(Things I did. Worked in front yard. Filled the bird baths. Cleaned the succulent plants. Had an egg sandwich. Folded laundry. Put some rocks in the tumbler- second stage. Found a currawong feather.)
Well, this has gone on long enough. If you’re still here, I appreciate it and hope your weekend has a few lovely events in it.
Tell us one thing you did this weekend.
Travellin' Penguin 
I think it’s great that you found your amazing book group that you love with people who actually attempt to read the books and discuss them. That hotel is GORGEOUS!!!! Love your daily diary.
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Seems you had busy times, with nice things to do. What a wonderful meeting place for your book club. It is georgious, and imagine being there discussing books in this surrounding.
I have read A Month in the Country which is a beautiful little story.
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My thing of significance this week was my great granddaughter’s second birthday party. Lots of fun and excellent fairy bread (of course!).
I can’t imagine a publisher turning up their nose at 150 sales. How many books do they expect to sell in Tasmania? You have less than 2% of the national population, so that would be equivalent to national sales of 7,000.
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That Tea Room looks absolutely lovely – light, airy, and cozy all at the same time!
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I have recently bought Stone Yard Devotional and Dusk as ebooks because Kobo had them on special offer, so it’s good to know so many people liked them. I think A Month in the Country is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, so I do hope you enjoy it.
I have been going through an awful reading slump in recent times, and do hope I can get myself back into a better place and reading regularly again. It sounds as if my two new purchases would be a good place to start.
Love the Penguin’s gardening outfit!
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I am looking forward to A Month in the Country. The two Australian books you mention were favourites. I hope you like them.
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What a wonderful get together – such fun! And interesting titles for next year. I only know one of them, A Month in the Country, which I think is one of the best books I’ve ever read. One thing I’ve done this week? Put up our Christmas tree!!
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Putting up the tree is an achievement. We only have a small tree on the table. Not as much work as in the past. 😀
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Oh, you have some lovely books there: I loved A Little Trickerie and The Ministry of Time!
Is Hadley’s Orient a good place to stay when visiting Hobart? It looks gorgeous. I am overdue for a visit to Tassie, but my experience in hotels is that if there’s a wedding it can be a very late and noisy night for other guests. One memorable occasion in Sydney someone thought it would be funny to do a bomb threat to force the honeymooners out of bed in the middle of the night. And everyone else as well, shivering on the street in our PJs.
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What a dumb thing to do. I don’t know about the rooms in Hadley’s . It is certainly in a good location. The RACV around the corner is very popular.
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I’ll check that out too. We have to get our driveway done this year (megabucks!!) because the paving we had done about 15 years ago has buckled due to tree roots etc, but once that’s done I’m planning to come over on the ferry with the car and do a circuit of the island like we did last time. There will be a stop at Hobart and I’m hoping we can finally meet up!
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It’s so long I can’t remember all I want to say because on Jetpack on the phone you can’t see the post when you have the comment block up. Irritating. However, I did enjoy reading about the book groups and how they are run. My reading group has 11 people in it but sometimes we do get down to 5 or 6 in the middle of winter when everyone travels. We have been going since 1988 and we have never not discussed the book at some depth. We arrive and we have 30 minutes of chitchat. Then we have an hour discussing the book, and like yours if people haven’t managed to finish it, they still join in. They just have to cope with any spoilers. Then after that we have half an hour or so for cake and a hot drink. It works well for us. We make sure we only have people join the group who really want to read. We rarely have openings anyhow as once people join us they stay until they leave town, which doesn’t happen a lot.
I was glad to see Stone yard devotional do well in your list and I’m not surprised that Robbie Arnott did well of course. I see the Stone yard devotional is still doing well overseas. Did you say one person runs all your reading all the reading groups?? That sounds exhausting.
Love your notebook/journal/diary. The idea appeals to me but I don’t imagine I’d ever keep it up.
Good luck with the sleep study. Mr Gums did it last year but it didn’t result in great help for him because he doesn’t really have sleep apnoea.
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I know what you mean trying to read posts and comment at same time. Yes one person does all the regular reading groups but another does the Crime reading group and another the Romance one. There is a millennial group that someone else does then Adam Ouster does the group Books you want to read but haven’t. I think there are 5 groups of my reading group. The original one and literary fiction. It is nice to see young people in the other groups. Most of us are middle age or older.
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That all makes sense. I know what you mean about young people. One of my friends has a daughter – 38 – who has just joined a reading group. I’d love it if my daughter did. She hopes to read 100 books this year, and I think right now has 5 to go.
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Looking at younger people on social media they all seem to try to outdo each other on how many books they read in a year. Mind you many are easy romance. They aren’t reading 100 books written like Praiseworthy. Lol
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