This weekend is the UK Bookcrossing Unconvention (to distinguish it from the official international convention in April) here in Birmingham. I along with three bookcrossing friends have been organising it for almost a year – and I can hardly believe the weekend has finally arrived.
There will be plenty of bookish type fun for everyone, lots and lots of free books naturally on the famous book buffet, and much more besides. I have two large bags of books all prepped and ready to go – every single one looking for a new home. The unique ID number inside each book means it can be tracked by everyone who has come into contact with it – assuming people log it of course.
One of my main jobs as an Uncon organiser was to get some speakers for our programme of Saturday activities. We are therefore looking forward to hearing from:
Fiona Joseph and Katharine D’Souza – two local authors will be giving us a talk entitled ‘The Women of Birmingham: telling stories with heart from the heart of the country’
Guy Fraser Sampson – who will be talking about his new series of books which begins with Death in Profile – which I read recently. Guy has previously written books which continue the stories of the characters of Mapp and Lucia as well as non-fiction books about finance.
One speaker Lynn Shepherd is unwell and has had to withdraw, but author Simon Michael has valiantly stepped into the breach at very little notice. Simon, who worked as a lawyer for many years will be telling us about his legal thrillers set in the 1960s.
Our final speaker is from a small independent publisher Emma Press – who produce extraordinarily pretty little volumes of poetry here in Birmingham.
Before we get to the Saturday activities there will be a lovely informal gathering in our rooms (close to the bar) at the hotel on Friday evening with a literary quiz, Birmingham jigsaw, lots of board games, and catching up with friends old and new.
As well as all that there will be a brilliant raffle, quizzes, games and lots of socialising.
On Saturday night everyone will get into groups for evening meals at restaurants close to our hotel. Sunday morning the traditional bookcrossing activities involve sharing all the left over books with the public – but we have had to be more creative with that this year. With the Tory party conference starting next week and security tight – we can’t have hundreds of bagged up books lying around the city centre – still plenty of books will be shared with the people of Birmingham in several cafes with dedicated bookcrossing shelves and along the number 11 bus route.
So following this wonderfully exciting, weekend of bookishness and socialising – it might be a day or three before I get any more blog posts up. Please bear with me.
It sounds like a great event. Have fun and I hope the weather gods are with you if some activities are planned to be outside.
So far the sun has shone – fingers crossed for this morning’s walk around the city centre.
Great. Have fun.
When i first saw the giant metal bull i thought it was a dachshund.Silly me.Must be a Brummy landmark.
Yes that bull is a famous Birmingham landmark now by which people continually pose for photos – it’s a bit of a tradition.
Have a brilliant weekend Ali .
This sounds such fun.
Thank you. It has been fun so far.
Sounds like a brilliant event. Hope it all goes well and you all have an excellent time.
Yesterday went very well, everyone had a lovely day. Today should be good too.
What fun – if a lot of hard work for you organisers. Hope it goes well and you enjoy yourself alongside the backstage management!
It was hard for the organisers with so much to remember to do. We still managed to enjoy yesterday very much.
Are you planning on doing another? This is something I’d love to go to!
UK bookcrossing usually have an event like this each year although it is held in different places. Here in Birmingham the local Bookcrossers meet monthly to swap books and chat.
I’m trying to find one in the north west now 😄 it sounds like an amazing idea
If you join bookcrossing the forums will help you hook up people in your area. There may be people who meet regularly near you.
Have a great time, look forward to hearing how it goes!
Thank you, yesterday was great.
What a lovely idea! Hope all goes well and that you all have a great time.
Thank you. Yesterday went well, the speakers were fab they all went down well with the audience. Can’t believe it’s nearly over.
i wish i could get to one of these but there is nothing in my area – the book crossing community here in Cardiff seems dormant. I know one member who is coming to your event though – she is from a coffee shop in cardiff
Ah I am now trying to work out who that is. If you’re ever in Birmingham on the 4th Saturday of the month come along to one of our monthly meet ups. Very informal, gossipy with added books and bookish talk.
Sounds great! Have fun!
Thank you we have had fun so far.
Sounds fab Ali! Hope you have/had a wonderful time and come home with arms full of books! :)))
Just arrived home. Although it was here in Brum I stayed at the hotel for 2 nights it made things much easier. It went so well, exhausted but happy it was successful. I was fairly restrained in the book department.
This sounds like so much fun. I hope all the hard work that went into organising it paid off.
Thank you, we really feel it has.
Glad it went well. At the start of the year I was sure I’d manage to organise myself to go, but then… and now I’ve missed it. Maybe next year. Has anyone volunteered to host next year?
I think there is one possible host. It will be confirmed when the next committee know there is no one else bidding.
I’m glad it went so well – as someone who has organised these in the past, I know exactly what went into it and the feelings afterwards! I was so impressed by the way the committee worked together so brilliantly, which will have contributed to the success. It’s been fun to get lots of journal entries from books that have passed through my hands at one time or another!
Thank you. Glad you’re getting journal entries.
Sounds so wonderful! I hope you had a great time, and that all of your hard organisational work paid off.
[…] the month reading a book I was only given last weekend at that bookcrossing weekend I wrote about here. Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford, effervescent nonsense, world war two spies and first aid posts during […]