The 1000 Books Book Club (Chiswick)

We're slowly making our way through the Guardian's list of 1000 novels everyone must read, which covers novels about love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, and war and travel. We work our way through the categories each month, and invite members to nominate books from the list. Once nominations have been received, all members vote for their choice.
The book club is for people living in and around Chiswick, as well as those who don't mind travelling out West to join us. We meet on the second Monday of each month, and engage in interesting discussions about the book we've just read. We meet in a local pub, and also run an online discussion via Zoom, which happens at the same time, but separately, from the in person group.
Our code of conduct can be found here.

FAQs
Can I join your group?

Yes! We are now open to new members.

How many people come to each book gathering?

There's a friendly 'core group' of people who attend regularly (about 20), and we find that there are four or five newbies each month who are testing us out to see if the group is for them! Don't be put off by the '900+ book worms' who are signed up to this site. The pub group typically has 10-20 attendees, and we split into smaller groups to allow for a good discussion, swapping groups part way through.

How does the book club work?

There is a team of leaders who take it in turns to host the meetings. They will prepare a few questions for discussion. We tend to work through these very loosely - it's a fairly informal affair, and we all usually end up off topic, so they are a useful way of trying to revert the conversation back to the book in question!

How long do your meetups last?

Typically 1-2 hours, though you are of course free to leave whenever you would like to. We do the in person poll, to choose the book we'll read in 5 months' time, around 8:30. If we've divided into smaller groups for the first part of the discussion, we'll swap around at this time, so everyone can hear some other viewpoints.

Can I arrive late?

Yes. We fully understand that life, and London transport, can make it tricky to be on time. There's no problem with arriving late and joining in the discussion from that point.

How can I find the book of the month?

All the books we read are readily available in the UK - either physically or available to download on Kindle (the Guardian list is now over ten years old, and some books on it are now out of print - we do not allow these books to be nominated).

Some people buy their book from Amazon on kindle, brand new or second hand through the marketplace (you should be able to find most of the books we read there) often you'll get free postage by opting for the slower delivery. You could also try your local charity shop - here in Chiswick we have a marvelous Oxfam near Turnham Green Station - or there's always your local library. Member's also recommend Read It Swap It or Green Metropolis.com
If you have any other ideas for tracking down the books we read, please let me know using the 'Contact Us' button.

When should I buy/borrow the book?

We recommend getting the book as early as possible, so you have time to finish it before we meet, and get the most out of discussions with fellow book lovers! We list meetups 5 months in advance, so you will have plenty of time to find and read the book. This also allows us to tackle some of the longer ones.

Can I come to a book gathering even if I haven't finished the book?

Yes, as long as you don't mind spoilers! Note that for some books you might have difficulty joining in the discussions if you haven't read to the end eg whodunnits.

Which novels do you read?

We read books from the Guardian's 2009 list of '1000 novels everyone must read', which can be found here. The list divides the books into categories, which we rotate through. We select the novels 5 months in advance by the organizers starting a themed nomination discussion on the message board https://www.meetup.com/1000-Books/messages/b... and asking members to recommend one book each, then voting begins on our polling pages!