Happy New Year!

I hope you all have a great one!

Marg, Tanabata and I are all thrilled with the great response to the South Pacific Book Chat (#spbkchat) on twitter, and  2011 is shaping up to be a good one. :-)

Our schedule for chats is here: http://spbkchat.blogspot.com/2010/11/welcome_19.html - through to the start of February, and it'll be updated shortly.

As always, we're open to topic suggestions - just tweet one of us with ideas:

Me: http://twitter.com/justaddbooks

Marg: http://twitter.com/margreads

Tanabata: http://twitter.com/inspringthedawn

Or drop us a note in the comments.

Thank you all for embracing #spbkchat the way that you have, and long may it continue into the new year!

- Maree :-)

Whodunit

Last week's #spbkchat was a lot of fun, as we chatted about giving books as gifts, and it was awesome to see new faces in the #spbkchat stream along with the regular tweeters. The discussion ranged far and wide, from what books people like to give as gifts, to what books were the most memorable we received as gifts.

On to this week's smoking gun ...


 Everyone loves a good mystery. A whodunit to get the little gray cells going; a chase across dark moors, or perhaps a tense legal thriller is what gets your pulse racing.

Whatever your poison (see what I did there?) crime - overall - is a great one for getting your teeth into.

This Thursday's #spbkchat on twitter is all about crime, and its many and varied forms, from classic crime literature, right up to modern day forensic hijinks.

Join us -  #spbkchat, every Thursday night on Twitter, 6pm Japan/8pm Eastern Aust/10pm NZ time.

Also, If you have any questions/ideas for us, you can contact me, Marg or Tanabata on our twitters:

Me: http://twitter.com/justaddbooks

Marg: http://twitter.com/margreads

Tanabata: http://twitter.com/inspringthedawn

Our schedule through to early February is here: South Pacific Book Chat Topics

Check your alibi, hide that smoking gun, get your little gray cells working, for the game is afoot!

It's December ...

... which means Christmas is coming like the proverbial freight train.

The fraught question of what to buy for whom looms large, and so for this Thursday's South Pacific Book Chat on Twitter, (hashtag #spbkchat) we're talking about giving books as gifts.

Some questions to ponder, chatterers, while we all wait for Thursday to roll around:

Do you give books as gifts?
Are there certain people you won't buy books for?
How do you decide which books to buy?
Do you use exchange cards - just in case?
Have you ever received a book as a gift that makes you wonder whether the giver has ever met you?

Remember, #spbkchat, every Thursday night on Twitter, 6pm Japan/8pm Eastern Aust/10pm NZ time.

If you have any questions/ideas for us, you can contact me, Marg or Tanabata on our twitters:

Me: http://twitter.com/justaddbooks

Marg: http://twitter.com/margreads

Tanabata: http://twitter.com/inspringthedawn

Or drop us a note in the comments here. :-)

Last week's chat was an open forum, which we have periodically, wherein the floor (so to speak) is open to any and all chat. It was diverse, wide-ranging, and at least one reading challenge seems to have been born, which is always a good thing. :-)

Happy chatting!

Welcome!

I'm sure that when me, (er ... Maree from http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/) Marg from http://readingadventures.blogspot.com/ and Tanabata from http://www.inspringitisthedawn.com/ started discussing having an Asia/South Pacific time zone-friendly book chat once a week on twitter, we never thought we'd end up blogging about it, and having such amazing, lively chats every week.

The South Pacific Book Chat (#spbkchat on twitter) is so much fun. Every Thursday night - 6pm JPN time/8pm AUST Eastern/10pm NZ time - twittererers come together to talk about that week's topic.

The topics - so far - have been set by consensus between me, Marg and Tanabata, with the occasional (and very welcome) suggestion from the twitter peanut-gallery.

Some have asked what the schedule is for the chat, and while it's essentially run by the three of us, it also belongs to all of the people who show up to chat about the one passion we all have in common, whatever the subject of the week might be - books.

So, #spbkchat people, here's the schedule from Thursday, November 25, to Thursday, Februray 2. If you have any ideas for topics for us, hit us up in the comments here, or on twitter:

Me: http://twitter.com/justaddbooks

Marg: http://twitter.com/margreads

Tanabata: http://twitter.com/inspringthedawn

We'd love to hear from you!

Schedule updated, January 3:

The List:

11/25/2010 General book chat

12/2/2010 Buying books for gifts

12/9/2010 Crime

12/16/2010 Christmas Reads

12/23/2010 General book chat

12/30/2010 Best books of the year

1/6/2011 New Year Reading Resolutions

1/13/2011 Burma

1/20/2011 E-books/Availability

1/27/2011 Australia Day

2/3/2011 General book chat

2/10/2011 Japan Day

2/17/2011 Bookish podcasts
2/24/2011 Genre - fantasy
3/3/2011 General chat
3/10/2011 NZ YA (NB: March is NZ Book month)
3/17/2011 Book blogger meet-ups
3/24/2011 Re-reading
3/31/2011 Classics
4/7/2011 General chat

The chat is designed to be time zone-friendly, like I said, to Asia/the South Pacific, but it's an open forum on twitter, so if you happen to be around, you love books like we do, and you have something to say ... jump in - we'd love to hear from you!

also if some gifted person could make us a button for the blog, I would be internally grateful - Maree