The third installment of a new series of collaborations between Waterstones and comedian Steve Cross sees eight of London’s sparkiest readers take to the stage to share their passion (or intense critical appreciation) for books.
Affectionately known as London’s first chaotic open-mic night about books, Books Showoff is unapologetically raucous, irreverent, and hysterical.
Steve Cross – Our MC and currently reading a book about the zoology of termites, written by a man who didn’t know any zoology. And happy about this.
Joey Connolly – I’ll be talking about a spreadsheet I made. It’s a spreadsheet of all the books I’ve read since I stopped reading books which were mostly pictures. It’s got data on everything from genre to gender to grandness and outwards to almost everything there is about a book. It’s got graphs. It’s got serious graphs. It’s an act of perhaps unparalleled alphanumeric nerdery. What kind of extravagantly self-interested mind would make such a thing? Find out on the 21st of July.
Keith Kahn-Harris – ‘The books I will never write’; My ‘Impossible Books’ project.
Rachel Wheeley – Rachel Wheeley takes an appreciative look at the Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Why science fiction is fascinating and whether H2G2 could have been the text of a Scientology style religion, if only its readers had less sense.
Sarah Bennetto – The aussie comedian and storyteller will take us deep inside her favourite book, and reveal the mess inside in a way that only she can.
Sean Smith – “Your mind, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters.” Bring your favourite book, and mindreader and magician Sean Smith will tell you what it reveals about you.
Joel Blackledge – Joel Blackledge is a writer, filmmaker and middlebrow enthusiast. He’ll be talking about Love & Rockets, a comic book series that is slightly older than him and considerably more successful.
Micheal Eades – Michael will be talking about his secret life as a Surrealist book collector.
Richard Duguid – Richard has worked at Penguin Books for nearly 30 years, doing fundamentally the same job. His late father also did that job at Penguin, for 32 years. His son is at university studying chemistry.
The gig is in the basement of the cool new Waterstones on the south end of Tottenham Court Road (it’s in one of the units that used to be big flash electronics shops) on Thursday July 21st. Doors open 7pm. There is a lovely bar (yay!) and a lift down to the basement.
Tickets are £5 from HERE
