11 June 2026
What we do when nobody finished the book
Notes from a meeting where not one of us had reached the end, and the four things we now do to keep such an evening useful rather than awkward.
Meeting notes · drawer one
One book a month, discussed properly.
Meeting notes, reading lists and house customs from Hollow Oak Readers, a small monthly book circle meeting between Dulwich and Peckham.
A readers' circle in Southwark and Lambeth, south London, England — meeting since 2021.
Earlier cards in the index
Each evening is written up on a single card: what we read, what the room argued about, and what comes next.
17 July 2025
The summer walk-and-read: one hill, one chapter, one bench
How our July meeting moves outdoors — the route up through the park, where we stop to read aloud, and what changes when the room has no walls.
14 January 2025
The winter list: six books for the dark half of the year
Our January reading list, assembled for short afternoons and cold back rooms, with notes on why each title suits the season.
21 November 2024
A note on reading in translation, after an evening of two versions
Our circle read the same chapter in two translations and spent a whole meeting on it. Notes on what we heard, and how we now handle translated books.
16 May 2024
How we choose what to read: the jar, the veto and the long list
The slightly eccentric method our circle uses to pick one book a month, and why a paper jar has outlasted every spreadsheet we tried.
How the evening runs
Four customs the circle keeps
Hollow Oak Readers is a small, unhurried book circle that meets once a month to talk about one book properly. We keep notes so that nobody who misses an evening feels locked out of the conversation.
- One book a month, read at a human pace.
- Disagree with the book, not with each other.
- Nobody is examined on what they did not finish.
- Notes are kept so that absence is never exclusion.