West of England bibliophiles

I've just joined this site and I'm finding it very interesting. However, the ability to look up local fellow bibliophiles is limited.
I live just outside of Bath. Are there many other book lovers around here?

I'm in Cornwall, so quite a long way west and south of you. However, I'll be in Bath this weekend for the Lit Fest!

The Lit Fest looks like it will reach its usual high standard this year (the web site is at http://www.bathlitfest.org.uk/ for those who are not familiar with it).

Are you looking forward to any talk in particular?

Unfortunately I've got other commitments for much of this weekend and so couldn't book tickets for some of the excellent talks there will be. However, I might be free for the Bettany Hughes talk on Monday night if there are still tickets available at the last moment.

EDIT: Bettany Hughes is on Sunday night; I've known this all along and yet somehow typed "Monday" in this post ...

There's an inclusive (ie not just Cornwall)but not very active group Cornish Booklovers

Many/some online people are reluctant to reveal real location identification, so I don't expect you'll get many responses.

Hello! I'm in Bristol, just up the road from you. I'm hoping to get over to Bath on Saturday for a bit of LitFest fun too!

reading_fox - I can understand that many people won't want to be too specific about locations.

However, I've always found it better to discuss interesting things in a face-to-face group -- over a coffee or something stronger -- rather than through posting text on a website. I think it would be entertaining to find a group of half a dozen or so like-minded people who could meet up for chat somewhere that was mutually convenient. That doesn't need people to be very specific about where they are, but simply to say things like Bristol is easy to get to, but Bath is trickier, for example.

Thanks for the Cornish link.

pokarekareana - the world seems to be in Bath on a weekend I'm not there!

Are you looking forward to anything in particular at the LitFest?

There may well be a BookCrossing group in your area - not sure if there is, but if there isn't, I bet there'll be BookCrossers and you could start one up!

Hi, Richard! Yes, I'm looking forward to Howard Jacobson on Sunday - I've just finished reading The Finkler Question, so it should be interesting. Also Salley Vickers and a couple of other miscellaneous events.

Hi everyone. As far as I know I'm LT's only Plymothian - any challengers?

@LyxxyBee - That's a good idea, but there doesn't seem to be any bookcrossing activity in Bath, although it lists a lot of members. When I have more time I might try to prompt people in a couple of locations in the area become official bookcrossing zones which might increase the activity and bring some people together.

miss_read - those look like really good talks - I'm sure you will enjoy them!

booksloth - I've not seen anyone else from Plymouth on here so far, so you might be right!

Attention, Wez Vinglund bibliophiles! Oldstick has started a holiday bookshop thread over at http://www.librarything.com/topic/148206 if you're still there!

Hello! Bristolian person here - anyone else around or nearby?

>14 strung_out:
Hello! Ex-Bristolian, but I occasionally get into Bristol to bookshop-browse.
Why don't you send messages to the Bristol-based posters above?
Also, see the Holidays in Britain thread for some discussion on Bristol bookshops.