Eason's launched the Eason Book Club on the 14th March 2010, an interactive online forum for book lovers and book clubs. The Eason Book Club will host discussions and reviews, top tips for setting up book clubs, recommended reads, regular competitions and interactive polls. John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas topped the first Eason Book Club poll of best book club reads of the noughties. The poll revealed the popularity of “cross-over” books – popular with both children and adults – for book clubs.
The Eason Book Club, which is powered by Facebook, has already more than 1,500 registered fans who are availing of book advice from Eason’s team of experts, including suggested reads, information on book events and group discussions on many bookish topics from favourite re-reads to judging books by their covers! There will be a monthly discussion on a selected title which has been kick-started with a lively debate on the poll winner The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The Eason Book Club will feature regular author participation and this month’s discussion includes an introductory synopsis of the book from the author, John Boyne.
Maria Dickenson, Head of Purchasing at Easons said “Book clubs have become a huge phenomenon in the last 10 years with thousands of book-clubs getting together on a monthly or weekly basis around the country. There is an incredible word of mouth network when it comes to book club books, and titles can have a long shelf life as they are passed from reader to reader over the years. Our online forum is designed to offer support to existing book-clubs and also to allow individuals who are perhaps not in a book-club to take part in discussions in their own time.
It was incredibly interesting to see in the results of our first book-club poll, that “cross-over” children-adult titles are making very popular book club reads with John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas topping the poll. Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Bind Up all also feature in the top twenty. Children’s literature has produced some real gems during the noughties and it is great to see that adults are happy to explore the genre.”
The first Eason Book Club poll registered 1700 votes and respondents were asked to choose their top reads of the noughties from a selection of 125 books. The books selected were drawn from national sales data over the last ten years. There was also a strong qualititative element with the Eason team selecting books that they have read and loved in their own book clubs, as well as books that customers have recommended or responded well to. (The full list of the top 50 selected titles can be found below).
The Eason Book Club is also providing a new way for Eason to interact with its customers. “This online forum is facilitating direct dialogue with our customers which we greatly welcome. The feedback we receive from our online members can have a direct influence on our in-store promotions, for example, following our first poll of top books of the noughties, we are now running a 3 for 2 offer on the book-club top 50 of the noughties. The Eason Book Club will allow us to actively listen to our customers views which is essentially changing the way we do business”, Maria Dickenson concluded.
Visit the Eason Book Club on http://www.facebook.com/EasonBookClub
EASON BOOK CLUB – Top 50 Books of the Noughties
1 THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS BOYNE, JOHN
2 TIME TRAVELLERS WIFE NIFFENEGGER, AUDREY
3 THE LOVELY BONES SEBOLD, ALICE
4 GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO LARSSON, STIEG
5 CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG HADDON, MARK
6 KITE RUNNER HOSSEINI, KHALED
7 BOOK THIEF ZUSAK, MARKUS
8 THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS HOSSEINI, KHALED
9 THE ROAD MCCARTHY, CORMAC
10 ATONEMENT MCEWAN, IAN
11 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN SHRIVER, LIONEL
12 LIFE OF PI MARTEL, YANN
13 MIDDLESEX EUGENIDES, JEFFREY
14 NEVER LET ME GO ISHIGURO, KAZUO
15 SECRET LIFE OF BEES KIDD SUE, MONK
16 THE READER SCHLINK, BERNHARD
17 HIS DARK MATERIALS BIND UP PULLMAN, PHILIP
18 SHADOW OF THE WIND ZAFON, CARLOS RUIZ
19 Q & A SWARUP, VIKAS
20 BROOKLYN TOIBIN, COLM
21 SECRET SCRIPTURE BARRY, SEBASTIAN
22 MEMORY KEEPERS DAUGHTER EDWARDS, KIM
23 VERNON GOD LITTLE PIERRE, DBC
24 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING CHEVALIER, TRACY
25 TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG CAREY, PETER
26 CONSTANT GARDENER LE CARRE, JOHN
27 LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN MCCANN, COLUM
28 STAR OF THE SEA O CONNOR, JOSEPH
29 WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS ATKINSON, KATE
30 LONG LONG WAY BARRY, SEBASTIAN
31 JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL CLARKE, SUSANNA
32 ISLAND HISLOP, VICTORIA
33 KAFKA ON THE SHORE MURAKAMI, HARUKI
34 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN MCCARTHY, CORMAC
35 BLIND ASSASSIN ATWOOD, MARGARET
36 AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY CHABON, MICHAEL
37 PAULA SPENCER DOYLE, RODDY
38 THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN MCGAHERN, JOHN
39 CLOUD ATLAS MITCHELL, DAVID
40 WHITE TIGER ADIGA, ARAVIND
41 SHANTARAM ROBERTS, GREGORY DAVI
42 AMERICAN WIFE SITTENFELD, CURTIS
43 IM NOT SCARED AMMANITI, NICCOLO
44 THE SEA BANVILLE, JOHN
45 STAR CALLED HENRY DOYLE, RODDY
46 WOLF HALL MANTEL, HILARY
47 EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED FOER, JONATHAN SAFRAN
48 RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST HAMID, MOHSIN
49 NOTES ON A SCANDAL HELLER, ZOE
50 THE GATHERING ENRIGHT, ANNE
