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