Reading Roars!

The September edition of Monocle magazine explores Britain’s image and asks experts what they would do to improve it, from business to the arts.
I thought that it would be interesting to think about what Reading suggests to the world and what a makeover might look like.
Ask an international audience what Reading means to them and [...]

Day 3 of the Reading Festival beckons and Guns N’ Roses are still dominating headlines after that show.  But what else has been happening at the Richfield Avenue site?
If, like me, you have been unable to go to this world-famous event this year, you might be interested in getting updates from the following online sources:
Twitter

@allfestivals - UK music festival news
@BBCreadingfest - [...]

I have been amazed by the number of significant Reading organisations joining Twitter in recent months (institutions that have included Reading Buses, @reading_buses, and Thames Valley Police, @ThamesVP), the broadening adoption of the #rdg hashtag (looking much like an airport code and fast becoming a new brand identity for the town), and the continued successes that are Reading Geek [...]

Last week on this blog I asked readers to help identify topics I could write about from a distance.
Posting a reply on Twitter (thinking about it, tweet replies should probably now be interspersed among blog comments on Reading Roars!), the delightfully-named @alabamawhirly suggested Reading’s city status bid, the Outside Inside festival (@OIFestival) and Jackson’s 135 [...]

I’m cringing.  Red-faced at the sight of the very first entry posted on this blog, dated Sunday 18 July 2005 (you will have to find it yourselves).  Yes indeed, this blog is now five years old.  Remarkable.
But will it last another five?  I hope so.  I hope to blog again as before (I’m convinced that [...]

Sunday 14 February is not only a day for lovers, but the first day of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese Lunar Calendar.
London offers the best Chinese New Year celebrations in the South-East, but if you’re inclined to stay in Reading, here are several ways of getting the Year of the Tiger off [...]

Do you “heart” Valentine’s Day, now only one week away at the time of writing?  Here are 7 things to do in Reading and the Reading area to make it a romantic day to remember:
1. Go for a romantic walk in the gorgeous countryside surrounding Reading and combine this with an intimate Sunday pub lunch.  Country pubs [...]

Yesterday’s result wasn’t bad, was it?
Reading’s 2-1 defeat of Liverpool, knocking them out of the FA Cup, was an historic achievement.  It was not as great as the Royals’ first victory against Rafa’s side (when Liverpool lost 3-1 in December 2007), but it was the more significant of the two. 
For a start, the encounter was at Anfield, a [...]

I’ve not updated this blog since early July 2009.  That’s a whopping 6 months of silence.  I’ve been overseas, making it pointless for me to keep the blog going, unless I comment on external news related to the town or perceptions of Reading from afar (generally speaking, the football club is known but that’s pretty [...]

I mentioned in a previous post last week’s Reading Borough Council Scrutiny Panel meeting with First Great Western and Network Rail.  I have to do the right thing and confess that I wasn’t present on the occasion, simply because I work in London and wasn’t able to get back to Reading in time (my fault, [...]