Reading Roars!

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 [...]

Anyone wandering around Reading may have noticed this curious spectacle of PEEPSHOW in the window of the now-derelict Long Tall Sally shop, opposite the Town Hall.

Step closer and you will find tiny worlds and surprises tucked behind each of the peeping holes. Some of the things appear connected, some seem more random, some make you [...]

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 [...]

If you’re looking for something not at all lovey-dovey to do on Valentine’s Day, you could do worse than head down to The Hexagon to see Dave Gorman perform as part of his Sit down, pedal, pedal, stop and stand up tour. The slightly weird name stems from the fact that he toured the same [...]

We’re a little late with this one, so you might already have realised that Reading Borough Council has decided to chuck the town’s hat into the ring and bid to be granted city status in 2010.
Reading has tried this twice before; on previous occasions we were beaten by economic powerhouses like Wolverhampton and Newport. Third [...]

I like to consider myself as pretty knowledgeable about music, pretty clued up, but the truth is – although I am generally more so than most of my friends – current music is always something that I take a while to catch up with. Now, I appreciate that makes me sound a tad old before [...]

I am hungover today. I have a head as heavy as an anvil and a stomach like a bin that hasn’t been collected for three weeks, but frustratingly, I also have the urge to be productive and creative. These two states of mind tend to clash somewhat and it puts me in a bad mood [...]

As a somewhat shy and retiring bloke who tends to want to shrink from confrontation and intimidation whenever it presents itself, a Friday and Saturday night out on the town in Reading can sometimes be as appealing as driving to work in this weather in a beamer fitted with slick tyres. All the chest beating [...]

Like Reading’s blogosphere, the town’s Twitterverse is flourishing. 
I believe we now have what can be described as a legitimate Reading identity (or strands of identity) on Twitter, shaped by 4 key developments:

#rdg was created
#rdgtweetup event and corresponding hashtag were created
Journalists from getreading/Reading Post and Reading Chronicle joined Twitter
Reading Chronicle and getreading/Reading Post began using #rdgnews to publish [...]

The prolific political blogger Oranjepan has published an interesting (and unique, I believe) analysis of the Berkshire blogosphere.
Oranjepan compiled a list of most influential Berkshire blogs in June 2009 (based on Wikio rankings), with John Redwood’s Diary in top position. The other titles in the top 5 were listed as Boulton & Co., Mark Reckons, [...]