One night during winter, there were very few people out on the Melbourne streets. The wind was howling and the rain was steady. Inside Carlton’s Cinema Nova, Richard Ford was telling a large audience of his fight with another man; inside the packed Fitzroy Night Cat, Phillip Adams was integrating Michel d’Onfray about his stance on religion. At Port Melbourne, they were drinking pinot and talking poetry – over in Hawthorn, a launch of a new book was underway.

In 2007, at various venues, at various times and with a wonderful array of writers, musicians, entertainers and poets, we hosted over 230 events. This year, Readings Books, Music and Film has tried hard to be part of your life. We wanted a year where we increased the level of debate and discussion in our community. We did feel like opportunities were needed to discuss the environmental issues, the greed issues, the rise of religion, the decrease in kindness and tolerance. Together with different publishing houses, we hosted events with a range of speakers, including Clive Hamilton, Robert Manne, Leigh Sales, Guy Pearse, John Hirst, Rachel Kohn, Hugh McKay and Ian Lowe.

We also increased our commitment to ensuring that issues are discussed by forming a wonderful relationship with the Australian Institute of International Affairs. The resulting monthly book discussion is similar in style to our association with Deakin University for the Psychoanalysis Book Review Forums, held on the last Thursday of the month at the Carlton shop. Join us as we take off again next year in February – every second Monday of the month, 6.30pm at Readings Carlton. We want people to talk more, share their thoughts and ideas and be inspired by our speakers.

We wanted a year of events that acknowledged our great writers; among others, we hosted free events with David Malouf, Gail Jones, Christopher Koch, Alex Miller, Michelle de Krester and Jeanette Turner Hospital.

We wanted to show our appreciation of good food. Thank you to Rick Stein, Kylie Kwong, Jill Dupeix, Neil Perry and Maggie Beer (and others), who shared their delicious recipes with us at our Port Melbourne and Hawthorn shops.

We wanted special times for the kids – so we made fairy hats, decorated the shops and hosted parties for the very last Harry Potter book, and donned pirate hats and laughed out loud with Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, Leigh Hobbs and more.

We wanted a bit of fun too – thank you to Rupert Everett, to Nikki Greenberg, Jeremy Stanford, Greg Champion and 3CR for providing us with humorous events.

And we wanted music. We loved it when the shop was full of people singing to the Indigo Girls, swooning with My Friend the Chocolate Cake, or swaying with Bebel Gilberto, Archie Roach or Angie Hart. (And we were all a little in awe of Suzi Quartro.) We hosted over 30 different music events this year in our shops and hope to continue the trend.

We wanted our events to be accessible. In order to do this we were often crowded, perhaps hot, and maybe uncomfortable – but it does mean that the majority of our events were free and open to everyone. It is certainly one of our most important aims. Let me know if you think the trade-off is worth it.

Of course, we have many people to thank for our events. We could not have done it with out the assistance of our friends at Cinema Nova, Asialink, Sisters in Crime, the many publishers and their publicists, distributors and suppliers, the Royal Women’s Hospital, Midsumma, 3RRR and so many more! Thank you to staff, café staff, caterers, printers, volunteers and wine suppliers.

And the greatest thank you of all is to our speakers for making the time, and giving us food for thought and words to read.

And thank you to you.

We hope we managed a year where there was at least one event that interested you enough to attend. Let me know.

Chris Gordon: events@readings.com.au