Readership development > Best practice > Reading groups

Simple ideas to increase issues

Reading groups are democratic. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, you can join one or set one up of your own.

There are reckoned to be about 50,000 reading groups in the UK, some over 200 years old. The groups that exist at present meet because they find the experience enjoyable and stimulating. It takes them to books and experiences that they might not otherwise have encountered.

Idea: Create a Reading Group Newsletter.

It frees the members of the group up from having to jot down all the titles that can get bandied about at the meetings. Why not get one member to take informal minutes.

Idea: Choose a title that has been made info a film.

Watch the film, then discuss the book and the film afterwards.

Idea: Deciding which book to read next

Go to a site such as Bookbrowse.com, print out a couple of excerpts and pass them round to the group to peruse and decide upon. I like this because it’s nicely democratic, there’s no cover (or author if you choose to withhold that information) to distract people into their usual prejudices.

Gerry Maclean, the librarian at the State Hospital in Carstairs, uses this technique with her two book groups. She calls the excerpts "hooks" and she usually photocopies them out of a book making sure to cut them off just before an exciting sequence. It works very well for her. Her groups have done stuff as varied as Twelfth Night and Animal Farm.

Text by Matthew Perren (Readership Development Officer, 2002)

Tip: Use the Reading Group Toolbox

Created by Opening the Book, this useful resource offers hundreds of ideas and they can be used again and again whatever books you decide to read. The Toolbox was produced as a partnership between Opening the Book and Waterstone's, supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England. You can borrow a copy through your public library service (1000 copies were distributed free to libraries) or you can buy your own copy for GBP 15.00 from the Reading Group Toolbox Co-ordinator Tel: 0207 619 7500 or Fax: 0207 609 6635.

>> Further suggestions on starting and supporting a reading group, discovering online resources, sample chapters and discussion guides are available from the links section.

>> Text in the following sections has been taken from the Reader Development Bulletin. To be placed on the mailing list contact us.