By any measure reading groups, or book groups, are a successful phenomenon in Australia and around the world. There are radio shows (for example the reading group on the Morning Show, 702AM), a TV Show (First Tuesday Book Club), a book and movie (Jane Austen Book Club)...
Some book publishers (including Harper) are including comments, reviews and questions at the back of their books, to aid reading group digestion.
I have been part of my reading group for three years. It is a group that you have to be invited to join. I went along to my first meeting very nervous, armed with pages of notes and research on the book in question. I need not have panicked because the conversation was very lateral, and only loosely based around the book we had read.
However, the essential theme of the group was, and is, a love of reading, words, imagery, metaphor, characterisation, plot twists and meaning-making.
Reading groups have different patterns, in my first group we just talked about the latest book we had read. It was an amazing cross-section of theology, crime, science fiction, romance, biography, classics…
In this latest group, books are set to be read each month. We decide on our reading list at the end of one year, ready for the next. We choose from prize-winners, best sellers, as well as a classic, and some books for our children.
Having the books set in advance means we can purchase them through the year, hinting to family about Christmas and birthday presents, and also we can read extra during holiday periods.
Our most talked-about book has been Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin, a controversial expose of a fictional teenage school massacre, which was also a scathing look at parenting. We spent 18 months bringing that book up, it disturbed us so! This month we are considering Shriver's Post-Birthday World, which is a similarly brutal, caustic, severe and withering look at marriage and adultery.
Reading groups help to ensure that we expand our reading repertoire; they give us the opportunity to observe different ways of looking; and they guarantee that the joy of story-telling is maintained.
Spiritually, I find that my reading group helps me to stay aware of Gospel images, glimpses of God and grace, examples of sin and fallenness, illustrations of hope and renewal.
A reading group also provides a non-threatening atmosphere to make those links with non-Christians, to enjoy conversation and relationship-building.
I love reading groups :)
How does your reading group work? How have you found books have fed you spiritually? How have books bridged the gap to reach others with Gospel messages?
