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Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Novel scheme to get city reading

Stanley Yelnat's family has a history of bad luck going back generations, so he is not surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Detention Centre. Nor is he very surprised when he is told that his daily labour is to dig a hole and report anything that he finds inside.

A city-wide book club has been launched in Liverpool to get more people interested in reading.

Book shops and libraries have stocked up on Holes, by Louis Sachar, the book chosen for Liverpool Reads 2004. The city's residents are being encouraged to read the book and talk about it with family, friends and even strangers. There will be a city-wide read every year until 2008, when Liverpool becomes European Capital of Culture. Project manager Jane Davis, from Liverpool University, said the idea is to make reading a shared experience. She told BBC News: "Reading a book is a great way to share someone else's experience. "There is nothing better when you have just finished a book than talking to someone else about what you really enjoyed about it."

In June, Hampshire county council launched The Turn The Page Club, a virtual reading club to allow book lovers to meet and discuss favourite books online.

In May, the BBC's Big Read was credited with with bringing about a five-fold increase in sales of its top 21 books, after more than 750,000 people voted for their favourite book.

And in February, Get London Reading was launched back in February at Canary Wharf by writers including Zadie Smith and Nick Hornby.

Posted by Nick @ 22:02 GMT
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Current Book Club Book

Boris Vian, L’Écome des Jours, 1947, Translated by Stanley Chapman as 'Froth on the Daydream'1967, 1970, 1988

Current Book Club Book on the Back Burner

Herman Melvills's 'Moby Dick

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