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I personally run 8 reading groups, and help with 4 others, including one devoted entirely to poetry. Stock can be a problem, especially as the groups increase in number and expand in size. Where once 6 copies were enough for each group (with a limited amount of sharing) I’m now finding it difficult to work with 8 copies.One source of titles is newbooksmag. We subscribe to 100 copies of each issue, with which we receive 6 copies of perhaps six different titles that have been featured in the magazine. I don’t necessarily use all the books provided, but they can be a useful fallback in an emergency and it’s easy enough to purchase 2 extra copies to make a set of eight. The magazine itself is given out to each and every reading group member free of charge.

Obviously I have no influence over which books I receive in this way, so the bulk of titles are purchased from the Glasgow branch of Ottakar’s, where I have built up an excellent relationship with the staff. I try to cover as wide a range of genres as possible, including classics, travel, current fiction, biography, crime etc., and the shop’s main fiction buyer is always happy to help with personal recommendations (I have NEVER met anyone who has read so much!). We fund this through a small ‘reader development’ budget, which was created by taking a couple of thousand pounds from our binding budget as we bind very little nowadays. In an emergency it’s usually possible to dip into the (inadequate) main book fund, especially as the reading group sets are returned to general library stock when we’re finished with them.

The biggest problem I have always found is in getting a complete set back from a group; in fact it rarely happens! I had naively thought that everybody would come to every meeting and dutifully return all their books, but some people miss meetings (and never think to hand their books into the library); some want to keep out a book they haven’t finished (and I’m too soft-hearted to refuse!); and some disappear forever, taking the books with them. The latter is particularly annoying!

We don’t share with a neighbouring authority, but we do provide books for the local college’s two reading groups and another one at a community school. Reciprocal arrangements have been mooted, but nothing has come to fruition as yet.