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I run a Lesbian, Gay , Bisexual and Transgendered Reading Group at Blackpool Central Library. We currently have approx 15 members.

I go through the Pink List (a list that I compile which lists all the LGBT stock we have available within Blackpool Library Services, click here to view) and choose titles from there and also from new titles that are published. I also ask the members of the Reading group what sort of books they like to read e.g crime etc and try to choose books to reflect these tastes. We only read LGBT titles at the moment as that is what we decided we would do at our first meeting.

I ensure that we read 6 Gay Based books and 6 lesbian based books a year. Within these we read Transgendered fiction as well.

We currently buy 10 copies of each title for stock, we stock 2 copies of each title in Central and Palatine and 1 copy of each in the remaining 6 branches. At the moment we have to split into 2 groups at each session and read one title which we then swap at the next meeting. This ensures that people attend (hopefully) and also that they will complete the book.

It is quite interesting in that quite a few of our members joined because they got out of the habit of reading and wanted to re-discover the pleasure they used to get from it. Everyone now seems to be reading more and after we have discussed our title, we all talk about what else we have recently read and reccommend titles and authors to each other.