Want to share a book you've enjoyed, but don't fancy book clubs? Welcome to the world of BookCrossing, where you can leave a book for a stranger, writes Grace Wynne-Jones
Although reading is a solitary activity, it is also becoming an increasingly sociable one. Throughout the country people are gathering to discuss books in book clubs. They're learning a lot about each other and turning many books into bestsellers in the process. While the popularity of book clubs has led Channel 4's Richard and Judy and The Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 to run their own book club slots, such clubs are not for everyone.
"We were reading boring, crap books," says, Liz, who works in Dublin. A working wife and mother, she said she felt "downtrodden" at her book club because of her candid views and playfulness. Now a book club escapee, she has joined an international movement called BookCrossing and regularly performs "random acts of literacy".
Ireland has 1,873 BookCrossers, with ages ranging from seven to 74. The word "bookcrossing" is defined in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary as "The practice of leaving a book in a public space to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise".
"I guess you could say it's the karma of literature," explains BookCrossing's American co-founder, Ron Hornbaker. "Releasing your books 'into the wild' and tracking their progress and the lives they touch is just more fascinating, and more fulfilling, than hoarding them on a shelf somewhere.
"Our goal is to make the whole world a library."
But Irish BookCrossing member Tony says the Irish public is frequently cautious when confronted with books "released" onto, say, shop window ledges. The greeting on the jacket tends to say things like "I'm Free. Please Take Me!" and Tony believes people often "just don't get it".
Those who do get it are enjoying BookCrossing's championing of serendipity, generosity and gleeful quirkiness. Tony says he even left a book at Dún Aengus on the Aran Islands. He has also released a book on the "Juliet" balcony in Verona.
Tony says he would find joining a book club "very limited" in comparison. With BookCrossing he can "talk online to anyone anywhere on any subject and I will get responses from people in over 40 countries". This chat can be anonymous. Tony's online name is SirRoy, in honour of Roy Keane.
Liz, whose online name is GizmoPuddy, believes that the book trade need not fear BookCrossing because its members "buy a phenomenal amount of books". Some publishers are also realising that it can be used to spread the word about a title.
"The social side is hugely important," Liz says. And anecdotal research suggests that the book clubs that work best share some of BookCrossing's social and literary playfulness. Finding that you enjoy some books you normally wouldn't have touched with a bargepole is one of a book club's pleasures.
HOWEVER, IF THE meetings become too worthy it's time for members to ask themselves the much publicised question "But, are you happy?"
The many excellent Irish book clubs that thrive do so because they are enjoyable and also stretch and expand their members' world-view.
"What people see in a character can reveal a lot about who they are themselves," says enthusiastic book club member Deborah Martin from Castleknock, Dublin.
Her club meets once a month and members take it in turn to host the meeting. "The host can invite an extra guest and she suggests the book we are going to discuss," she explains. "We enjoy finding books ourselves and acting on word-of-mouth recommendations. We sometimes end up shouting and interrupting each other at our book club get togethers. We start at around 8pm and are often still talking at midnight.
CHARLIE RINGROSE LOVES that her book group ends up discussing a huge range of topics. "Of course it's not all about books. Sometimes a book is the springboard for a totally different conversation."
"Book clubs are not just about reading. They are also about the art of conversation," confirms Camille O'Flanagan of Barry's Tea which sponsors the Barry's Tea Book Club, with 25,000 members. The Club has a regular slot on The Tubridy Show and gives people advice on how to set up their own clubs and provides a reading list (details at www.barrystea.ie). "What I really like is people coming up to me and saying 'I'm not a great reader but I picked up that one you were talking about'," Tubridy says.
Some people fear that everyone may end up reading the same bunch of books and miss out on ones that don't hit the conversational buttons. One industry watcher has coined a term for the type of book that many book clubs favour. In the women's literary magazine MsLexia, Debbie Taylor writes, "Lit lite is the kind of book beloved of the reading group: sufficiently approachable and gripping to engage everyone in the group, yet still offering something - some stylistic quirk, some moral dilemma, some social issue - for members to discuss when they meet."
Thankfully, high-profile book clubs seem to be becoming increasingly aware of the need to foster wide-ranging literary tastes. "The books we recommend are there because someone loved them," says O'Flanagan. "The list is a very useful guide, but that's all it is. People don't have to follow it slavishly. We hope it will encourage them to go on a literary adventure and find their own special books too."
Grace Wynne-Jones's novel Ordinary Miracles is published by Accent Press, €10.75
