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Readers need writers and writers need readers. This section focuses
on how to get the most from the reading experience, with advice
on the choice, recommendation and reviewing of books. It also
includes information on the setting up and running of readers'
groups and other general advice. We're especially looking for
sites exploring the online reading experience - how do we navigate
a web-based narrative, how do we read hypertext, how are email
and list-serves changing the way we read?
Remember
to buy your books via the buttons below and support trAce at no
extra cost!
Arts Online
Arts Council site, including Literature news.
Arts
and Libraries Web site. 
This site is focused on encouraging libraries and arts organizations
to work more closely in partnership. Includes the Books Connect
project and the Creating
Partnerships toolkit
Bibliomania
Website containing free online access to 2000 classic texts, which
can be searched by author, title or part(s) of text.
Bloomsbury
Reading Groups
Part of Bloomsbury
Magazine, a site containing general advice on setting up reading
groups, as well as an active notice board containing postings
from local reading groups.
Book
Crossing
Read a book, review it, recommend it, and release it for someone
else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate
it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.),
and get notified by email each time someone comes goes to the
website and records journal entries for that book.
The
book club
Companion site to BBC Radio 4 reading group programmes, but with
online transcripts and author interviews for those unable to hear
the programmes. Also has extracts from the book choices, and a
message board.
Books & Booze
Readers' site set up by members of a young people's reading group
in Basildon.
Branching Out
A site for everyone connected with reader development, covering
the whole of the UK.
Desert
Island Short Stories
Why read short stories? If you were cast away on a desert island
which ones would be indispensible reading? Here
are some of the responses received when these questions were posed
in the Reading Conference at the trAce WebBoard.
The
E-Book and the Future of Reading
Virtual Worlds of Girls, from Ju Gosling, explores the part which
books play in people's lives in the twentieth century, taking
girls' school stories and their readers as the example. The ebook
section of the hypertext explores the impact of information technology
on the practice of reading and the form of the book, and discusses
the changes which are likely to take place in the twenty-first
century as a result.
The Fiction Cafe
A virtual cafe from the (UK) National Library for the Blind.
Guardian
Reading Group
Online reading group, run by the Guardian newspaper (UK). Part
of Guardian Unlimited Books discussion boards.
How
to start a reading group
Advice from the National Reading Campaign
HypertextNow
Not just about hypertext, but a site containing articles and opinions
about reading online/onscreen, hypertext and hyperfiction, and
current online work. Updated regularly. (part of Eastgate.com)
International
Reading Association
Dedicated to promoting high levels of literacy by improving the
quality of reading instruction, disseminating research and information
about reading, and encouraging the lifetime reading habit. Includes
Reading Online, a
journal which deals with literacy and technology, media, critical
and visual literacy.
The Junction Book Group
An online reading group, free to join. Very friendly, even has
horoscopes!
J.
Yellowlees Douglas homepage
A site covering the work and interests of a leading academic,
working in the area(s) of hypertext/media and it's relationship
to reading and writing; interactive fiction, and narrative. Much
of her work is available online via the publications
part of the site.
Penguin Readers
Group
Part of Penguin publishers,
the site features structured reading around a theme. Included
are introductions, synopses, extracts, reader comments and reviews
of titles. Also a reading group noticeboard, links and advice
for starting a group.
The
Reading Agency
new ways of working with libraries to inspire a reading nation.
Reader
to reader
From Bradford Libraries, an example to anyone setting up a reader
site. Events, authors and readers in Bradford, includes reader
autobiographies and poetry.
ReadingGroupGuides.com
A site built for reading groups containing advice and ideas, and
links to online groups, including groups for children and teenagers.
Reading
Hypertext and the Experience of Literature
Online article discussing the differences between reading hypertext
and paper literature (published in the Journal
of Digital Information).
Wakefield Library Readers' Group
Online backup to a live reading group which meets once a week
in Drury Lane Library, Wakefield, England.
WhichBook.net
(formerly Book Forager)
A way to find your next read by choosing between descriptive words
such as beautiful and destructive, sex or no sex, happy or sad.
Word of Mouth
An online reading community, Word of Mouth offers you "the chance
to talk to other readers about books you've loved, books you've
hated, books you found heavy-going - in fact, whatever you've
been reading, other readers will love to hear about it."
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last modified: 16th November 2002
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