Promoting reading 1
the MSE is reading promotion initiatives which ai
m to gather together readers in a city or region or a whole country concerning a book they have all read. The renewed interest in social reading is linked with the development of technology. Being able to share your reading experiences or discuss reading with others has never been easier than now. This, in turn, creates new foundations and opportunities for reading promotion activities. The term “social reading” is understood to mean communication between readers about literature and reading experiences. Social reading includes book conversations in groups, which occur as part of book circles in both analogue and digital forms. Social reading also includes literature discussions on Internet forums and blogs, as well as author visits. While booktalk introduces books that the audience has not read, a book conversation involves in-depth reading of already-read books. A book conversation can most easily be defined as a conversation, with or without a facilitator, around a book that all participants have read. In comparison with the book conversation, booktalk in its traditional form can be seen as a form of one-way communication. A standard form of organised book conversation in groups is the book circle. Book circles, reading groups, reading circles and literature circles are assumed to be synonymous in this knowledge review, and refer to an organised group of readers gathered together physically or meeting in some other way to discuss their reading experiences. Research on book circles tends to be about the size, organisation and group identity of the book circles. It mainly concerns English-speaking countries and as yet research in Sweden is limited. In a current Swedish research project on book circles, a distinction has been made between independent book circles and organised book circles. While independent book circles operate without any links to organisations or external support, organised book circles are tied to a public library, an adult education association, a bookstore or some other type of organisation. Both in Sweden and abroad, book circles in their traditional form of meetings IRL are a female-dominated activity. The typical book circle participant in Sweden is a woman of retirement age. The proportion of women participating in book circles organised by adult education associations in recent years has hovered between 80 and 85 per cent. The overwhelming majority of book circle participants are people aged 65 years or older. The research points to a sharp rise in recent years in the number of participants in the oldest age category. Book circles at public libraries have increased greatly in recent years. Since book circles appear to have become a tool to attract adult readers, this increase has been seen as an indication that public libraries have strengthened their reading promotion efforts that target adults. The UK has a well-developed tradition of hosting reading groups at public libraries, as has been noted in this knowledge review. A key concept in British discourse on reading groups is Reader Development. The Reader Development movement has shifted its focus from reading to the reader; reader development instead of reading development. While reading development is about acquiring reading skills, reader development is about the reading experience itself. This movement has also advocated a shift of emphasis in reading promotion efforts from the quality of the book to the quality of the reading experience. In the UK, the positive effects of reading groups have been noted in the form of more and broader reading, higher lending rates and consumption of books, but also 108