This is the web site of the Southend-On-Sea "big readers" book group.
The group was originally started in 2003 by friends working for a software company called
Rebus (now part of Xchanging) and inspired by a BBC series called the "Big Read"
which was shown on television that year. The BBC conducted a poll open to all ages and
types of readers to find the UK's top 100 favourite works of fiction. More
details about the BBC project can be found here:-
BBC Big Read
Our group has been meeting once a month, every month since then to discuss one (or
very occasionally more) of the top 100 books and in June 2011 we were able to celebrate
the completion of the original list and this web site was launched. Since then we have been striking
out on our own with some self selected titles. Members of the group take turns to offer five
choices to the others and the rules we are currently following are that at least one must be
a pre 20th century work and at least one a book which the chooser has not read. We all vote
on the options and a diferent group member is elected to lead the meeting for the selected book
to mix things up a bit.
We meet in various locations but usually in Leigh-On-Sea despite the name of the group!
The "leader" for the monthly session begins with a brief biography of the author and
some background about the book before opening up the discussion. At the end of the meeting we
all score the book based on a number of literary qualities. Then we select the next book, usually
following the plan explained above but sometimes by agreement of the whole group if there is
some special reason we all would like to read a book. We try to maintain a rolling programme
with a three month horizon. These are the categories we use to score books we have read:-
| Scoring Category | Notes |
| Plot | Was it a well constructed story? Did the events in the book make sense in their own terms? Was the plot enthralling? |
| Characterisation | Did you think the characters were successful creations? Were they believable and engaging? Did they react to the events in the book in the way you’d expect them to? Did you feel involved with their triumphs and tragedies? |
| Scenery | Did the book give you a sense of place? Were items, events and society described in a vivid and interesting manner? Did you have a clear mental picture of the story "background". How important was it to the book as a whole? |
| Writing style and structure | What did you think of the way the book was written? Was the language appropriate? Was it easy to read or florid and overly complex? What about the length of chapters and the way the book was split up? Did any “experimental” features of the way the tale was told work for you or not? |
| Philosophy | Was the book thought provoking? Did it explore ideas that you found interesting? Has it influenced the way you think about the world? |
| Unputdownability | Was this a “page turner”? How gripped were you by the book? |
| Overall | General mark out of 10 for the book. How much you liked it. |
Although we have had a number of people leave and join us over the years the policy of the group has
been to open it by invitation only for interested family and friends known to existing group members.
This is mainly because there is a limit to the number of people who can fit round a table and all contribute
without the discussion fragmenting. We are not actively seeking any new members at the moment.
If you are reading this and thinking you might like to join a group, you can find information about public groups here:-
Public Book Groups
The purpose of this web site is to record the group history and our own scoring
for the interest of members. A major new release of the site database and software has just been
launched at the time of writing allowing all group members to now add and edit the books and to update
their own scores (previously this had to be done by the site administrator).
David Worton - 14th June : 2012
New for 2024!
I've used a free account at Story Graph to create some
snapshot graphics of the books the group has read and I've put together a quick Google Site with
the results on it which you can find here... Southend Big Readers : The Stories So Far
David Worton - 13th June : 2024