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. The idea for the group was inspired by a BBC series called the "Big Read"
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 monthly 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 book must be more than a hundred years old,
one must be a book which the chooser has not read and one must be from this century.
We all vote on the options and a different group member is elected to lead the meeting for the selected book to mix things up a bit.
We used to meet in various locations, most frequently in pubs in Leigh-On-Sea, despite the name of the group!
During the lockdowns for Covid, the group was kept alive through online meetings and now we have members in
a variety of far flung locations and use Zoom. 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 physical meetings we would all score the book based on a number of literary qualities.
This used to be done with pen and paper on the night with the results getting copied into spreadsheets,
but now this web site allows members to add their scores at any time and review the full back history
which has been uploaded into the database. 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. At Christmas we have an optional Secret Santa
and we discuss the books that were gifted over the course of the next year.
These are the categories we use to score books we have read:-
| 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 (or take part in a Zoom meeting)
and all contribute without the discussion fragmenting or becoming unwieldy. 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
David Worton - 14th June : 2012
Edited 30th October : 2026 to bring things up to date