BOOK GROUPS “It does move fast but apart from that, I can't think of anything else to recommend it. The characterization is non-existent and the plot is so unoriginal! I couldn't get past the first hundred pages.” Jacintha delivers her verdict and four women nod their agreement. Two men, howeverm are looking indignant and one of them, Ben, leaps in. “Jacintha, forgive me, but if you didn't even get past the first hundred pages, how can you make a fair assessment? I think the whole point of the novel is that the main characters are very immature and it's only as the action progresses that they're forced to develop as people. I thought it was a fascinating book, with a lot of new ideas, and the ending had the most wonderful twist.” It's now Mary's turn. “I have to say, I am totally with Jacintha and I did get to the end,” she says. Half an hour later, with opinions still divided, the seven book group members break for a cup of tea and a piece of home-made cake. It's rare for them to have unanimous agreement on a book but the women feel that their different views only add to the interest. Book groups began as a late-20th century phenomenon, the manifestation of a growing interest in novels. In the typical book group a group of friends meet once a month to discuss a novel that they have all agreed to read. Knowing that they will spend a boring couple of hours at the meeting should they fail to read the book, members generally read the book carefully, something they might not bother to do otherwise. A novel provides the perfect platform for the kind of intellectual discussion about books that many feel are lacking in their lives, and there is also the fun of getting together with friends. Such groups have been given an added impetus in America and the UK by the fact that two of the biggest chat shows in both countries,THE OPRAH WINFREY Show in the US and Richard and Judy in the UK, while they were on air, featured book discussion club segments in which novels were recommended and discussed. Authors who were fortunate enough to have their books recommended saw sales rise massively. One professor estimated that as a result of Oprah Winfrey's recommendations an extra 55 million copies of books were sold. Even if only a fraction of those reading these books belonged to book groups, that's still a lot of people reading and talking about novels.