Essential Guide for Reading Groups by Susan Osborne (Bloomsbury, £6.99)

I'VE never been one for keeping the name of a good read to myself.

Five Fall Into Adventure... Down With Skool... Far Forest... The Catcher In The Rye... The Sword of Honour trilogy... The God of Small Things... The Englishman's Boy... Captain Corelli's Mandolin... e... Mister Candid... Self Abuse... Gould's Book of Fish... Toast...

If my enthusiasm for a book is reciprocated, I'm happy. If not - well, each to his own.

The enjoyment of a book is a deeply personal matter; a solitary pleasure and I can think of nothing worse than belonging to a reading group. I've always thought so, and Osborne does nothing to change that.

A reading group can range from a few friends who meet regularly to talk about particular books they have all read, to more formal gatherings - led by an academic and exploring literature in a more structured manner.

This Essential Guide really has been a book waiting to happen. Osborne takes the reader through the process of finding a reading group and setting up a new one - planning meetings; where, how often and what members expect to gain? - choosing books and leading discussions.

She even gives a few pointers to a discussion: What were your reactions to the book and why? Did the book have any relevance to your own experience and, if so, in what way? Did the book remind you of anything else you've read?

Then, come pages and pages of synopses, themes, and guides to suggested reads, each one followed by points for discussion and shorts lists of other titles covering a similar subject.

It's all very clinical and far, far too serious.

I've always thought the point of reading a book was for enjoyment and maybe to experience a little escapism. I don't want to be punched, prodded and brow-beaten into submission on whether or not I've fully understood what the author has written.

Osborne makes reading groups sound like the very worst of student days.

If I'm hooked on a book about Cleopatra, I don't really want to disect it afterwards to discuss such a contention that she had the body of a roll-top desk and the mind of a duck?

How can any member of a reading group enjoy a good read if they know that at the end of it they have to submit themselves to something akin to an A-level grilling by their peers?

There's no enjoyment in such a process. Of course, I maybe wrong....

David Chapman