How to have Book Talk
Prison Reading Groups (PRG) support informal book groups and reading for pleasure. Before lockdown we supported over 45 groups in more than 40 prisons nationwide. Groups themselves choose the book they read and discuss, and members get a new copy to keep.
Covid put a temporary stop to face to face meetings, but quite a few of our groups are still going strong with brilliant help from library and prison staff. The chosen book is delivered in-cell and readers provide written comments which are summarised in a newsletter so people can find out what others thought.
To help groups choose, PRG has created ‘Book Talk’. Every month we suggest two titles and provide discussion notes to get readers going. The feedback shows how much appetite there is for ‘discussion’, even if it has to be on paper till things open up again. Here’s a selection of Book Talk choices and comments. It might whet your appetite to join a group or give you ideas about titles you could ask for from the library.