The Secret of a Successful Reading Group.

This was my first reading group, and its the one I've stuck with over the years, but along the way I've flirted with plenty of other reading groups – Philosophy reading groups, Social Theory reading groups, Cultural theory groups, Poetry reading groups and even fairly bog standard general reading groups. Why do they all tend to fall by the wayside but this one continues – what's the secret?

Well obviously the quality of the company is a big factor – that goes without saying ;-)

But beyond that, what makes a successful reading group? Here's my top tips:

1. Make the meeting a bit of a special event

I can sit in my own front room and drink wine pretty much every night of the week – I don't really want to use one of my once in a blue moon nights out sitting in somebody else's front room and not even drinking wine because I have to drive home. Our meetings give me chance to come to a big city, eat in a posh restaurant and be surrounded by people who aren't married to their cousins – that all works for me on so many levels and I consider this to be a must for any civilized reading group.

2. The person who picks the book provides the book.

A stroke of genius – I could kiss whoever thought of it. In other groups I've been in somebody chooses a book but everyone has to get their own copy. Getting an e-mail that says 'we're meeting in three weeks to discuss Bernard Malamud's The Assistant' never really filled me with joy – it feels too much like preparing for a seminar. You pop down to the local library only to find that the person who chose the book has taken out the only copy, so you have to order it over the Internet. Then on the day everyone turns up with a different version or edition of the book. So when you say 'I really liked that description of Minogue on page 76', nobody else can find the page in question because they all have a different edition to you apart from the person who got a tatty old copy for 20p from the Cerebral Palsy shop with pages 70-82 missing.

We meet, have a meal, discuss the current book, but all the while there is a bag under the table full of bright shiny copies of The New Book. At the end of the evening we get the big reveal - they are ritually handed out, face down, by the person who chose the book – it's a mystery solved and a nice new present all rolled into one. So you get several free meals and nice free books, and once a year its your turn and the credit card gets a bit of a hammering – but it's so much better than the usual reading group thing (and in the long run it is no more expensive than having to buy your own copy of the book and pay your own way at dozens of meetings over the year).

3. It's supposed to be fun

I spend all day stroking my chin and pretending to know the difference between Ethnomethodology and Symbolic Interactionism – I don't want to do it in my leisure time too. It's important to remember that reading groups are really an excuse for middle class people to meet up for a curry and a few beers on a regular basis behind a thin facade of self improvement, but don't take it too seriously.