Book Discussion Guides

Reading Group Guides From the bookreporter.com folks. This site gathers guides from a number of locations along with general information for forming and maintaining a group.

Random House Book Discussion Guides Two sections with guides: Ballantine Reader's Circle books and the Vintage Reading Group Center. The latter has tips for starting a group. (While there, find out about new releases at Books@Random. The DelRey and Ballantine sections provide good coverage of SciFi/Fantasy and Romance for genre readers. Fodor's Travel Online is part of this site.)

Bantam Doubleday Dell Reading Group Corner has "reader's companions" for a selection of titles.

SimonSays.com Reading Group Guides Discussion points for three dozen or more books. (A notable feature of the Simon & Schuster site is StarTrek books.)

Penguin Putnam Reading Guides A guide for starting a group plus reading guides for several books. Keep up with new publications at Penguin Putnam including the mystery and romance newsletters. Discussion guides for some classic works in collaboration with the Great Books Foundation.

St. Martin's Press and Griffin and Picador USA Reading Group Guides. Both sites include a synopsis and discussion questions.

Bay Area Book Discussion Group A group of women readers. Includes several years of reading lists plus links to other book groups with web sites. Good for getting an idea of how it works for others.

The Jewish Reader: A Guide for Book Groups New and classic works. A new book each month with summary and critical review, discussion questions and an author interview.

PinkMonkey.com Designed for students and intended to compete with Cliffs Notes. Downloadable booknotes. Another site to check is FreeBooknotes.com.

Want to join an online discussion group? Check out BookSpot's links to lists of book forums on the Net.