Clyst Vale Reading Group, founded in September 1999, was originally set up in partnership with Community Education under the Widening Participation Initiative. The grant that the group was initially awarded enabled the partnership to provide a ten-session pilot with a view to continuing if the reading group was successful. The group has been meeting ever since with the librarian in charge now co-ordinating the meetings.

The group only rarely reads a specific title, instead each member chooses their own book and gives the group a taste of the book and their reactions to it. As a result discussions range over a wide variety of fact and fiction and members are perhaps stimulated to try a book championed by another reader, in which case there is a further discussion. Within the two weekly cycle, the Librarian in Charge collects a number of books that will appeal to the reading group, these books are made available to the group or they can borrow from Clyst Vale Library’s stock.

Clyst Vale Reading Group also follows the Orange and Booker shortlists and the Richard and Judy collections.