Looking for a book club or a reading group? Find out about shared reading!
LATEST NEWS
Lsr reaches the finals in the 2026 VAL awards! see below for more.
welcome to Rowan, the newest member of our reader leader team, who will be helping to lead our Thursday group
In early October, Nicky and Helena donned their glad rags to attend the 2026 VAL Volunteer Awards ceremony at Winstanley House in Leicester. Our invitation came about after LSR reached the finals in the Volunteer-Led Organisation of the Year category. We are proud that our volunteers have received this recognition - every one of us gives their time and works with dedication and commitment to enrich the lives of people in our communities.
This annual event celebrates the contribution and achievements of individuals and organisations from the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector in Leicester and Leicestershire. It’s a huge field – we learned that as well as around 2,400 registered charities in the area there are roughly 3,800 grassroots community organisations like ours. For our organisation to reach the final four in our category was therefore especially pleasing!
What is Leicestershire Shared Reading?
Leicestershire Shared Reading (LSR) is a voluntary organisation, set up in 2016, to work in partnership with Leicestershire County Council's library service to support a thriving network of ‘Make Friends, with a Book’ Shared Reading groups. The groups, led by volunteer Reader Leaders, meet weekly either via Zoom or in person at public libraries around Leicestershire and are open to anyone to drop in and sit for a while, listening to stories and poems being read aloud. Find out more about what happens in a group by clicking here.
Some of the Glenfield Library group members
VIDEO CORNER
As part of Volunteers' Week 2025, Nicky was given the opportunity to talk a bit about how shared reading got started in Leicestershire, how it works, and how everyone can get involved. Many thanks to Leicestershire County Council for filming this short interview. You can watch it below.
Meanwhile, clicking on this link will take you to a video of one of our Zoom groups in action.
Volunteer with us!
Our wonderful Volunteer Leader has recently had to step back from her role, and we are keen to replace her. This is a 'behind-the-scenes' Steering Group role that you can carry out from home; the work is a crucial part of enabling our small organisation to do big things!
Our Volunteer Leader helps to recruit new volunteers, and manages our team of Reader Leaders. If you like working with people and organising things, and especially if you have experience managing teams and/or of the voluntary sector, this might be the role for you! Find out more by clicking here.
We are always keen to recruit new Reader Leaders: these are the volunteers who lead our 'Make Friends, with a Book' groups in libraries and online. If you enjoy reading for pleasure and can appreciate the power of literature to touch people's lives, why not find out more about this rewarding role? Full details are here.
We are particularly keen to find additional Reader Leaders in the Glenfield and Loughborough areas.
Visit our 'get involved' page to find out more about both these roles and how they fit into our organisation.
"What I love about Shared Reading groups is that everyone is welcome and everyone is valued, reading sessions are accessible to all and are non-judgmental. The story or poem is always kept at the centre of the discussion, which enables the group to get the most out of it."
Helena, Reader Leader
Click below if you'd like to find out more about being a volunteer Reader Leader
What do we read?
Choosing 'good' literature is key to the success of Shared Reading. Not everything we read is serious, but it all has depth and makes us think and feel; our discussions tend to focus more on characters and what makes them tick than on plot, and we enjoy finding out what a poem means. We usually read a short story and a poem or two in each session, but some groups prefer to read a novel alongside the poetry. Over the last month or so, our groups have shared stories by authors as diverse as Juliam Barnes, Amy Tan and Italo Calvino. One group is reading Andrea Leby's 'Small Island' while another has just embarked on 'North and South' by Elizabeth Gaskell. Poetry choices have included works by Shelley, Burns and Masefield, with more modern poets represented by Seamus Heaney, Mark Doty, Roger McGough and Carol Ann Duffy. Group members often talk about the delight of getting to know new writers as well as the pleasure of revisiting more familiar works.
After each session, the Reader Leader compiles a short report, recording what was read and how it was received. You can read an example here - this is from a group of around six members. It gives us a good sense of how the conversation unfurls and develops as the reading progresses... but the best way to find out how shared reading works is to visit a group, of course! Why not give it a try?
What people say about shared reading
Over the years we have received lots of lovely feedback showing the value of the shared reading experience to our group members. Here are some of their comments:
"I am so glad I saw the poster in the library. Joining this group is the best thing I have done for me for years. [It] has made the world of difference to me, I just love it. Thank you everyone."
“I feel I can express my opinions without feeling that I would be judged. I enjoy the positive responses I receive from my group. It makes me feel I belong to something.”
“I look forward to meeting other members and chatting. I feel we have come to know each other quite well over the years.”
"The reading groups are a different kind of medicine and it's through them that I've found a way back to life"
“For a while you can forget what’s going on in the world and [have] company.”
"Our experienced and sensitive Reader Leaders ensure that sessions are both inclusive and non-threatening. Through experience, they are able to guide the discussion or to allow it to take its own course. This approach leads to all members feeling valued and, in a safe environment, free, not to just talk about the book/poem, but their experiences and feelings."
Want to join us?
If you'd like to visit a group and experience shared reading for yourself, find out about when and where our groups meet here - and if it's a library-based group, there is no need to book. It's free, there's no homework or preparation to do, and no obligation to attend every week. If you'd like to join one of our Zoom-based groups, you'll need a device and a stable internet connection. Contact us at the email address below and we will send you a link.
We look forward to seeing you!