Some books’ sheer size can make them seem daunting. The Big Reads project, hosted by N Quentin Woolf and James Mansfield, is a year-long group reading designed to help a new audience discover some of literature’s weightier classics, using the net and spoken word to turn them into a shared experience as well as a personal one. The journey is strictly non-academic, and in a spirit of exploration.

The Big Reads readers take one massive book at a time, catching up with each other at monthly intervals to discuss, digest and speculate. The fruits of this endeavor are recorded as a live discussion, available on iTunes and on this site in podcast form, with the opportunity for anyone anywhere to contribute by a social media. They will draw on contemporaneous and up-to-date critiques, and talk to experts in the field. At the end of the project, the readers might just know a little more about the book in question, or may have more questions than answers.

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Contributions of all sorts are welcome whether from novices or veterans. Listen in, read along, or help to shape the debate.

See below for ways you can get involved (chief among them: get reading!) If you’d like to be on the Big Reads project mailing list please email contact@bigreads.co.uk and we’ll keep you up-to-date.