We all know about writing circles, where aspirant writers get together to encourage each other's aspirant writing.
And we all know about reading clubs or reading circles, where keen readers all read the same book and then get together to take the mickey out of each other's reactions to the book.
But did you know about the third strand of the amateur book world? Did you know about book search clubs? Where the members get together to help look for each other's missing books?
"Well, there are three main activities in the book world," says Arthur Kindred, founder of the very first book search club. "There is writing a book, and there is reading a book, and there is trying to find a book. And finding a book is often the hardest. How often have you said to yourself that you really ought to reread a book by Graham Greene or George Gissing, or even someone not beginning with G, and you go off to find one, because you have got lots lying around somewhere, and you find to your horror that they have all somehow vanished. This is ridiculous, because it was not so very long ago that you actually made the effort to sort all your novels into one place, and then it dawns on you that you can't find where you put all the novels either!
"At this point you have three alternatives. You can forget all about it and take the dog for a walk. You can scream and go mad. Or, if you are a member of a book search club, you can call in the members for an emergency meeting."
Yes, the members of a book search club are there to come round to your house and look for a certain book. And it makes sense to have strangers in to do it, because owners are useless at looking for their own missing books, says Arthur Kindred, who is now president of the Book Search Clubs of Great Britain.
"Well, you know what happens when you start looking for a book you can't find," he says. "You find another interesting book and start reading that instead. Or you go to the loo, and forget all about it. Or you get cross and start sorting all your books out again, and then lose interest. Or you find a box of books in the cupboard, which all look quite interesting, and you start rummaging through them and putting them up on the shelves, and you suddenly remember that this was a box of books you had put aside for the next local jumble sale, and you shamefacedly get them back off the shelves and put them back in the box.... A stranger won't get distracted like that. A stranger will single-mindedly look for the book you can't find. And half a dozen strangers will look very single-mindedly indeed."
If it was just about finding missing books, book search clubs would probably have a very limited life. But Arthur Kindred says that instituting a book search leads to other avenues.
"Well, if you're in someone else's house looking at their books, you get a truer picture of the collection than the owner does. You spot the rubbish for a start. If we go round to a member's house to look for a missing George Orwell, we may not always find the Orwell, but sure as eggs is eggs we will turf out fifty books that the owner is too lazy to be ashamed of."
Will he let you turf them out?
"Oh, it's in the membership rules of the club. If the club want you to get rid of a certain book, it has to go."
What books normally qualify for the disapproval of a book search club?
"Books based on TV programmes. Books with celeb photos on the front. Books about wine. Dictionaries which don't list the word 'pisco'. Art books with black and white photos. Last year's pub and hotel guides. Books which tell you how to do things. Books which were given you at Christmas. Literary criticism. Quiz and crossword books. Books which give you an inside view of Hollywood...."
All right! All right! We get the idea. But what happens if the book that the member wants you to look for is also a book which is disapproved of by the club? Can a book search club look for, find and get rid of the same book?
"Certainly," says Arthur Kindred. "We are the Salvation Army and the Spanish Inquisition rolled into one."
So there you are. If you would like to know more about the movement, send to me for a copy of the Book Search Clubs of Britain. I think I've got a few copies about the office somewhere. I know I did last month....
Friday Mar 16 01