For book clubs, classrooms and libraries
Book club reading packs from texts we have proofed line by line
Reading-group packs, large-print classic novels and custom collections, built from the same twelve books you can read free on this site. Printed or digital. Each one is quoted by email after we’ve read your request. Tell us how many readers and when you meet.
01 / Formats and price basis
Three things we make for groups, each quoted on request
No price list and no cart. The quote depends on reader count, format, page count of the book and your date. Every quote comes back as a written email you can forward to a treasurer or a principal.
-
Reading-group pack
Quoted per group size and format
The book split into your number of meetings, with page ranges and reading minutes for each. Six to eight discussion questions per session, written by our editor, never generated from a template. A one-page note on the edition we used and what our ledger changed. Digital PDF or printed and bound.
-
Large-print set
Quoted per copy count and trim size
Re-set at 18 point minimum on cream stock, wide margins, 1.5 line spacing, running heads that tell you which chapter you are in. Not an enlarged photocopy. Popular with library groups and assisted-living clubs.
-
Custom collection
Quoted after we see the list
Your own selection drawn from the catalogue, such as six stories from Dubliners and four from The Four Million for a semester on city fiction. One cover, one contents page, one consistent setting.
02 / Large print
Large print classic novels that are set, not blown up
The cheap way to make large print is to enlarge a page on a copier. The lines get longer than the eye can track, the margins vanish, and a 400-page novel becomes a 900-page brick. We re-flow the text instead.
| Body type | 18 pt serif, 27 pt leading |
|---|---|
| Line length | About 55 characters |
| Paper | Cream, uncoated, low glare |
| Page count | Roughly 2.1× the standard edition |
| Splits | Middlemarch and Moby-Dick ship in volumes so nobody holds a 3 lb book |
03 / Inside a pack
What a Dubliners pack for twelve readers actually contains
A worked example, because “pack” means different things to different people. A club of twelve asked for Dubliners across five monthly meetings. They got a meeting plan that gave “The Dead” its own evening, since it is 66 minutes on its own. Each session had its story list, total reading minutes, and seven questions.
Behind the text: the gloss notes for Dublin places and slang, a short page on why we kept the 1914 quotation marks, and the four entries from our correction ledger so the group knows exactly what text it is holding. Twelve printed copies, one extra for the host. Delivered flat in a box, not shrink-wrapped.
What was not in it: study-guide summaries, “themes to look for” lists, or an author biography longer than a page. Groups tell us those kill the conversation.
Books groups ask for most
04 / From request to delivery
How a group order runs, week by week
You send the request
Book, reader count, format, first meeting date. Use the form below or email [email protected]. Two lines is enough to start.
We reply with a written quote
Usually within two working days. The correspondent reads every request personally and asks anything unclear before quoting, not after.
You confirm, or you don’t
Nothing is made and nothing is owed until you say yes in writing. Payment arrangements are in the quote email, never on this site.
We set and check the pack
Digital packs take about a week. Printed packs take two to three weeks. Large-print sets take three to four, because every page is re-flowed and checked.
It arrives before your first meeting
We plan back from your date. Ask us fewer than three weeks before a printed meeting and we will tell you honestly whether it can be done.
05 / Before you ask
Questions and the groups we are not right for
If your group needs a modern bestseller, a book first published after 1929 or an abridged school edition, we can’t help. We only work from texts that are in the US public domain and that we have proofed ourselves.
Why is there no price list?
Because a pack for six readers who want PDFs and a pack for forty students who want printed large print are different jobs. We read the request and quote by email, usually within two working days.
Can we add a book that isn’t in the catalogue?
Only if it is in the US public domain and we can proof it properly first. That takes weeks per title. We will say plainly if we can’t.
Is the online text still free if we buy a pack?
Yes. Every book in the catalogue stays free to read online whether or not your group orders anything. Some groups mix: printed copies for half, the free online text for the rest.
What if a printed pack has an error?
Report it. The text accuracy guarantee covers how we check it and when a pack is replaced.
06 / Ask
Ask for a group quote
Reading-group packs are quoted by email. Tell us how many readers and when you meet. The more you say about format, the fewer emails before the quote.