You are already in possession of a list of books which you have enjoyed, which you want to share with other people, and this is where to start.

If you are going to use books - stories, poems, histories, descriptions - as an aid to well being for groups or individuals, you already are armed with:

• enthusiasms,
• skills,
• a knowledge base,
• a body of work

which you can introduce with confidence, pride and the anticipation of shared pleasure.

You need to be aware of the danger of your own strong preferences dominating the material (if you only choose science fiction or historical novels, for example, you might have difficulty in maintaining a group), so you need to have a range of books to offer - and no-one has a wider range of material than people with access to libraries.

Elaine Harrison, one of the original three Kirklees bibliotherapists discovered and articulated in the early days of the project that They want to get out of the peculiar state they're in and get back to a normal life, and so that's what we say about we are offering, it's not therapy, but normality.

The process of reading a book, liking or disliking it, talking about it to other people, enjoying agreements and disagreements, finding out what else the author has written - all of these are part of the richness of ordinary living which supports and heals people affected by stress, depression and anxiety.

Groupwork in the library (if that is your home base) is probably easiest to organise. You can arrange the time, the room, the materials, the refreshments.

Reading aloud - a passage or a poem.

Some pieces are just pure entertainment in themselves, and so much fun to read aloud that everyone gets drawn in, and the performer gains confidence:

• The opening pages of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again...
• Tarantella by Hilaire Belloc - Do you remember an Inn, Miranda?/ Do you remember an Inn?
• The shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert Service - A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon...
• The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes - The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees/ The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas...
• ...and any poem by Pam Ayres!

Some prose passages set out issues clearly for people to start a discussion. Some poems (and people's attitudes to poems) mean that you need to have questions and suggestions ready.

People can freeze when confronted by a poem, feeling that there must be a Right Answer (and several that are Wrong), so some prepared questions or pointers can be helpful in giving people confidence, eg:

• What do you like/dislike about the poem?
• Is there anything that puzzles you or that you don't understand?
• Underline three words or phrases that are particularly striking (good or bad)?
• If the poet was here what question would you ask, what suggestion would you make?
• Does it remind you of any poem, song, story, memory, person?
• What feelings did it raise for you? Why do you think that is?
• How do you find that the sounds of the words in the poem affect you?

If you are going to introduce obscure or difficult passages or poems, be sure that you can offer explanations, or simply share your puzzlement, to help people to engage with the writer, the characters or the situation described.

Make the material appropriate. Lots of gloomy (or relentlessly cheerful) poems might not suit a group of people affected by depression, and the books which entertained a luncheon club are unlikely to have the same impact on a group of younger people affected by substance misuse or self harm.

Decide where your activity is going to be, how long it will run for, who it is aimed at, how you will contact them, who else is welcome, who your co-workers will be and what role they will have.

Decide if you want the group to be totally (or principally) people affected by mental or physical health issues (people supported by psychiatric services, people affected by depression, bereavement, Alzheimer's, people with visual or other physical impairment, carers' groups.....)

Our preferred form of group is called Bookchat: self explanatory! But some explanations follow. It is a reading club rather than a readers group - although sometimes people will choose to read and discuss a particular book (or have it suggested to them).

Bookchat sessions can include poetry discussion, reading a short story or prose passages aloud, looking at a (random or selected) collection of books, discussing the first lines, paragraphs or pages of novels, people bringing books which are important to them for any reason, imaginative writing in response to a poem or passage which we have read.

While the main focus of RAYS groups is always people affected by mental health issues, our groups in libraries are open to all. The enthusiastic noises which emerge from Bookchat sessions attracted people with a need to talk about books, who asked if they could join in. So instead of applying a therapy to people affected by mental health issues so that they were able to join in mainstream activities, we provided people with an experience so attractive that other people came to join us.

At RAYS in Kirklees we are reluctant to prescribe books, either as this is a good book for a particular group, or as a 'Books on prescription' transaction. Obviously, there are books with (almost) universal appeal, but you will find that what worked on one day with one person or group of people has no appeal.

You know what you want to share with others, and that is where to start. But you do need to read widely to discover other materials - the process is one of learning and discovery for the practitioner as much as for the readers.

Journalists asking about bibliotherapy always want to be able to quote a book which is 'suitable' for depression, or anxiety - but there is no such thing. There is not an approved list of books to start with, a body of literature which is appropriate for a particular group of people. What one person finds uplifting and enhancing, the next person finds dispiriting and enervating.

Start with books, poems and passages which you enjoy - it is our enthusiasm for reading which intrigues, attracts and encourages other people.

The writer of this page was once working with a woman with a long term depression - he had known her through writing workshops long before he had ever heard of bibliotherapy. He knew her well - her humour, honesty, commitment to social justice, her rich humanity and her religious faith, and offered her I heard the owl call my name by Margaret Craven - the story of a young priest with a terminal disease, working in a remote part of Canada, which he knew supported her beliefs and addressed problems of loneliness and futility. It matched her needs.

She brought it back the next week: I just couldn't get into this at all, she said. It is tempting to try to find books which we think will meet someone's needs, but it is impossible to predict what will work. We are offering people the chance to enjoy reading - not to feel that there is a process of prescription going on.

• ask them what they enjoy reading,
• their response to shared books/passages/poems;
• introduce books as good writing, a good story, a great read - not as therapy;
• their response is right - they are the experts in their own lives and might very well despise a book you think is wonderful;
• respect their confidentiality - and be prepared for insights and statements which are unexpected to them as well as to you; agreements and disagreements about books can both be fruitful encounters.
• you are there to learn from the other person as well as give insight - the writing is territory we explore together and is a process of mutual learning
• What does the person enjoy reading?
• If they don't read now, why not?

Always have wide range of books to offer, and don't be too ambitious for people with confidence or concentration problems. People can feel guilty or inadequate at failing to finish, enjoy or understand a book; we should celebrate rejection of a book as the exercise of the reader's critical power: it may simply have been the wrong story, author, style or genre for that person.

There is a wide range of books published as quick reads, and these are invaluable for people whose confidence or concentration is low. Established authors from a range of genres have written books which are short, entertaining, in clear and easily understood prose. Internet search engines will direct you to sources and discussion about these

Books for young adults and children are useful too. Writing for a young audience means that the story is clear, gripping, and is not obscured by fine writing or excessive philosophical speculation. A well-told story will grip adult readers, and the books are welcome to people who want to read but are wary of explicit sex, violence or swearing.

• why you love reading
• why you like the material you have brought with you today
• you don't have to like it
• why did you like it?
• why didn't you like it?
• what do you like?
• why written words have a different power and resonance from spoken words.

Going off the subject - different from one person dragging the conversation on to a pet theme - the group finding that they are talking about work, or children, or hospital experiences.

We always try to choose appropriate material, but people can be upset unexpectedly, and so all material needs to be:

• vetted
• thought about
• discussed (with colleagues, carers, the people omitted, even though you want to share it)
• and rehearsed if it might raise sensitive issues for the individuals or people in a group.

Two poems which walk in difficult territory have been used by one bibliotherapist:

• Résumé by Dorothy Parker (Collected Dorothy Parker, Penguin) - is a witty poem about suicide.
• The Autopsy Room by Raymond Carver (All of us, The Harvill Press 1996) is a tender love poem with gruesome post-mortem images.

The poems were used with people known to the practitioner for a long time, and discussed (with support workers, the group of mental health service users, an individual with long term depression) before being read with them. Confidence and preparation ensured that the poems were well received.

Groupwork in the library (if that is your home base) is probably easiest to organise. You can arrange the time, the room, the materials, the refreshments.

We have a long list of questions about books and devices to choose them at random, numbered lollipop sticks being our preferred technology, though bingo counters would do just as well.

30 (or 20) Questions

The purpose of each question is not to find the Right Answer, but to allow discussion. If someone doesn't have a response to a particular question (eg Is there a book you can't read on the tain because you will laugh too much?), there will be someone in the group eager to tell you.

Desert Island Books

The ultimate indulgence question, only we allow eight books (and one record, and a luxury). It can be done with pen and paper as a quick exercise or as something for people to spend a week on.

A variation on this game for young people:

Grounded Weekend Books

If you were grounded and confined to your room for a long weekend with no radio, TV, computer, ipod, games, or mobile phone (this needs to be stressed), but you were allowed books, what books would you take?

If you are in a library, send people off to find a book they would recommend, one they are curious about, and one they wouldn't open. (If you have travelled to a day centre, community centre etc, you can do this with as many books as you have been able to bring with you...)

A variation on this: Provide a selection of books - either at random, or covering a range of categories (general fiction, romantic fiction, science fiction, historical novels etc) and ask people to judge them by their covers.

If your house was on fire and you had time to save ONE book, what would it be?

Lists Ask people to make lists of why they read - for information, entertainment, work, study, distraction, inspiration... - and lists of where they read or find it impossible to read (bed, bus, bath, beach, bungee jumping...).

Some of these exercises were inspired by (or borrowed from) Opening the Book - finding a good read by Rachel Van Riel & Olive Fowler.

This book is inspirational, useful and still in print. Visit:
http://www.openingthebook.com/publications/finding-a-good-read/default.aspx

1. What book would you buy for a child?
2. How many books can you have on the go at once?
3. What author would you most like to meet?
4. What character from a book would you most like to meet?
5. What character from a book would you most like to be?
6. What book do you want to read again?
7. What is the longest title of a book you can think of?
8. Go and pick 3 books from the table: one that attracts you, one that you wouldn't ever want to read, and one that is a mystery.
9. What are you reading now?
10. How do you pick books? Cover, author, type, review, friends? Any other examples welcome.
11. Have you ever read a book and then seen the film? Which one was better? Why?
12. Have you ever seen the film then read the book? Which one was better? Why?
13. How many books are in your house?
14. What rooms in your house don't have books?
15. Apart from fiction, what kind of books do you read? Why?
16. Do you have a favourite poem, or one you know by heart?
17. Can you remember the first time you went to a library?
18. Have you ever been really scared by a book?
19. Is there a book you can't read on the train because you will laugh too much?
20. Is there a book you can't read on the train because you will cry too much?
21. What book would you want on a hot sunny beach?
22. What book would give you comfort?
23. What is a good retirement book?
24. What writer can you not stand?
25. What kind of book can you not stand?
26. Bookshops, second-hand bookshops, libraries, jumble sales, charity shops - what are the advantages and drawbacks?
27. Has a book ever "changed your life" (or at least a bit of it?)
28. Is there a book you're always going to read (but haven't yet!)?
29. Have you ever been told "You'll love this book" and been disappointed?
30. What book do you want for your birthday?
31. Is there a book you would like to write?
32. Can you remember a book you gave up on?
33. Do you ever read in another language?
34. What is your favourite biography?
35. Do you ever read science books?
36. Who is the funniest writer?
37. What book do you read again and again?
38. Have you ever put off finishing a book?
39. Have you ever loaned a book and never got it back?
40. Will electronic books replace paper?
41. Name 5 books by Dickens.
42. Name 3 characters in Walter Scott's novels.
43. What is your favourite foreign novel?
44. Do you know any poems by heart?
45. Can you outline the plot of a novel set in Yorkshire (Scotland, Wales, Ulster, England, West Country, Edinburgh, London etc)?
46. Name 3 books by Geoffrey Archer.
47. Name 5 of Dickens' women.
48. Are you waiting for a new book by a particular writer?
49. What is your favourite Enid Blyton book/ character/ story?
50. Do you know a novel about a rock musician?
51. Can you name a novel about a classical musician?
52. Name 5 doctors in literature.
53. What book would you take for a long journey?
54. What magazines do you read? Why?
55. Do you know any books that were written in prison?
56. Who are the oldest and most recent authors you have read?
57. Can you name any servants in Jane Austen's novels?
58. Who is your favourite non-fiction writer?
59. What are the best Yorkshire (Scottish, Welsh, Ulster, English, West Country, Edinburgh, London etc) novels?
60. Do you read history books?
61. Do you enjoy historical novels?
62. Who is your favourite foreign writer?
63. How can libraries be improved?
64. Do you ever read Shakespeare's plays?

A book is where you lose yourself
in the smell of new print,
rustle of pages -

each an escape route
a tunnel through dirt
into daylight.

A train ticket to places
you've never been,
frontiers of the heart.

A time machine
a leisurely conversation
with the dead.

A room with windows,
each one looking out
on a different world.

A book breaks open walls
to let in birdsong, traffic,
scent of meadows.

An endless crowd of people,
each with a story to tell, a school
with one pupil, a million teachers.

A market stall
of memories. A book is
where you find yourself.

Andrew Rudd

Andrew Rudd was Cheshire Poet Laureate in 2006. His poems have appeared in all kinds of places: magazines, competitions, bookmarks, postcards, Library windows, on stage, in prison and on radio. His first collection, 'One Cloud Away from the Sky' was published in 2007. In his 'day job' he is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has appeared in two successful Arts Council funded poetry shows - Bunch of Fives, and Fourpenny Circus.

Web address: http://business.virgin.net/sound.houses