The Great Books Foundation is an independent, nonprofit educational organization that for more than 50 years has been dedicated to helping people of all ages make reading and discussing literature a lifelong habit. We look forward to working with you to promote this habit in the communities you serve.

The Foundation can support book groups in your store by

• Providing discussion guides—written by Foundation editors and available at both the Penguin Books and the Great Books Foundation Web sites—that include thoughtful questions for discussion
• Recommending suitable titles for discussion—books that bear the "Recommended for Discussion by the Great Books Foundation" seal are especially rich in both language and ideas, and deal with the perennial questions of human experience in ways that invite rereading and lively discussion

The Foundation has expertise in helping people form and maintain discussion groups. Each year the Foundation hosts more than 500 seminars on leading book discussions for more than 15,000 educators, parent volunteers, and Great Books program participants. We are a valuable resource that can help you promote and strengthen your store's existing reading groups or encourage development of new groups. Depending on your store location, we can

• Conduct 45–90 minute in-store workshops on forming a book group or making discussions more meaningful
• Conduct 90-minute or full-day in-store workshops on leading effective discussions
• Offer seminars for your staff to improve their discussion-leading skills
• Encourage reading and discussion by sponsoring and/or coordinating special literary events. Read about Spoken Word/Shared Inquiry a unique new series of events hosted by a Chicago bookstore.
• Provide customers with online assistance about leading discussions and maintaining groups. 
• Identify local, trained Great Books discussion leaders for groups that meet in your store

To discuss how we can work together to promote reading and discussion in your community, please call at 1-800-222-5870 or write at gbf@greatbooks.org.