The Reading List

1. General Impressions 

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

• What were your initial responses to Mukesh Patel’s and Aleisha Thomas’s disinterest in reading? Were you surprised by how their relationships to books changed?
• Does The Reading List remind you of other books you’ve read about books and reading? How does The Reading List compare and contrast to parallel titles?

2. Personal Reflection and Connection 

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

• The Reading List explores personal tragedy and grief. Did you relate to Mukesh’s and Aleisha’s encounters with loss? If so, how?
• Were you surprised by Mukesh and Aleisha’s relationship? Which elements of their friendship were most emotionally resonant? Have you had an unexpected friendship like theirs?
• Do you relate to a library or bookstore the way the characters relate to the Harrow Road Library? What is it about bookstores and libraries that attracts you?
• Mukesh and Aleisha’s newfound love for reading saves them from their personal challenges. Has reading played a similar role in your life? What role do you think fiction can play in people’s lives?

3. Societal and Cultural Context 

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

• The Reading List was originally published in 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The title is one of numerous books published in the same era exploring the transformative power of reading (for example Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land and Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking for Is in the Library). How do you relate the themes of The Reading List to contemporary isolation, especially in light of the COVID-19 lockdown? Is the title making larger commentaries on isolation and loneliness? 
• The Reading List broaches sensitive topics including the death of loved ones and death by suicide. How do you interpret the novel’s handling of death and loss in relationship to mental health, particularly in contemporary first-world nations?

4. Literary Analysis 

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

• The book list Mukesh and Aleisha (and the secondary characters) interact with is a tangible item, but it also acts as a motif throughout the novel. What symbolic meaning can you attach to the list? Consider how the list connects the characters, particularly in an analog way during the digital era.
• How do you interpret the thematic significance of the novel’s structure and point of view? What role did the Interlude sections play in your reading experience, and what deeper meaning might these sections be conveying?
• The Reading List suggests that libraries and bookshops are more than just homes for books. Do you agree with this notion? What else does the Harrow Road Library offer the characters, and what significance does it play in the wider community?
• How do you thematically interpret the overlaps and disparities between Mukesh’s and Aleisha’s characters? How do their differences draw them together as much as their similarities do?
• How do books help the characters make connections (Mukesh with his granddaughter and Aleisha with her mother)? What do you think the novel is suggesting about the connection between healing and reading?

5. Creative Engagement 

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

• If you were going to write and distribute your own reading list, which books would you include? Why would you include these titles, and how has each one impacted your life and your reading experience?
• Imagine that you found Naina’s reading list. Would you respond to it in the same way that Mukesh and Aleisha do? What would you do differently and why?

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