Swedish Daily Dagens Nyheter Starts Online Reading Group

During the recent Gothenburg Book Fair, Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter launched its Book Circle, a new initiative for both the online and the print newspaper. The site will be up in several weeks.

Dagens Nyheter's review editor Åsa Beckman explains that the newspaper's Saturday book section was the first step in doing something more exciting with literature.

"Now we want to increase our communication with readers even more," says Beckman. "There are different ways of taking part in discussions - you sit alone and read, or create your own reading groups. The idea with Book Circle is to create a bigger arena where more people can discuss the same novel. Then we'll report on what's happened at the Book Circle in the Saturday book section of the printed paper."

The culture pages department will choose a book every quarter. Then whoever wants can join in discussing the novel in the online forum. Dagen Nyheter's Annika Persson will moderate, with the ability to pull in book reviewers and even authors to join the discussion. First up is Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård's Min Kamp (my fight). "The books chosen need to be strong enough to generate plenty of discussion," says Beckman.

The actual books discussed are available for purchase from Dagens Nyheter. "We have competitive prices for the chosen books and it's easy to get it delivered to your home," says Johan Othelius, sales manager at Dagens Nyheter.

At the end of November, the online discussion will finish with a live meeting with Knausgård in Stockholm.