Reading groups take part in Bell Jar 50th anniversary project

Five reading groups have been selected to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel

The selected groups are:

• Reading in the Bath (Bath)

• Rampant Readers (Leicester)

• Hertfordshire Book Group

• Reading Activists (Portsmouth)

• Rugby School (Warwickshire)

'We're really excited about being involved in this project as it gives us a chance to re-engage with The Bell Jar, a classic book which many of us read as teenagers. It will be interesting to see how different our understanding of it will be now we are all older,' said Sarah Ormes on behalf of Reading in the Bath reading group.

This project was brokered by The Reading Project's Reading Partners consortium.

The chosen reading groups will be given sets of Faber's special anniversary edition of The Bell Jar, and will review and blog about the book throughout 2013.

The artwork chosen for this edition attracted attention when it was revealed earlier this year, with some commentators angry that it looked like the cover of a chick-lit title. What do you think? Was it an unsuitable choice, or not? We'd like to know your opinions, so please share them!

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