In 1929 the first monthly book sales club was set up in Britain, modelled on the American Book-of-the-Month Club. It was called the Book Society.
For the next 40 years, Book Society Choices saw readers across the globe through the turbulence of the mid 20C, from the Great Depression and Spanish Civil War, through WW2 and into the Cold War.
Subscribers received a new book through the post each month, carefully selected by a panel of celebrity judges. If you were a member, this was an easy way to keep up with new writing and to buy books at a time when owning books was not common. If you weren’t a member, it would have been difficult to have missed the Book Society’s Choices in bookshops, libraries, and in the news.
The five celebrity judges on the Book Society selection committee shaped what we read today.
On this site you'll find data on Book Society Choices: books that became some of the most popular titles of the mid-twentieth century.
