At the Brookings Public Library on Monday, Mary Haug leads discussion of "The Master Butchers Singing Club," the 2008 One Book South Dakota selection.

In a digital age, at a time when national surveys show that fewer people than ever are serious readers, book discussion groups and book clubs are alive and well in Brookings.

Despite the distractions of the Internet, movies, video games, iPods and 250-channel television, reading is still the most popular pastime for millions. If anybody's proven that, it's Oprah Winfrey with her wildly successful book club; Oprah's endorsement can mean an instant bestseller for an author.

While reading is a solitary activity, most readers want to share their experiences just like people want to discuss their favorite movie or TV episode. That's where book clubs come in.

Brookings, believe it or not, has numerous book clubs probably a dozen or more going at any one time, and others popping up when friends decide to share a favorite book.

For starters, the Brookings Public Library sponsors a mystery book discussion group, another for biographies, one a general interest group, and the One Book group a discussion group that grew out of a South Dakota Humanities Council program.

These groups, like most, are very informal and draw their participation with specific topics and/or titles.

Not to be outdone, the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum in recent years has built groups around particular themes. An example is this fall's series using the theme of "fences" and built on a Smithsonian exhibit, "Between Fences," that the museum will be featuring starting in December.

According to museum curator Carrie Van Buren, the Smithsonian supplied a book list with its show, and the Ag Museum in turn has chosen titles from that list to develop a book dis- cussion series.

"We know the topic is something that interests a lot of readers ." she said. The monthly series will begin in September and run through January.

Van Buren said the museum has previously had good luck with a series based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" books.

The Humanities Council's Center for the Book sponsors "The Big Read," a selected-community or statewide effort that encourages large groups to read and discuss a particular novel. Right now, the sixth annual One Book South Dakota project is focusing on the Louise Erdrich novel, "The Master Butcher's Singing Club."

Many churches also have discussion groups, whether for particular Bible books or for various religious books. Another group has grown out of the onetime Faculty Women's Club at SDSU, and writer John Kubal participates in an men's book discussion he dubbed "The Parnassus Group." One rule: read the book

Many of the local clubs meet informally and irregularly usually once a month to discuss participants' favorite books. No rules, no requirements just be a book-lover and show up for the discussions. Some meet in the afternoon, while other gatherings are evenings-only .

One example is the group English professor Mary O'Connor founded in l994. She envisioned a group that would discuss challenging , interesting works by a diverse spectrum of women writers . She wanted her group to include a diverse group of women readers, too, drawn from different professional backgrounds.

O'Connor's long-running group has even read aloud some plays and shared the poetry and prose memoirs of several of its members.

The group continues to meet, coming together monthly during the school year. It numbers about 18 members, of whom as many as a dozen will attend a given meeting .

According to facilitator Jennifer Widman, "12 is probably the outer limit for having a single, focused conversation."

The group also has an unwritten tradition to use books in paperback , to keep costs down. The group informally chooses its books a month or more ahead of time.

(The Brookings Library offers special assistance to book clubs, providing both a place to meet and multiple copies of a number of popular books.)

Some of the Brookings participants confess that they like the fact that a club membership makes them read books they otherwise would not. Challenges participants

"This will make me a better reader. The selections will lead me to other types of books," one of O'Connor's readers commented.

Another member likes reading "challenging books," noting that "group discussion will help me go further." "I want to be challenged out of my comfortable, easy assumptions," she said.

Another group called "Our Book Club" got its start at the turn of the century (21st century, that is) when Joan Hogan and two friends each invited three more friends to found a book group, with the requirement that members agree to read the book and "to have a sense of humor," Hogan said.

This group also meets monthly, but for the whole year, except for March, when snowbirds are gone. They plan an August outing to Barnes and Noble in Sioux Falls to collect ideas, followed by a dinner outing. In September, the group has plans to travel to the Olivia, Minn., lake home of former member Judy Marquardt.

Hogan serves as a secretary and facilitator, sending out notices each month and summarizing the previous discussion. She says the member number is kept to 12 to ensure good discussion, and that the group selects a discussion leader for each book. Not to be outdone, a group of men, some of whose wives belonged to a book club, formed their own group recently, and they meet one afternoon each month at Perkins. The six or seven mostly older men have used library booklists and are now branching out to include other books.

At a time where there are fewer readers overall, book clubs are thriving. Perhaps Jennifer Widman explains best why book-lovers band together: "It has to do with people wanting a sense of connection in the midst of lives that can feel both hectic and impersonal at times."