Twice a year(ish) we elect our next six(ish) books. The candidate titles are proposed by each of us. The election hustings can be very passionate – though no one’s turned up in a battle bus. Yet.

It’s a first-six(ish)-past-the-post system. We’ve considered transferable votes but we’re too easily confused as it is.

With books elected and debates scheduled for the coming months, we return to our constituencies and, er, read.

Each month, in the Upper Chamber of the Red Deer, literary debate unfolds. Some insights are very elder statesperson, some are more Dennis Skinner. And the rest of us… well, we finally ‘get it’. Then, as the Division Bell rings, we proceed to the ultimate democratic expression, the Thumbs. This ancient and moving rite is very much a responsibility, shouldered with pride by the Red Deer Readers.