I regularly receive a newsletter from About.com HR, and they recently included a great article How to Implement a Book Club at Work. Being in a book club outside of work, I thought this was an interesting idea, and it got me thinking about how early on in my career, my mentor used to give me reading assignments to help with my career development. The author of the piece Susan Heathfield does a great job of explaining the benefits and how-tos of starting an office book club:

Looking for an easy way to share information and develop employees at work? Form a book club in which a group of employees voluntarily read the same book. Combine the book reading with a regularly scheduled discussion meeting to double the impact of the book. Ask one employee to lead the discussion about the week’s assigned chapter or two. Ask a second employee to lead the discussion about the relevance of the book’s teachings to your organization. You’ll magnify learning with a book club.
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