When I think about building a reading guide, I usually start with a single stubborn image or idea that keeps returning to me long after I close a book. A motif — an object, a colour, a weather pattern, a mode of speech — can be a far richer organizing principle than a genre. Genres tell you what to expect from plot or tone; motifs ask you to look for connections, divergences and echoes. They invite curiosity rather than comfort. In this piece I’ll walk you through how I structure a reading guide around a motif, with practical steps, small templates you can adapt, and a few examples to spark your own lists.

Why choose a motif?

A motif creates a thread you can follow through very different eras, countries and voices. It encourages comparative reading: what does the motif mean in a rural memoir versus a speculative short story? How does an object carry cultural history? Motif-based guides are excellent for readers who like to notice rather than consume. They’re also ideal for book clubs, teaching, or a slow summer with a pile of books you want to savour rather than check off.

Picking a motif

It helps to pick motifs that are evocative but broad enough to support variety. Here are the kinds of motifs that work well:

  • Objects — mirrors, umbrellas, trunks, typewriters
  • Naturescapes — fog, rivers, orchards, mountains
  • Actions — letter-writing, theft, remembrance
  • States of being — exile, apprenticeship, silence
  • Colours or textures — red, ash, velvet

When I choose a motif, I test it against three questions:

  • Does it recur in literature beyond the obvious handful of titles?
  • Can it mean different things in different contexts?
  • Will it allow readers to notice small formal or thematic techniques (symbolism, point of view, repetition)?

Structuring the guide: a simple template

I use the same skeletal structure each time because it helps readers know what to expect while still leaving a lot of room for discovery. You can copy and adapt this layout.

  • Opening preface — One short paragraph about why the motif matters to you and what readers might gain by following it.
  • Core reading list — 6–10 central texts, with 2–3 lines of why each fits the motif.
  • Wildcard picks — 3–4 surprising or cross-genre entries (poetry, non-fiction, short stories) that show the motif in an unexpected key.
  • Reading route — a suggested order for readers who want a guided experience (e.g. gentle start → complicating middle → intense finish).
  • Discussion prompts and noticing exercises — concrete questions for readers or clubs, plus small tasks (e.g. “under 10-minute exercise: find the first image of water in your current book”).
  • Further resources — essays, interviews or related art (films, songs) that deepen the motif.

Example motifs and starter lists

Here are three short examples to show how the same motif can generate eclectic lists.

Motif Core Picks (sample) Wildcard
Fog
  • Virginia Woolf — "Mrs Dalloway" (atmosphere and interior fog)
  • Arthur Conan Doyle — "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (fog as menace)
  • Yoko Tawada — "The Bridegroom Was a Dog" (fog and estrangement)
 Photographs by Michael Kenna (visual fog)
Letters
  • Rachel Cusk — "Outline" (epistolary echoes)
  • Chinua Achebe — "No Longer at Ease" (letters and moral culpability)
  • Anne Enright — short stories (letters as intimacy)
 A playlist of singer-songwriters who use letters (e.g. Joni Mitchell)
Orchards/fruit
  • D.H. Lawrence — "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" (sexual imagery and orchards)
  • Gabriel García Márquez — "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (fruit as allegory)
  • Kerry Hudson — "Lowborn" (fruit as labour and memory)
 Non-fiction farm memoir or a cookbook focused on preserving

Reading routes and pacing

How you order the books will shape the experience. I offer three common routes in my guides:

  • Chronological — Shows how the motif changes meaning over time.
  • Contrast — Pair surprising opposites (a lyric memoir with a bleak dystopia) to make the motif speak across registers.
  • Thematic crescendo — Start with accessible, comforting texts and move toward books that complicate or unsettle the motif.

For book clubs, I often recommend a three-month pace: one short book the first month (to build confidence and vocabulary around the motif), one medium-length in month two, and a third, more demanding text in month three. That gives time for conversation and for the motif to accumulate meaning.

Discussion prompts and small exercises

Concrete prompts help readers who may be new to comparative or motif-based reading. Here are some I use frequently:

  • “Find the motif’s earliest appearance in the text and track its repetitions. How do its associations change?”
  • “Swap one sentence from the book with a sentence from another list entry that also uses the motif. How does meaning shift?”
  • “Write a short 300-word scene where the motif appears only once — make that single appearance do the work of exposition.”
  • “Map the physical placements of the motif across your reading (kitchen, street, memory). Do certain locations intensify its meaning?”

Practical tips for building your own motif guide

Some quick, practical habits that make the process easier and more fun:

  • Keep a small notebook or a notes app folder titled with the motif. Jot down every occurrence you notice — even in films, songs or day-to-day life.
  • Use library catalogues and thematic indexes (WorldCat, JSTOR, The British Library’s digital collections) to find historical or lesser-known examples.
  • Mix formats: include a poem, an essay and a graphic novel alongside novels — it keeps attention and shows different techniques for treating the motif.
  • Curate a short playlist or image-set (aesthetic companions help readers enter the mood of the motif). I often use Spotify and Pinterest for this.
  • Credit translators and editions (a motif can hinge on a single texture of language produced by a translator’s word choice).

Structuring a reading guide around a motif asks you to be both detective and composer: you assemble a constellation of texts where the motif becomes a lens rather than a label. Done well, these guides teach readers how to notice, compare and feel the small, recurring things that make reading a life-long conversation.