What’s better than reading an amazing book? Finding a group of people who also love that book and collectively having a total freakout over every last detail, character, and plot twist, of course. If you find yourself constantly chatting about your TBR with friends (or if you can’t get enough of BookTok), it might be time to think about starting a Book Club of your own.
Of course, we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, so IRL meetings might not be the most feasible these days. Fortunately, there’s plenty of options for virtual hangs, allowing you and your bookish pals to still connect regularly on your favorite page-turners, fandoms, and tropes.
So grab your favorite journal and pen and prepare to take some notes. We’ve got everything you need to add a regular Book Club meeting to your calendar.
How to Start a Book Club
ALL THE STEPS TO KNOW
Step One: Gather Your Friends
What’s the first thing any club needs? Members, of course! Decide who you’re going to invite to be a part of your book club. Is it IRL friends? Internet friends? Both? The beauty of meeting online is that you don’t all have to live in the same area—which means the sky’s the limit, geographically-speaking.
Once you’ve assembled your squad of bookworms, it’s time to decide some basics.
Step Two: Plan It Out
There’s always room for flexibility, but you’ll want to have a general sense of what types of books you’re reading and how they’ll get chosen. Some questions you can ask yourself:
What genres are we going to read?
Is there a genre that you and your friends prefer? Maybe you gravitate toward romance but aren’t into horror or thrillers. Perhaps your book club will be solely a fantasy-based group. Or maybe you’ll cover all genres and ages! There’s no one right answer, so decide what’s best for you.
How do the books get picked?
There’s a couple different ways you can select a book for your current read. You could allow all members a chance to individually choose in a rotation, or you could vote on a few options and decide together. Whichever you choose, be sure that everyone involved gets to voice their opinion in one way or another!
How will we get our ideas?
Social media is a great tool. If you aren’t already an active member of BookTok or Bookstagram, consider checking out some popular book bloggers to see what titles are buzzing and catching a lot of hype.
Step Three: Plan the Meetings
Virtual book clubs took off at the start of the pandemic (along with Zoom happy hours and cross-country family dinners), and having an online option is still a great idea. For one, it helps keep everyone safe amid ongoing spikes and variants of COVID-19, and meeting virtually allows people in different states (or countries!) to participate together.
If you’re going the virtual route, pick a platform that’s easy and accessible for everyone involved. Zoom, FaceTime, and Google Meet are all great options.
Decide what time and how often you’ll meet—along with how far in advance the books are chosen.
You’ll also want to decide if anything else will happen at your meetings alongside the discussion. If you’re meeting in person, for example, will someone be in charge of bringing snacks? Wine? Will there be regulations for mask-wearing or vaccine requirements? These are all super important things to decide before the first meeting as a group.
Step Four: Guide the Discussion
Even if you don’t end up using them, having a list of guided questions to help your conversation flow is always super-helpful for any book club. Here are some ideas for general questions to get started:
- What were your thoughts about the main character(s)? Did you find them relatable? Likable? Why/why not?
- Were there any favorite passages that you highlighted?
- Which scene stuck with you the most and why?
- Did the ending surprise you, or did you anticipate it?
- Who would you cast in a movie adaptation?
- If you could ask the author anything about one of the characters, what would it be?
Step Five: Prepare for Laughs
Put a group of book-lovers in a room together (physically or virtually) and there’s bound to be a little bit of chaos. Warring ships! Dueling favorite characters! Tropes on tropes! We’re no strangers to those types of silly moments at book club meetings—which is why we’re launching our very own video series titled Book Club Problems, designed to capture those delightfully chaotic meetings between book-worms. Be sure to check it out—and document your own meetings as well for all the future laughs.
Some books we love:
These books are book-club-approved, perfect for discussion, fun to read, and sure to be crowd pleasers.
- Internment by Samira Ahmed
- Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson
- An Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi
- Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
- Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin
- The Disasters by M.K. England
- Your Own Worst Enemy by Gordon Jack
- Heroine by Mindy McGinnis
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Looking for some book club inspiration? Check out Book Club Problems!
That’s all you need to know to get started! Have other questions? Want to let us know about how you’ve reached book club perfection? Let us know in the comments.