The best in-person book clubs aren’t really book clubs – they’re social clubs built around books. The book gives everyone something interesting to talk about, but the friendships, laughter, food, traditions, and feeling of belonging are the twists that make people actually want to come back month after month.
Listed below are all the steps you need to start and host a fun book club!
“A book can open the door to a thousand worlds, but it is friendship that makes us linger there. We gather to share stories, chase mysteries, wonder at possibilities, and discover that the magic of a good book becomes even greater when experienced together.” ~jdm
Getting Started
To start a book club, give it a twist with a fun name! For example, you could name it something like: The Between the Pages Club; The Plot Twist Society; or The Last Chapter Club. Be creative! When you give your group a personality, members feel more like belonging to something rather than simply attending a meeting.
A great size for a book club is between 6-10 members. Keeping your group small gives everyone time to talk, and this number also ensures conversations even if some members can’t attend each meeting. Start by inviting your friends, and have your friends invite their friends. This gives everyone a chance to meet new people!
Book clubs typically meet once a month. Set a consistent date and time for your get-togethers to make it easier for everyone to plan. For example, the second Tuesday of every month at 6pm-8pm – or whatever works best for your group.
Make your book club fun and memorable by adding a few special touches to your group. For example:
- Create a notebook where members sign in each month. This becomes a memorable record to look back on.
- Create a book club stamp that members could use to stamp their books.
- Make a music playlist for your group to play in the background at your meetings.
Once you have a name and some personal touches, you’re ready to hold your monthly meetings! Here’s a way to structure your book club to ensure everyone has fun!
Book Club Outline
Come In and Catch Up (20-30 minutes)
Don’t start discussing the book the moment everyone walks through the door. Give people time to arrive, grab a drink, get some food, and actually visit with one another.
This part should feel more like getting together with friends than attending a meeting. Don’t make the opening social time about the book. Let people talk about their lives. This is where friendships develop or are celebrated.
Have something small that encourages conversation:
- A signature cocktail or mocktail
- Wine, coffee, or tea
- A few appetizers or desserts
- Something seasonal
- A fun question sitting on the table “What is something unexpectedly good that happened to you this month?“
- A little music in the background
Book Club Warm-Up (5-10 minutes)
Having a few traditions can make a book club feel special rather than just another monthly gathering. For example, each meeting could begin with the question “What did everyone think?“. But instead of launching immediately into discussion questions, have everyone give the book a quick rating – perhaps 1-5 stars – and one sentence explaining their rating. This will get the conversation going. You could even have a recurring “book club question of the month” that has nothing to do with the book.
Book Discussion (45-60 minutes)
This is where having a good discussion leader makes a huge difference. Don’t make the meeting feel like a classroom where someone reads question #1 and everyone answers it in order. Instead, have 5-8 genuinely interesting questions prepared, with plenty of room for conversation to wander.
The best questions aren’t “Did you like the main character?“. They’re questions like “Do you think the character made the right decision, even knowing what you know now?“, or “Was there a point where your opinion of the character changed?“, or “If you could change one decision made in the story, which would it be – and what do you think would have happened instead?“. These questions create discussion rather than simply collecting answers. And don’t be afraid of disagreement. A book club where everyone agrees about everything is boring.
Wild Card Questions
This is something that makes a book club particularly fun! Keep a handful of questions available that you can pull out when the conversation starts getting predictable. For example:
- “Who would you invite to dinner from the book – and what would you ask them?”
- “Which character made the worst decision?”
- “If you could rewrite one thing, what would it be?”
- “If this became a movie, who would you cast?”
- “What is something about this book you think the author got completely wrong?”
- “What do you think happens to these characters ten years after the book ends?”
At the end of the formal discussion, here are some additional questions you could ask:
- “Would you recommend this book to someone else?”
- “What should we read next?”
People will naturally start talking about other books they’ve read, books they’re planning to read, authors they love, etc. Suddenly you’ve transitioned out of a book discussion and back into bookish socializing.
Social Time (20-30 minutes)
This is the imporant part. Don’t end the meeting immediately after the last discussion question. Let the conversation loosen back up. People can refill their drinks, have dessert, talk about upcoming plans, share what they’ve been reading, laugh about something that happened during the discussion, and just hang out. That’s the part people remember.
Ideas for Choosing Book Club Books
There are so many interesting ways to choose books for a book club! I think the way a book club chooses its books can become part of the fun and give the group its own personality. Don’t make every month use the same method for choosing a book. Here are some ideas to spark your creativity.
- The Mystery Book Selection – Everyone submits a book without revealing its title. Instead, they provide three clues. For example: Takes place over one very strange day; Someone is hiding a secret; and There’s a house you probably shouldn’t enter. Then everyone tries to guess the book, and the group votes based only on the clues.
- The Wrapped Book – Everyone brings a book wrapped in plain paper. No title, author, cover, or genre is visible. The person who brought the book can give three hints, but nothing more. Then everyone chooses which wrapped book they’d most like to read. This could become a fantastic monthly tradition!
- The Book Club Wheel – Create a wheel with categories rather than titles. For example: mystery; thriller; historical; set somewhere you’ve never been; debut author; book published before 2000; book over 400 pages; book under 250 pages; book with a color in the title; book with a one-word title; book adapted into a movie; book everyone has heard of but nobody has read; book nobody has heard of. Spin the wheel, then everyone finds a book that fits that category.
- The Literary Travel Club – Choose books based on where they’re set. Put a map on the wall and mark every place the club has “visited”. One month you’re in Scotland, the next you’re in New Zealand. Then Morocco, Maine, Japan, Italy, or somewhere completely unexpected. BONUS: Make the meeting reflect the location with food, drinks, music, or decor – turning your book club into a little monthly vacation.
- The Book Detective – One person secretly chooses the book and gives everyone a series of clues throughout the month. For example: Clue #1 – The story begins with something disappearing; Clue #2 – The Setting is somewhere I’d like to visit; Clue #3 – The author has written more than five books; Clue #4 – Someone in the story is definitely lying. The identity of the book isn’t revealed until the meeting.
- Someone Who Knows Me Picks – Instead of choosing a book for themselves, each member chooses a book for another member. The rule: you have to choose something you genuinely think that person would love. Explain why you picked the book for that person. This can be surprisingly meaningful – and members discover books they probably wouldn’t have selected themselves.
- The Six-Degree Book Pick – Start with one book. The next month’s book must have one connection to the previous book. For example: same author; same setting; same genre; same theme; same decade; same publisher; character with the same occupation; similar title; same historical event; recommended by the author; movie adaptation featuring the same actor. Eventually you can end up somewhere completely unexpected!
- Read Outside Your Comfort Zone Month – Every few months, deliberately choose something no one would normally pick. Everyone nominates something outside the group’s usual reading habits. This works particularly well because you don’t have to love the book. The discussion itself becomes more interesting.
- Book Club Playing Cards – Make a deck of cards with different selection criteria. Each month, draw three cards. For example: WHERE: Small Town; WHEN: Before 1950; WHO: Female author. Or… GENRE: Mystery; LENGTH: Under 300 pages; RULE: Must have a surprise ending. After drawing the three cards, the group then searches for a book satisfying all three cards.
- Book Club Draft – Everyone comes to the meeting with three books they’d love the group to read. Put all the titles on a board, then conduct a fantasy-style draft. Each member gets one pick, then another, etc. until you’ve created the year’s reading list. The fun part is that members have to make a case for their book. This can become hilarious competitive fun!
- One-Minute Book Pitch – Everyone gets 60 seconds to sell their nominated book. No reading the synopsis. No long explanation. They have to convince everyone to read their book, then you have a vote. This method prevents one particularly enthusiastic person from giving a 17-minute dissertation about their favorite novel.
- Choose by Mood, Not Genre – Instead of saying “we’re reading a thriller”, choose a mood. For example: atmospheric; creepy; cozy; thought-provoking; strange; beautiful; disturbing; funny; haunting; escapist; unforgettable; “what the heck did I just read?’. After choosing the mood, everyone finds books matching that feeling.
- $10 Challenge – Everyone has to find a book that costs $10 or less – used, paperback, library sale, thrift store, etc. Bring the book and explain why it deserves to be the next selection. This adds a treasure-hunt element and can introduce the group to books they wouldn’t encounter through bestseller lists.
- Cover Pick – This is deliberately shallow – and that’s why it’s fun. Put several books on a table with only the covers visible. No one is allowed to read the synopsis. Everyone chooses the cover that makes them most curious, then reveal the books. It would be particularly interesting to see whether the books people choose based purely on visual appeal are actually books they’d enjoy.
- Book Club Scavenger Hunt – Give everyone the same list for finding a book. The first person to find a book meeting all six criteria gets to nominate it. Here’s an example of the list: Find a book with – a red cover; a dead body in the first 50 pages; a setting outside the USA; a title of four words; an author you’ve never read; at least one unreliable character.
- Book Club Royalty – Each month, one member becomes the Book Picker. But they don’t simply announce their selection. Instead, they get to create the entire month’s reading experience – the book, the theme, drink, food, discussion questions, activities. Then the next month, someone else gets the crown. This gives everyone a chance to put their personality into the club.
- Everyone Has Heard of It Challenge – Pick books that everyone has heard about but that nobody in the group has actually read. This is a great way to finally get around to famous books that have been sitting on everyone’s mental TBR list for years.
- The Book That Makes Us Think – Every few months, choose specifically for discussion potential rather than entertainment. The criterion isn’t necessarily “best book”, it’s “which book would give us the most interesting things to argue about?”. This could be a morally complicated thriller, an unusual premise, a controversial character, an ambiguous ending, or a book with a big philosophical question at its center.
- The Random Number Method – This one sounds ridiculous, but could be surprisingly fun. Everyone chooses a book, and you assign each book a number. Roll the dice, and whatever number comes up is the book to be read. No voting, no lobbying, no second-guessing.
- Three-Doors Method – At the end of every meeting, present three mysterious choices for next month’s read: Door #1 – The Safe Bet – a highly recommended book that somebody already knows they’ll probably enjoy; Door #2 – The Wild Card – something unusual that nobody knows much about; Door #3 – The Challenge – a book that pushes the group outside its normal reading habits. Members vote for Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3 without knowing the actual book. After the vote, reveal the winner.
Additional Tips
Here are some additional tips, twists, and turns for creating a successful – and FUN – book club:
- Plan Books Ahead – It’s a good idea to plan the books your group will be reading ahead of time. This gives everyone the chance to get the books from the library.
- Didn’t Finish the Book? – No one should feel guilty if they haven’t finished the book. If they haven’t finished, they can still listen, participate where they can, and still enjoy the evening.
- Themed Gatherings – Every month you could have a themed drink, or a seasonal table setting, or a book-related activity, or an unusual discussion question. Let the book become the inspiration for the evening – not the entire purpose of the evening.
- Start a Book Club Awards Tradition – At the end of every year, hold the Book Club Awards. Award the books that fit these fun categories: Best Plot Twist; Most Likely to Cause an Argument; Character We Loved to Hate; Book We Couldn’t Put Down; Book We Wanted to Throw Across the Room; Biggest Disappointment; Most Unexpected Favorite; Best Setting; Most WTF Ending; Book We Still Can’t Stop Talking About; and The Book Everyone Pretended to Like.
- Book Review Printables – Give everyone a copy of a Book Review Sheet to fill out for each book read. After a couple of years, everyone has a little record of their time together.
- No-Book Meeting – Maybe once or twice a year, have a meeting without a book. Just have dinner, drinks, games, conversation, and maybe everyone brings their current favorite book. This reinforces the idea that friendships are the real reason the group exists.
- Bring a Book, Take a Book – Set up a table where everyone can bring one book they’ve finished and no longer need. Once all the books are on the table, let each person take a book. Over time, this develops into a traveling library of shared books.
- Change the Scenery – You don’t always have to meet at someone’s house or at the same location. Change it up! You could meet at: an independent bookstore; a coffee shop; a winery; a park; someone’s backyard or fire pit; a restaurant; an art studio; a historic building; a lake or patio; a library.
- Create a Book Club Question Jar – Have everyone write down generic questions and put them into a jar. Then when conversation starts slowing down, pull out a question. This prevents those awkward moments when everyone looks at the host and wonders what to talk about. Questions can be serious, such as “What do you think this book is really about?“, or they can be silly, such as “Which character would you absolutely never trust with your house keys?“
- Have a Book Speed Dating Segment – Have everyone bring three books they’d recommend, and put them all on a table. Everyone gets 3-minutes with each book, then rotate to another book. At the end, everyone writes down the books they want to read. This could be fantastic if everyone has a huge TBR pile!
- Create a Book Club Group on Goodreads – Create your own book club group on Goodreads. It’s a great way to keep track of the books your group has read. Simply go to the Goodreads Group page on your computer (not the mobile app), and click on Community, then click on Groups. Click the Create a Group link on the right side of the page. Fill in your club name, description, and privacy settings, then click Create. Now you can add bookshelves or discussion folders inside the group.
- Create a Private Facebook Group – Create a private Facebook Group that you can use to communicate with group members. This is also a great place to post your book lists, create calendar events for your monthly meetings, work out planning details, post photos from your book club meetings, and more. The group can be private, so only your book club members will have access to it.
- Host a Summer Reading Challenge – Summer is a fun time for everyone to read books that they choose individually. Click “How To Run a Hot Girls Summer Reading Challenge” for fun ideas to get you started!
In a successful book club – people should leave thinking “that was such a fun night” rather than “well, we had a productive discussion about the book“. The book gets people in the door, but the friendships are what keep them coming back. Don’t make your book club feel like homework. It’s more fun to just read, gather, talk, laugh, eat, think, and repeat. The book is the common ground, but the people provide the reason to show up.
Do you have additional ideas for making a book club fun and memorable? Share in a comment below!
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