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Over the years, reading has long been considered a favourite pastime. Because of this, book clubs have grown in popularity, benefiting club members by giving them a chance to speak out and share sentiments about particular books. These clubs challenge readers, engender new ideas, and expand members’ interests. Additionally, book clubs also prove to be a great way to make new friends who share one’s love of books. This article tells you how to start your own book club. |
If you’re thinking of creating a book club, there are a couple of questions you might want to consider, such as: How many people do you want in the club? What purpose do you want the club to serve? Where, when, and how will you meet? Think of a goal for your book club. Writing down the answers to these these questions will give you a good head-start on forming your club.
Book clubs are relatively easy to organize. It often starts with a couple of close friends — preferably those who are inclined to discuss books they’ve read and are willing to share thoughts with one other. Set up a regular meeting time between yourselves (most book clubs meet up during the lull of their day or week, but it all depends on you) at a place where conversation and discussion is welcome. You may find yourselves happy to start this book club in one of your homes or perhaps share the venue by going to a different members home each week. You might also consider a cosy cafe, or perhaps a village hall. Some book shops welcome book clubs with open arms and often have refreshments or a café available on site. It may also be a good idea to hold your meetings at a place where books are within reach, such as a library.
Membership expands through various ways — you may advertise locally (like posting signs in the local library or corner shop) or you may rely on word of mouth and social networking. Encourage members to invite their friends or relatives and network wherever you go. Your membership base will grow in no time, but do give some thought about how large you want your club to become. Many people will want to restrict membership to half-a-dozen friends whilst others become far more ambitious and have a large club with members paying a fee to cover refreshments and an occasional guest speaker, author or poet.
As another guideline for forming your book club, always remember to keep things organized. For example, you might want to create ground rules (with everyone’s input, of course) and a reading list so that the books you all read are relatively in the same range. Additionally, you might want to establish discussion questions so as to keep meetings productive. Some smaller clubs have a reading list where each member nominates a book and everyone reads that book and then discuss it at a subsequent meeting. It’s fascinating to see how different people have varying insights into what they have read and everyone ends up getting far more out of a book than they would have done without the group discussion.
If your venue permits, serve refreshments and snacks during your meeting time. Some book clubs even enjoy themes during their meetings — like serving traditional tea and biscuits while they discuss a good classic English novel, perhaps a west-country cream tea when discussing a Daphne du Maurier book.
No matter how you form your book club, always keep in mind that you are trying to build camaraderie among your members through a common interest – the love of good books. Given this, you want to make sure your club focuses on book discussions, but at the same time serves as a place to make new friends and strengthen existing relationships.