How to Start a Book Club

How to Start a Book Club

There many, MANY ways to have a book club, so you can start one that’s exactly what YOU want it to be.

Answering these questions will help you get started:

1. What kind of book club do you want to have?

   1. social (fun, casual, discuss what you like or don’t like about the story)
   2. academic (required reading assignments, plot analysis, character development)

2. How do you want to choose books?

   1. focus on one genre (romance, self-help, fantasy, etc.)
   2. everyone submits suggestions and members decide together
   3. assigned, required reading
   4. read more than one book at a time (two or more groups read different books and share their thoughts)

3. How many people do you want to meet with?

   1. 2-4
   2. 5-9
   3. 10-20
   4. more

4. Where/how can you meet to include everyone in question #3?

   1. someone’s home
   2. a library meeting room
   3. someone’s office
   4. a restaurant/café
   5. a park
   6. online/Zoom, etc.
   7. Italy

5. How often and how long do you want to meet?

   1. weekly for 1 hour
   2. monthly for 2 hours
   3. If we’re going to Italy, we’ll need to be there for at least 10 days.

6. Who will organize each meeting and guide the discussion.

   1. set up a schedule
   2. decide at the end of each meeting who would like to organize the next one
   3. You. You will always run it. And I will buy the tickets to Italy.

7. Will there be food?

   1. yes
   2. no
   3. Can you say gelato?

Once you answer these questions, you’re ready to invite people and jump on in! Or you can have a pre-book club meeting to answers to the questions as a group. Just remember to be flexible and have fun.

Of course you’ll want to include FLOATING on your list of books to read, so check back later to request a free copy of discussion topics for each chapter.