So you want to start your own book club? We’ve all seen the aesthetic TikToks and Pinterest photos. Gathering some of your closest friends and getting to bond over your love of reading–it’s a dream! Well, you’ve come to the right place, let’s discuss the different ways you can start your own book club.
In Person
This is the traditional styling of the book club. You pick a book and invite a group of friends over to your home to talk about it! Since you’ll be hosting this book club, you need to make the meeting a fun environment!
I’d recommend creating some sort of group chat with all of your club members, this can help you schedule what night you’ll meet, but also create some form of communication between all of you!
As the host, you’re going to be taking on the most work. There are varying amounts of effort and details you need to plan based on what you expect to get out of these club meetings. If you just want people to talk, maybe just bring some snacks and drinks, and get the table set up. Others may want to go all out! I’ve seen people make members dress up based on the aesthetic of their month’s novel, play games based on the book, etc.
Here are some fun ideas you can implement in order to spice up your book club meeting!
- Themed food! Do the characters eat something specific in the book? Does a character mention what their favorite food is?
- Fancasting! Have your club vote on what you imagine the character looked like and who they would cast to portray them in a movie adaptation. I’ve seen people use Google Forms for this or, there’s a website called MyCast that allows you to suggest people and vote for your dream cast
- Watch the adaptation! If there’s a movie or TV show based on the book, just have a movie night! Afterward, discuss if you thought it did the book justice!
Online
Maybe you want to forgo having to plan having people over and needing to clean your apartment. That’s totally fine! There’s a free app that allows you to make your own book club that doesn’t require you to leave your bed: Fable
Fable is an app, similar to Goodreads or Storygraph in which it allows you to track and rate your readings. It also has a feature that allows you to create an online book club. It’s fairly simple! You create a club and select your book. Then you can set up a schedule with milestones of when you’d like your club to be done reading specific sections of your book. There are discussion boards correlating with each chapter of the reading. Often, Fable will provide you with a free digital version of the book, allowing other club members to see any annotations of highlights you make.
I actually started a Fable book club for a class project last semester. In my English Literature & Its Historical Contexts class, I completed a project where I would read Pride and Prejudice and have the club members send in questions about things that confused them in the novel. My goal was to make classic literature more accessible, but I also thought it would be fun to start up a book club. I was able to send out my link to my family and share it on my social media which helped my club gain a good following. I even got some strangers who were happy to help and participate!
I really enjoy using Fable because I’m still able to form a community around reading a shared book without having to put a ton of work into planning events! It’s fun and easy!
Now you know the fundamentals behind starting your own book club either in person or online! Happy reading and discussing!