How to Start a Book Club in Your Community

For book lovers, starting a book club is a great way to meet other book enthusiasts in your local area.  It’s an easy way to form close friendships with others from your community, whilst building your intellect and imagination. 

However, forming a book club needs to be more organized than you’d expect to ensure success and a long life to the club.  There are also several key questions you should ask yourself before you begin recruiting members.

First and foremost, you will need a place to hold your meetings.  If you decide to hold meetings in your own home, you may want to limit the number of members to 10 people or less, depending on how much space you have available (don’t forget about outdoor parking!).  Other book club meeting places could include restaurants, coffee shops, or outdoor settings such as a seating area in your local park, if the weather cooperates. 

You must also pick a genre.  Will your book club discuss one type of books, such as Pulitzer Prize winning books, science fiction or biographies?  There are no limitations on what kind of book club you can form, but it helps if you start with your own personal tastes.  If you can’t pick just one genre, you might decide to rotate themes on a monthly basis.  For travel buffs, a book club which discusses both travel and personal traveling experiences could be very rewarding.

Also consider leadership and the frequency of meetings. Who will lead meetings?  It is important for someone to facilitate group discussions so that everyone can get the most out of the experience.  Choose someone that has natural leadership skills and truly enjoys planning and organizing.  On that note, voting can play a key role in any book club, whether it’s deciding on when to meet, how often to meet or what book to read next.  So let your members have a say, rather than deciding everything yourself.

After initiating a book club, you will find the experience fun and enlightening with just a bit of organization.