Starting a book club is a fun and interactive way for people to meet regularly and discuss their thoughts about a book.
People join book clubs for a variety of reasons: to stay on top of their reading goals, discuss books and topics that interest them, and to form a sense of community.
You can make your book club as laid back or serious as you’d like.
If your book club is with friends, it is a great time to fellowship and have some quality time together. It’s also a way for people to discuss things that either don’t pertain to the realities of life or as a way to confront them.
When forming a book club, there are many things to consider. Keep reading to learn how to effectively form your book club, organize the expenses, heighten the experience, and start reading!
In this article:
- 6 Steps to starting a book club
- How to manage book club expenses
- How to make your book club engaging
6 Steps to Starting a Book Club
There are some things you should do when starting your book club.
1. Find the purpose.
Ask yourself why you want to start a book club. Is it to share your love for reading? Create deeper connections? Strengthen friendships?
While you are finding the purpose of your book club, establish the genre of books the club will read.
If your book club is versatile you can skip this, but picking a genre will help people decide if joining your book club will suit them.
Some people may want to read about timely-thought provoking subjects while others may want to delve into a romantic novel.
2. Figure out who’s interested.
Book clubs are a great way to get a community together.
Some book clubs are made up of friends and colleagues. But if you’re starting from scratch, you can search for members online in Facebook Groups and forums.
There’s also websites like Book Clubs, that help people find their book club community virtually or in-person near them.
Your book club doesn’t have to be large in numbers when you’re just beginning. If your wish is to grow, you can start small and increase over time.
3. Choose a meeting place.
Deciding where to host your book club meeting can be influenced by a variety of factors.
If you’re meeting virtually, you can decide to host calls on Zoom or create a forum on Book Clubs.
Video calls are a great way to connect and bring the in-person book club feeling to the home of every member of your book club. However, if you have trouble coordinating a time for everyone to meet, have an option for members to discuss in a forum.
If you’re meeting in-person, choose a place that is quiet enough to hear each other speak, yet social enough to invite warm conversations and take away the pressure to host.
Also if you can be sure to choose a place that can be closed off to outsiders. Your book club meetings should eliminate the opportunity for outside distractions.
For meeting locations, you can consider hosting your book club in your home or have members rotate who hosts. You can also book a venue, go to residential clubhouse areas, libraries, bookstores, bars, and restaurants.
4. Decide when and how often the club meets.
This step will be easier after choosing your meeting place since you’ll know the days and times that the venue is open or available.
Take a vote to see which day better suits everyone. You can have book club meetings on a weekday as your means of winding down after work. Or hold meetings on a weekend when there are no commitments the following day.
As for the frequency of meetings, most book clubs meet once a month. This gives people time to self-reflect on the read. You can choose to have meetings as frequently as you want, as long as members are still engaged and interacting with each other.
5. Choose your book.
Choose a book based on your why. If you started a book club to have good conversations with friends, the book you choose should create that atmosphere.
If you completely run the club and choose the books that will be read, be sure to consider everyone’s interest. Members can also vote to choose the book that will be read. This gives everyone a chance to have a voice in the group’s decisions.
Another option is to subscribe to a book club subscription service where they will choose the books for you on a monthly basis.
Some book club subscription services send extra treats and items inside the package as an incentive.
Book club subscription services charge on a monthly or annual basis. Consider using a Braid Pool to manage this expense and other expenses of your book club. More on this below but if you're ready to learn more, click here.
6. Read and discuss.
It’s time for the fun part—reading and discussing.
Be specific about how much people should read in an allotted time. If you meet once a month, maybe you can require members to finish the entire book before the first discussion.
Set aside time to come up with discussion topics for each meeting. Choose book club discussion questions that will encourage a conversational atmosphere. Here are some examples:
- Did you enjoy the book? What was your favorite part?
- What were your preconceived notions about the book?
- Which character had the best character development?
- Do you think the author could have created a better plot?
- Have you encountered anything similar to the occurrences in the book?
- What surprised you the most about the book?
- Did the book impact you? How?
- Overrated or underrated?
How to Manage Book Club Expenses with Braid Pools
Book Club expenses can range from ordering books in bulk, and buying food and drinks, to booking venues. These expenses don’t have to be pricey but if you want to enhance the experience and make managing the costs transparent with your members, consider starting a Braid Pool.
What is a Braid Pool? It's a money pool where you can collect, manage, and spend money directly from the pool for your book club.
Creating a Braid Pool takes minutes and allows you to keep book club money separate from your personal funds.
Collecting Book Club Membership Fees
While some book clubs don’t require a membership fee, if yours does, you will need a place to store and manage that money.
Braid Money Pools can help you easily collect membership fees from members with money pools.
Use Braid Pool Links to allow members to contribute to the pool with a debit or credit card. There is no sign up required.
Ready to start collecting money for your book club with Braid? Click here!
Make purchases
Your money pool comes with a free Braid debit card. You can use it to make purchases for all things book club.
If your group decided to go with a subscription service, use the pool card to set up recurring payments on the subscription.
If you host your book club at a coffee shop or at a member's house, you can use the money in the pool to cover the costs of snacks, food, and group orders. There’s no need to Venmo people back and forth when you spend money out of the pool.
Ensure that if you don’t have a monthly membership fee, everyone contributes to the money on a need-to basis.
Track expenses and contributions.
Easily track your expenses on the Braid app. You can use your statements to see all the money coming in and out.
You also get an alert whenever money is contributed to your pool or spent.
Braid is a great way to manage your club's expenses. Click here to learn more.
How to Make Your Book Club Fun
Making your book club fun and engaging should be a top priority. Here are 6 ways to create a long-lasting fellowship.
1. Take time to build relationships.
Getting to know each other will create smooth conversations. When people are accustomed to each other, they are more likely to share their thoughts and feelings.
You can take time at the beginning of meetings to talk about things that don’t pertain to the book like work, family, or other life factors.
2. Make it a safe space.
It’s rare for people to all share the same opinion about a book. It’s important to create a safe space for others to share their true thoughts.
Nobody should feel scared or hesitant to speak at meetings. The floor should be open.
3. Let the alcohol flow.
This, of course, only pertains to book clubs with members of the legal drinking age.
Providing drinks is a great idea for book clubs. A little liquid courage can get people talking and spice up the discussion.
4. Diversify your members.
Including members of different ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, etc., will bring a more diverse conversation.
If your club is only made up of people who share the same ideas, it can be hard to have a deep discussion.
Nobody wants a meeting full of “I agree” statements.
5. Choose books that have a movie.
Choosing a book that has a movie can give members a break away from just discussing the book.
Watching a book-based movie can create an open debate about which was better, the book or the movie.
6. Consider the oldies.
Most book clubs will focus on the book that is currently popular. It doesn’t hurt to sometimes dive into the old yet good books, even if you’ve already read them.
Maybe the last time you read the book you were younger and your views about the book have changed with this new age.
Let Braid Help the Bookworm in You
It’s time to conquer some reading goals and have fun while doing it.
