With the right ingredients in the right proportions anyone can start a successful book club. All they need are people, a place, a theme, some questions, and some books.
If you’ve decided to start your own book club, you need to gather all the best ingredients together. The ingredients for a good book club are similar to those for a good party. You need people, a place, an atmosphere or club style (theme), discussion questions (ice breakers), and you will need to decide on a reader policy (should they RSVP or not).
People:
First, you need some people who are willing to commit to the regular habit of reading a book and meeting with others. A good place to start is to ask around among your friends and coworkers. You can also consider putting up a bulletin board listing at your church, the library, the gym, or the grocery store.
A good book club needs about 8-12 people. If there are fewer than eight people, the discussion might lag. If there are more than eight people, some people may sit in the background and not participate in the discussion.
Place:
It is important to set a regular time and date for meetings. A regular date is essential as it allows members to set aside the meeting as a regularly scheduled event on their calendar. A regular meeting place is nice too – particularly if it can be in a neutral location such as a library, coffee shop, school, or church. However, homes are a wonderful place to meet too, especially for informal groups or groups that started as friends. However, if the meetings take place at homes it is nice to arrange a rotating schedule so that the burden doesn’t fall completely on one member.
Style of Club and Book Type:
Because people attend book clubs for different reasons it is good to know the tone of your club and make sure your members are aware of it. The styles of book clubs fall into two basic categories serious/academic/scholarly and social/therapeutic/bonding. Nothing is more disastrous than having a person who wants a bonding experience show up at a club where the members are discussing the allegory, metaphor, and style when that person simply wanted to discuss how the book relates to their personal lives.
It is also important to have an idea of what type of books the members of your club might want to read. Some clubs focus on non-fiction or classics while others read mysteries or romances, and still other clubs make a point of going through banned book lists and selecting their books from those lists.
Discussion Questions:
The most important thing about book club is the discussion. A good facilitator knows that discussion often needs a nudge in the right direction. Usually a few well-chosen questions are all that are needed. If you are not comfortable writing your own questions, there are a variety of ways to approach the question issue. Often, if you look up the publisher of a book or the author of the book you will find a guide for the book. Today, books are often published with guides in the back. Another way to find discussion questions is to go to a book club website. Many book club sites list guides. The site Reading Group Guides is a particularly helpful site when it comes to guides.
Attendance Policy:
The final concern is attendance. Some book clubs prefer that their members attend only if they finished the book others adopt a come-even-if-you-haven’t-finished-the-book policy. It is good to be clear with your members regarding your policy.
With the following suggestions in mind, you should have no problem starting a successful book club. Pick a book and start reading!
