Start a book club

Book clubs collapse for two predictable reasons: the books are too long and the meetings are not fixed in advance. To start a book club that lasts, pick short books and a recurring date, and accept from the beginning that some people will arrive without having finished.

Why start a book club is worth an hour

A fixed recurring date, such as the first Thursday, removes the scheduling negotiation that kills most recurring plans. Shorter books keep completion rates high enough that discussion works. And explicitly permitting unfinished reading prevents the real failure mode, which is people staying away out of embarrassment and never returning.

How to start a book club step by step

1. 1

   Fix a recurring date immediately

   The first Thursday, or the last Sunday. A repeating slot removes the scheduling conversation that kills these groups entirely.

2. 2

   Start with a short book

   Under three hundred pages for the first few months. Ambitious length is by far the commonest early mistake groups make.

3. 3

   Rotate who chooses

   It spreads the effort around and prevents the club from drifting permanently toward one person's particular taste.

4. 4

   Prepare three or four questions

   Whoever chose the book brings them along. Completely unstructured discussion drifts off-topic within about ten minutes.

5. 5

   Say unfinished is welcome

   Explicitly, at the start. Otherwise people stay away out of embarrassment and never come back.

Tips to get more out of it

• Keep it to six or eight people at most. In larger groups several people never get to speak at all.
• Check the book is easily available in paperback, as an ebook and from local libraries before choosing it.
• Spend the first ten minutes simply catching up socially. Trying to start on the book immediately never works anyway.

Ways to mix it up

If nobody has time to read, try a short story club instead, which needs twenty minutes of reading and produces the same conversation. If the group is remote, video works well for book discussion specifically, since it is talk-based rather than activity-based.

Start a book club: frequently asked questions