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How to Create a Book Club That Lasts
These tips will keep you from launching a dud.
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If you already belong to a book club whose members dutifully finish the selection du jour and no one hogs the floor or is too intimidated to make a peep, you’re in good company. According to the 2026 State of Reading Report, 37% of readers say they participate in a book club. I’m guessing some among the rest of you have book club envy and are thinking of forming a group.
Before you begin, please listen up. There are many reasons to join a book club: to share opinions, discover new authors and socialize over wine, cheese and Trader Joe’s latest snack. But before you plow ahead, consider the do’s and don’ts below, because when book clubs go bad, it isn’t pretty. I should know.
In my 30s, I gathered 18 avid readers to form a group. I knew every woman save one, a friend’s friend who wanted in. It did not go well. Quite a number refused to read anything “sad,” which ruled out 60% of literature. Some members — frazzled working moms, mostly, but still — failed to even start the book. Others were so awed by the friend’s friend’s eye-popping home they became reluctant to host in their humbler abodes. Members fled but Ms. Fancy-Pants quickly replaced them with her buddies who also lived in photo-op-worthy homes. There was a lot of gossip, usually about people I didn’t know, but not much book talk. The tipping point came when the entire evening was spent consoling a woman going through a divorce.
By year two, every original member but Plus-One and the friend who’d urged me to invite her dropped out. Ultimately, I did too, though that group may continue to this day, sipping Chardonnay at posh addresses after they discuss a book for four minutes. This left me a book club orphan until my late 50s, when I was invited into two clubs. One was made up of former magazine editors, the other, writers. I joined both and love both. We choose interesting books, including many classics not previously on my radar screen, and have spirited discussions that last about an hour. When we disagree in our assessments, it’s lively, not deadly.
Drawing on my own experience, along with insights from other readers who’d sooner cancel Christmas than their book club, I’ve put together some suggestions for creating a group with staying power. These aren’t ironclad rules — this isn’t the Marines — but the following guidelines can make the difference between a high-functioning club and a dud.
• Decide if your group will run itself or hire a facilitator who operates it like a class. For a fee, a pro leads the discussion, raises questions about characters, themes, structure, point of view and what message the author might want the reader to glean. She also shares background information on the author, squelches cross-talk and makes sure reticent members get air time so windbags (excuse me, enthusiasts) don’t crowd out other participants or bore everyone with off-point anecdotes about Aunt Sadie who ran a brothel.
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A group run by a pro — best found through word of mouth — may feel more formal than a laissez-faire club, but the latter requires discipline to address the issues mentioned above. In a self-running book club, sparks may fly. It’s not easy to be the person who says, “Zip it, Sally! Let Janet talk.”
• Should your book club have a theme? So many books, so many choices. You may want to specialize and read only historical novels about the Tudors, international authors, prize-winning books, 20th-century literature, biographies, memoirs, strictly non-fiction and so on. I’ve heard of clubs where members dress as a character in the book, clubs that read about a social issue and then volunteer together to support that cause, and intergenerational clubs, where Ethel-aged women react to books with teenagers. Possibilities? Endless.
• Decide on your group’s size — eight to 12 is ideal, not so big the crowd feels impersonal or so scrawny the discussion never takes off should a few members be absent.
• In a closed group, be clear and picky before you extend an invitation. Define your goals and try to suss out potential members who may not be committed to your group’s vision. In my “writers book club,” we ask questions like “Why did she write in close first person?” In a general-interest club, the answer may be, “Who cares?”
• Determine how often to meet. The trickiest part of maintaining a book club is often determining meeting dates, so it’s a good idea to schedule far in advance, though neither of my groups does that. The emails exhaust me as we try to graciously work things out. Once a month gives most people sufficient time to prepare, though once every six weeks is more realistic, allowing members sufficient time to read non-book club titles as well.
• Figure out how to choose your books. This can be sticky. If you hire a facilitator, she usually picks the books. For self-run groups, I stand by the following method. Maintain a strict rotation of hosts, and when someone is up to bat she gets the perk of suggesting a classic, a work of non-fiction and a recent novel — though not too recent, since hardcovers are costly. (Fortunately, publishers usually release paperbacks a year after a hardcover release.) Then everyone votes.
I’ve run across groups that vouch for the “host’s choice” method: her house, her pick. I don’t recommend hashing out the next choice at the end of a meeting; this can lead to a rushed decision and frustrate members who had to miss the meeting. It’s not necessary to plan too far in advance, since if members read a book months before a discussion, chances are they’ll forget details. At least I do. (“What’s the girl’s name again? ‘Lolita’? Right!”)
• Consider inviting an author — you can contact her through her website — to visit a meeting, in person or by Zoom, when the group is discussing her book. It’s customary to offer the guest a small honorarium and to cover travel costs. I’ve published a bunch of books, and visiting book clubs ranks up there with winning the Oscar pool. I love meeting readers who discuss the characters in one of my books as if they lived and breathed.
• Lastly, don’t make your meetings all about food or drink, but please serve something. Why do you think screw-top wine bottles were invented?
How many of YOU belong to a book club? Let us know in the comments below.
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