How to Start a Book Club

A new year brings new beginnings. One thing I’ve added to my list of things to do in 2015 is to start a book club. Not only re there many benefits of reading but I think the interaction with like minded people will help me grow as a person. Let’s be real, who doesn’t want to have a night that they can look forward to once a month? We all do! I’ve put together a few tips to help you start a book club with ease.

Find a group of people that are interested in joining. 

This group of people doesn’t have to be people that you know. You can start a book club with complete strangers in your community or round up your best friends. If you’re trying to figure out how to get things started there are a few things that you can do. Head to social media (which is usually my answer for everything). Search for community groups, online books clubs or even post a status telling people that you are looking to form and/or join a book club. You’ll be surprised by the number of people who are interested.

Begin your book club with a meeting to figure out your year.

Once you get your started, host a meeting to get all things straightened out before you start reading any books. There are a few things that you need to make sure to go over in this meeting. Here are a few things to discuss:

• How often will you meet? Do you want to meet once a month or every other month?
• What days work best for everybody? Should you host your meetings the second Saturday of every month or maybe on the 14th of every month?
• Where do you want to meet? Should everyone host a meeting throughout the year or is there one designated spot?
• How long will the meetings take place?
• What will be talked about at the meetings? Is the host responsible for putting together a study guide?
• How big do you want the club to get? Are you all maxed out at 15 members or is 10 enough?

Appoint roles to people in your group.

This will be a fun group but if there aren’t roles, your club will probably lose the real meaning of why you started the group. There is nothing wrong with being social and talking about the book for only 5 minutes, but there is a reason that you read the book and you need to keep that in mind. You can do this a few different ways. You can appoint everybody in the group a role or you can just have two or three roles that someone takes on for 6 months then it changes. This really depends on your group and how serious they want the book club to be.

Start a Facebook group.

I can’t help, my life revolves around social media so I had to suggest this. Instead of sending tons of emails and text messages to communicate with each other just form a Facebook group.  This will keep things simple and everybody will be able to see all communications between each other. To create a group:

1. From your home page, go to the Groups section on the left side menu and click Create Group.
2. Click + Create New Group at the top of the page. A window will appear, where you’ll be able to add a group name, add members and select the privacy settings for your group.
3. Click Create when you’re done.

It’s super simple and very efficient!

Read good books.

This is an obvious one but you really need to think it through. In your first meeting that you have, gather ideas. Have everyone write down a few books that they would suggest or that they want to read. Go around the room and discuss if those books will work or if you want to go in a different direction.

 

If you’re looking for a recommendation to jump start your book club, I recommend After.  Anna Todd, the author of After, originally wrote the entire book on her phone as a hobby and it’s now being turned into a four book series. Paramount Pictures has also acquired the film rights to adapt the After story for the big screen.

Last spring, Anna Todd, the 25-year-old One Direction überfan parlayed her love of reading and the British boy-band to create After on Wattpad  under the nom de plume Imaginator1D. The plot of After revolves around young Tessa and her on-again, off-again relationship with Hardin Scott, inspired by One Direction singer Harry Styles. It’s a fun read and the best part is once you read it you can plan to go to the movies with your book club once it’s on the big screen!

Purchase After either online at Barnes& Noble or for your ereader!