You’ve done it! You’ve started your book club, invited friends to join, and now (gulp…) it’s time for your first book club meeting. Don’t panic! The book club experts here at Bookclubs are here to help with this ultimate guide to running a book club discussion.
You want your book club discussion to explore the deeper meaning of the book, but you also want it to be fun and engaging. As the host, you feel responsible for making everyone feel comfortable joining the conversation and sharing their thoughts. Balancing all of those goals can take some work.
In this blog post, we’ll unlock the keys to leading a lively discussion, helping you run book club discussions where people gain a new understanding of the book, build friendships, and look forward to the next meeting. Whether you’re a seasoned book club leader or a newbie looking for some guidance, this post is for you.
We’ll cover:
- How to choose the right book for your book club
- How to prepare for a book club meeting
- How to structure and facilitate a book club discussion
- How to deal with common book club challenges
- How to keep your book club fun and fresh
- How to keep your club and meetings well organized
Read on to learn more!
First Things First:
How to Choose the Right Book for Your Book Club
It happens before your meeting, but arguably the most important component of running a successful book club meeting is choosing a great book club book! The right book is one that sparks interest, curiosity, and conversation among your members.
For book inspiration, browse our list of the most popular book club books or check out one of our many recommended reading book lists.
To narrow it down from there, we have five questions we like to ask when choosing a book club book.
Bookclubs also offers many tools to help clubs select books. You can keep track of books that your club members are interested in on your club’s Want to Read shelf, and use our book polls to vote on your next book choice. If you don’t want to vote, there are many other methods for picking books.
Before the Meeting:
How to Prepare for a Book Club Discussion
They say that preparation is the key to success, so prepare for book club! That means reading the book carefully and doing some research and reflection on it.
Here are some steps that you can take:
- Read the book carefully: It goes without saying, but it’s much easier to lead or participate in a book club discussion if you’ve finished reading the book! Don’t sweat it too much, but as you read, take notes of your thoughts, questions, and reactions. Pay attention to the book’s themes, characters, plot, and style. You may also want to note any quotes, passages or scenes that stand out to you or that you want to discuss at your meeting, or questions that you have about the book.
- Locate or prepare some discussion questions: Coming to the book club meeting armed with book club questions will help to keep your discussion flowing. Bookclubs has many resources to help you out, including hundreds of discussion guides for popular book club books and an extensive list of general book club questions for fiction and non-fiction books.
- Optional: Do some research on the book’s background. Feel free to research the book’s background and context to enhance your understanding and appreciation of it. Areas of investigation could include the book’s author, genre, history, setting, and reception.
During the meeting:
How to Structure and Facilitate a Book Club Discussion
So you’ve chosen the book, read it, and prepared for the meeting. Finally the day has arrived! Now to run the discussion…
Here are some tips and best practices that you can follow:
- Welcome all members and have everyone introduce themselves if there are new members
- If necessary, review any rules of discussion – things like giving everyone a chance to speak, staying on topic, and respecting diverse viewpoints. It’s always easier to rein back in a discussion that is starting to go off the rails if there is clear expectations-setting at the start.
- Start with initial reactions. It can be helpful to go around the room and check on everyone’s experience of reading the book. This gives every member a chance to participate early on, and also gives you insight into what resonated or didn't resonate with members about the story.
- If you’ve come with prepared discussion questions (see above), pick one to start with. You may have already come in with a plan about what order to use, or you may want to adjust based on the initial impressions that members have shared and how the conversation continues. Spread questions out so each one builds in depth. Pace the conversation by moving on when you feel the group has thoroughly explored a topic.
- Don’t be afraid of impromptu dialogue. Part of the magic of book discussions is exploring emotional reactions or making connections you didn't expect. As long as the conversation feels productive, let members organically discuss how the book made them feel, situations they were reminded of in their lives, or even current events related to the themes. The goal is an authentic, engaging discussion rather than sticking rigidly to your prepared questions.
- Wrap up the discussion. As you come to the end of the meeting, you may want to summarize a few key themes that came up to reinforce the most meaningful takeaways. You can also ask everyone in the club to rate the book and explain their rating. This forces members to reflect on both their initial experience of reading the book, and how your discussion may have shifted it.
Are you a participant rather than the leader of a book club discussion? Check out our top 9 rules of book club etiquette (aka, how to be a good book club member)
When things go wrong:
How to Deal with Common Book Club Challenges
Running a book club discussion can sometimes be tricky or stressful. Here are some common issues along with solutions that you can try:
- Issue: Not everyone has finished reading the book. To avoid problems when not everyone has finished the book, it’s best to have a clear policy. Some options are: a) members should not join the meeting if they haven’t finished the book, b) members can join the meeting but understand that if they do so they may hear spoilers, or c) discussions should remain spoiler free. Talk with your club about how you’d collectively like to handle this situation.
- Issue: Uneven participation during meetings, or a few members dominating the discussion. A good book club discussion is one where everyone has a chance to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences. To encourage participation from all members, you can use strategies such as inviting comments from quieter members, asking open-ended questions that elicit more than yes or no answers, and relating the book to personal or current issues.
- Issue: Heated discussions or disagreements. A book club discussion is not a debate or an argument. It’s an opportunity to learn from each other and open ourselves up to different views. Disagreements can be healthy and stimulating, but they need to be respectful and constructive. As a discussion leader, you can help diffuse tense situations by acknowledging the different viewpoints and trying to find common ground, ensuring that any disagreements remain centered on the book and don’t become personal, and encouraging people to agree to disagree and move on when necessary.
- Issue: Low attendance. Low attendance can be discouraging, and it can make discussions less robust (and fun). To combat low attendance, there are a few strategies you can employ. First, try using a group organizing tool (like Bookclubs) to help track RSVPs and make sure people get reminders about upcoming meetings. If it seems like the dates just aren’t working out, you can try either polling your members to ensure that meetings fall on the days when most people are available (try using Bookclubs’ date polling feature), or try the opposite tack - pick a set date each month (for example, the third Tuesday) and ask members to schedule around it. If nothing seems to be working, it may be time to find a few new members to ensure that you have more people at each meeting.
Supercharge your book club meetings:
How to Keep Your Book Club Fun and Fresh
Even with the best moderation, you may find yourself feeling like your book club is stuck in a rut. If that ever happens to you, we’ve got you covered with plenty of ideas to keep your book club fun and fresh:
- Out of the box book club ideas (field trips, themed potlucks, and more)
- How to shake up what your book club is reading and discussing
- New and different places to host your book club meeting
Setting up for success:
How to Keep Your Club and Meetings Well Organized
Bookclubs’ suite of tools makes it easy to keep your club meetings organized. You can:
- Poll your members to schedule your next meeting date and time
- Keep a shared list of books you want to consider for your next read
- Vote on your next club book
- Schedule meetings so everyone always knows when your next meetings is, and what you’re reading (Bookclubs can even sync with your personal calendar)
- Automatically see if Bookclubs has a discussion guide for your book when you schedule a meeting (if we do, it’ll be linked in your meeting invite!)
- Keep a virtual bookshelf of all the books your club has read
- Share ratings and reviews of the books you’ve read with fellow members
- And so much more!
Create a free club or upgrade to unlock even more club organization including DMs, calendar synchronization, text notifications, in-app video meetings for virtual clubs, and so much more.