How to start a book club
If you’re looking for a new hobby this year that doesn’t involve Lycra, you might consider joining a book club. Whether you’re eager to deep-dive into your latest book obsession, trying to read more this year, or just want to meet new people, there are so many benefits to joining a book club.
There are plenty of existing groups there that you could join, but if there isn’t one in your local area, you want to talk about specific genres, or you just want an excuse to bring all your friends together in one place, you might want to start your own.
We have a separate guide to starting an online book club, but if you’re more keen on discussing Woolf over wine at your local pub, read on for our guide to how to start an in-person book club.
Decide on your club’s theme
The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of books your group will read. Do you want your book club to focus on a specific genre – romance, thrillers or literary classics, for instance? Or do you want it to be more flexible, perhaps taking it in turns to suggest your favourite book, or discussing the latest bestseller everyone’s talking about?
Having a clear focus for your club will mean that members know exactly what they’re signing up for and, if they share the same interests, they’ll be more likely to enjoy themselves and come back.
This is also a good time to decide on the vibe you want for your book club. Do you want this to be a place where you deep-dive into a chosen book, or do you just want to bring like-minded people together for a general chat about literature? This will help you to decide how you want to promote the club, how many people to invite, and how to structure the discussion.
Invite the right number of people
What’s a good number of people for a book club? We’d say the sweet spot is between 5 and 10 members. That way, you can have an engaging conversation (and, yes, debate) with plenty of fresh perspectives without feeling like you need to shout to be heard.
Of course, there’s nothing to stop you and a couple of bookish friends meeting up as a trio and forming a book club either. But having more people in your group is a bonus, as it means meetups can go ahead even if people drop out last-minute.
The next big decision is: who should you invite? We recommend inviting a few friends who are book lovers and asking each of them to bring a pal who enjoys reading – that way, you’ll have a big enough group, full of bookish people who actually want to contribute. You might alternatively reach out to colleagues or people from your other hobbies – friends from your run club, for instance. Or, if you like your neighbours, you might put a call-out on your local WhatsApp group.
If you’re keen to branch out and make new friends, you could turn to social media or websites like Meetup, Cliq or Eventbrite to advertise your group – although the downside of posting on the internet is that you’ll probably need to ticket events, so the numbers don’t get too high.
Meet once a month
Unless you’re a club of extremely fast readers, you should avoid meeting more regularly than once a month. Meeting monthly gives everyone enough time to find or order the book, read it, and come prepared – and it gives keener readers enough time to read other books on their TBR piles, too.
You could meet less regularly – for instance, once a quarter – but that might make your club lose momentum. That being said, you can be more flexible if that works for your group, maybe giving yourselves six weeks if you’re reading a longer novel like The Bee Sting or The Things That We Lost.
To keep momentum going – and attendance high – you should decide on a date for your next meet-up at the end of your discussion: you know, that moment before everyone grabs their coats and heads home. Or, if you’re an indecisive bunch, you could post a poll on the group chat and vote on it afterwards.
The location is also important in a book club. If you're good friends with the members in your group, you might take it in turns hosting it in your homes. Or if you'd prefer to go out, you might choose a local pub or bookshop – just make sure it's not too loud to be able to hear each other!
Guide discussion to be meaningful
The key to a successful book club is making sure your meetups have a good structure. Otherwise, you risk falling into the trap of accidentally spending three hours catching up on each other’s lives before mentioning the book.
We recommend, therefore, that you ringfence time for chit-chat and time for book discussion. This might look like spending the first 30 minutes of your book club catching up with each other, before diving into the book and its themes.
To keep everyone on track, consider appointing someone as the leader of the discussion. This could be you, as the creator of the book club, or it could alternate each month, depending, for instance, on who chose the book. Having a leader will keep the conversation on track, and ensure everyone has a chance to say their points.
Printing out question prompts could be a good idea – especially for larger groups – to keep conversation flowing in case you run out of things to say. You can find question prompts online – including our list of the ultimate book club questions.
If you want a looser structure, however, you might start off by asking everyone to share their general reactions to the book before digging deeper into the themes, characters, core message, and whether they’d recommend it to a friend.
Our top tip is to ensure the discussion is balanced, too: it would be boring if everyone sat around and said, “This book was awful, I hated it”. Instead, dig deeper: what was well done, what could have been better, can you see what the author was trying to do, and how far did they succeed? For a particularly contentious book, you might suggest people say three things they liked and two things they disliked, to make sure you have a more balanced (and animated) discussion.
Pick appropriate books for your book club
One of the key ingredients to having an in-depth discussion is choosing the right type of book. You need to find a book with interesting themes, complex characters, or one that says something interesting about the time it was written in.
If you’re looking for inspiration, start with our round-up of the best book club books of 2026. Alternatively, keep an eye out for new releases that are getting a lot of buzz; take inspiration from a celebrity book club; or choose a book that won a literary prize.
For more recommendations, go into your local library or bookshop and ask the people working there for their suggestions. Or, if you want to decision taken out of your hands, you and your book club could take it in turns to pick a book, or you could put a selection of titles on the chat and ask the group to vote for their favourite.
Frequently asked questions
How can I make my book club successful?
The most important thing is consistency: meet up regularly, have a specific theme for your books (even if that theme is as simple as ‘bestselling fiction’) and ensure the number is small enough that you can have in-depth discussion but not so small that meetups get cancelled when one or two members have the flu.
Appoint a leader to run the meetings and make sure there’s a clear structure, but also flexibility if the conversation veers slightly off-topic. Make sure everyone has the chance to speak, too; this is why having a leader is so helpful, as they can ensure the quieter people in the room say their points.
On the logistical side of things, make sure you have a group chat and that people RSVP to each meeting, so you know the group numbers in advance. It’s a good idea to have the group vote on which book they want to read each month, as people tend to be more motivated to show up if they have a say in the book they’re reading.
How can I find an existing book club?
If you’d rather find an established book club, instead of creating your own, you can see if there’s one at your local library, check your local Facebook groups, or look at online platforms like Eventbrite and Meetup. Alternatively, you might enter your postcode onto The Reading Agency’s Book Club Hub to find one near you.