7 Things That Make a Good Book Club
What Makes a Good Book Club
1. Lively Discussion
The essence of a good book club is good discussion. You don’t want to be part of a group where everyone asks and answers superficial questions.
Instead, you want members to analyze the book on a deeper level. You love reading between the lines, and you want others to do the same. At the end of the discussion, you want to feel as if you’ve learned something about the book and the other club members.
For lively discussion to happen, everyone must come prepared with good questions. These are open-ended questions that make people pause and think before answering.
Also, everyone must be open-minded. They must be willing to consider other viewpoints and be ready to change their minds at the end of the discussion. This is what intellectual enlightenment is all about!
2. Committed Members
A good book club has enthusiastic members who try their hardest to show up to every meeting. Inevitably, life gets in the way.
Sometimes, unexpected things happen, which might force you to miss a book club meeting. If so, please let the host know as soon as possible. That way, you can protect your reputation and everyone else can proceed with that meeting’s agenda.
Also, if you have too many things on your plate, then maybe joining a book club isn’t the best idea right now. No one likes mediocrity. Don’t sign up if you can’t commit.
3. Clear Expectations
The culture of every book club can be described using a spectrum with casual social activities on one end and deep intellectual conversations on the other end. When forming the club, founding members must know what they want.
Do they want a social club where friends chat over food and drinks, and then briefly talk about the book before the night is over?
Or is the book club catered towards serious readers and/or literary critics?
Founding members must be clear about their expectations and stick to them. Do not be wishy-washy. This will help new members identify the book club’s mission and evaluate whether the group is right for them.
4. Membership Diversity
People who come from the same backgrounds tend to have the same opinions. This can get incredibly boring if you want to have insightful discussions. You can’t do that if everyone just agrees with one another.
This is why having a diverse membership base is so important. It will make book club conversations much more interesting.
You need to strategically publicize the book club if you want members from diverse backgrounds. For example, you can advertise the book club at community centers and libraries. These are places that naturally attract people from different backgrounds. You can also post about the book club in different online communities.
Be mindful of the size of the book club, however. What if too many people join? Can you handle a large membership base?
If a lot of people are interested, then you can implement a lottery system to select new members. This is how you can be fair and keep your sanity at the same time.
5. Shared Responsibilities
Sharing responsibilities ensures that no one is spreading themselves too thin. If one person oversees everything, then that person will eventually become overwhelmed, especially if the book club becomes popular.
As a result, the quality of meetings will suffer, and the club might fail. We don’t want that to happen. So, let’s all chip in to make the book club successful.
First and foremost, what are the different responsibilities of a book club? Well, we have the discussion leader, book selector, and meeting organizer. We also need a timekeeper and membership coordinator.
When delegating responsibilities, you can consider each member’s prior knowledge and skills. You can also assign responsibilities randomly, and then rotate the assignments every few weeks.
Sharing responsibilities will instill a sense of ownership in every member. This will motivate everyone to do their part to make the book club a success.
6. Social Activities
A good book club gives members ample opportunities to get to know each other. Yes, talking about the book is nice, but the primary reason why a lot of people join book clubs is to make friends.
For these folks, participating in a book discussion is second in importance. Therefore, there should be time for casual chit-chat.
What you can do is schedule a pre-discussion catch-up session. Let everyone talk to one another as they arrive and get settled in. Once this is out of the way, everyone can transition to having an insightful conversation about the book.
In addition, getting to know one another can make the book discussion more profound since friends are not afraid to disagree with one another. There will be no sugarcoating.
Instead, people will tell each other how they really feel. This will help everyone grow as readers and people.
7. Continuous Feedback and Improvement
We have discussed the general qualities of a good book club. However, you must acknowledge that different people will have different things in mind.
So, you should ask your members directly what they think of the book club. Do they have any suggestions for improvements?
You can definitely change things that everyone has reached a consensus on. For other things, perhaps you can make compromises to satisfy as many people as possible.
The final takeaway from this article is this:
A good book club listens to its members and makes changes accordingly.