Why I Started a Book Club (and Why You Should, Too!)

Despite having been an avid reader for most of my life, it has only been recently that I've joined a formal book club. 

Last year, I was talking with one of my closest friends, who is also a bibliophile, and she mentioned she would like to form a book club. So we each invited a few friends, picked a book to read, and met at a brewery on Main Street. We read a book called Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. It's based on the real town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which isn't too far from where we live.

That first book club was great. I invited a friend who was relatively new to town, and my cohost also invited one of her friends whom she met through a local pottery class. Now the group has grown to seven women and includes my sister-in-law and a local college professor. We have read all kinds of books.

After starting with Big Stone Gap, we read another book by a local author called If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss. It's another Appalachian fiction story, this one much darker than the first. We’ve read other books, including fantasy like Watermoon by Samantha Sotto Yambao and classics like Little Women. We just finished reading a historical novel called The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore.

Nearly a decade ago, I lived with a family in Atlanta while I was interning for a leadership company, and my host mom had been in a book club for a long time—something like ten or twenty years. They would get together each month, and while she’d occasionally read the books they chose, she admitted that it was mostly to catch up with her friends over a glass of wine. Whenever I think about book clubs, I immediately think of her and how she has been connecting with her friends over books and booze for decades—how much fun it is for her and how it breaks up the monotony and gives her a reason to go spend time with her friends.

Our book club was not a social club when we first formed it, and to be frank, we usually do read the book and talk about it in depth. But it has also led to amazing friendships. While I knew several of the people in the book club before we started meeting, there were some new people too, and my friendships have grown deeper and wider as a result. Book clubs give you a shared reason to be together and help guide the conversation, removing any barriers of what to talk about. You can usually even find questions (either in the back of the book or online), so you don't have to foster a conversation—you can just answer questions.

To date, we've read around ten books, and instead of meeting at the brewery, we now rotate between each other's houses and apartments. We've also done other things together, like crafting—we tie-dyed things in my basement, painted pottery, and have even attended some cultural events together, such as a live theater production of Little Women at the American Shakespeare Center and a concert from the Vitamin String Quartet in Lynchburg's historic Academy Center of the Arts.

I highly recommend starting or joining a book club if you can. It's a great way to meet people and build friendships. Plus, it encourages you to read.

If you aren't sure where to start, here are my best tips:

1. Check with local bookstores and libraries to see if they offer any clubs. This is a great option for first-timers, people who are new to an area, or those who just don't have a wide enough friend group to start a book club on their own. These are usually structured and hosted in a public place like a library or a bookstore, so they aren't quite as intimate as a club hosted among friends. But they are a great way to get a feel for book clubs and generally focus more on talking about the book versus socializing.

2. Ask a friend to read a book with you. Now that I think about it, I've been doing book clubs for a long time, even if it was just a club of two. I started reading books with my sister-in-law way back when we were in college, and we would read through devotionals together. I do the same with my mom and some of my other friends, and these mini book clubs provide the same intellectual stimulation and conversation as a larger group setting.

3. Leverage friends of friends. You don't need to know a bunch of people to start a book club. We started ours because there were two of us who wanted to join, and then we thought of some friends who may be a good fit for the club—a ripple effect. Most of us didn't know each other when we started the book club.

   
   

Being part of a book club has changed my life for the better. 

• It has encouraged me to read outside of my regular genres. We are very fair with how we select books and use a randomizer to help us choose. Everybody puts in their suggestions, and then we have a Wheel of Fortune choose the book for us. This has led us to all different kinds of books, including thrillers, historical fiction, and, now, a cozy Christmas mystery romance.

• Being part of a book club has also encouraged me to think more deeply about what I’m reading. I read a lot. Last year, I think I read close to 60 or 70 books, and many of those were quick reads that I didn’t really think much about after finishing the last page. Book club encourages you to slow down and actually think through what you’re reading—the characters, the plot, their decisions, the symbolism, and the imagery in books. It feels like a literature class for adults.

• While we do talk a lot about the books, I can’t help but think about my host mom—how she would come home from book club happy, bright-eyed, and energized. We usually share a meal at book club; just last weekend, I made a big pot of chili, and we ate together while discussing the book. These kinds of interactions build deep, lasting, fulfilling relationships, and books have a way of broaching difficult topics and building empathy. Things have been shared at book club that probably wouldn’t have been brought up in other situations, building deep human connection and empathy.

• Our group is composed of marketers, business owners, former teachers, therapists, and professors. Everyone brings a different perspective to the table, and I have learned so much from them. This has helped me consider things in new ways and come to conclusions that I may not have been able to get to on my own, broadening my perspectives, challenging my assumptions, and stimulating my curiosity. 

All of this goes to say—if you’ve been thinking about joining a book club, do it. I cannot recommend it enough. It will improve your social life, expand your horizons, and deepen your critical thinking skills, ultimately helping you become a better version of yourself.