Welcome back to another #Bookmas session here on Whimsies of a Nerd Girl! If you’ve been wanting to start reading more or maybe you want to hang with some people who get the whole being obsessed with books thing all while reading together, then my friend it may be time to start your very own book club! And seriously, how freaking fun is that!?! I’m right there with you and I’ve been researching on good tips so I thought I’d share them today so you can get started on creating your very own book club!

GENRES

So first thing’s first. It’s probably a good idea to throw down some “ground rules” as they put it. Take the time to figure out what kind of books you want to focus on with other book club members. Will it be YA? Fantasy? Paranormal? Or maybe you want to try to start reading some more classics? You don’t have to stick to a particular genre either, the sky's the limit! Feel free to mix it up or take turns with all your favorites. There’s always the option that everyone reads whatever they want and then every meeting everyone shares their likes/dislikes and if they recommend the books they’ve read. Whatever it is that you end up deciding, make sure you make it known to potential members what books you’re looking to read with them.

LOCATION

After you’ve gotten a few people (or more) it’s time to figure out exactly where you plan on hosting this book club. Do you want it to be IRL? Kudos to people who are actually able to do that! Sometimes it’s hard due to different reading tastes if you’re lucky enough to have close friends that enjoy reading. Or you can host the book club online. This is an easier option for people who a) live far away and b) busy schedules - so you can cut out the unnecessary time of traveling to/from a physical location.

A lot of book clubs host online which can be just as fun and for all the people who enjoy staying in (raises hand proudly) they’ll enjoy it a lot more.

Here’s a list to give you some ideas:

Physical Locations:

• Member Houses

  • Just rotate from one house of a member to the next

• Coffee Shop

  • Pro: you’ll always have access to coffee/hot chocolate and snacks year round

• Restaurant

  • Dinner is taken care of! #adulting

• Library

  • The most inspiring place so you can be surrounded by books! You can always plan ahead for future reads while you’re there to put requests in or do some research by asking your library what are some good picks! Some libraries have conference or study rooms you can request a date/time for which is a bonus!

• Bookstore

  • What can be more inspirational than the idea of being able to buy a book at the tips of your fingers for your next read?

• Park

  • Save this for the warmer/dry months, obviously and make it a picnic!

Private Cyber Locations

• Facebook group

• Goodreads group

Public Cyber Locations - If you don’t mind more people joining you and to make it a bigger event!

• Twitter chat

  • Create a hashtag for your book club and be sure to inform people the date(s) and time(s) of future meetings to take place

• Instagram Live

  • A little more interactive because you can go live and let others join in with you. You can all take turns going live every time you virtually meet up or to be more private take it to your small hub DM group

• Public Goodreads Group

• Public Facebook Group

SCHEDULE

The next important thing is when are you guys all going to meet up for this book club? It might be best to take a poll for this part due to people working, going to school, having kids, etc. I think a good start would be monthly, but if that’s too often feel free to change it to every other month or every quarter of the year. Ex. - Jan / April / July / October

BOOK SELECTIONS

This is probably going to be the most boggling part is how you choose which books to read. You can do this a number of ways:

• Rotate the choice between members

• Popular vote

• Backlist books

• Series

• Standalones

• Newly released books

• Rotate genres and vote

• Highest rated book from your favorite genre(s) on Goodreads or the Bestseller’s list

• Everyone writes down a book and puts it into a bowl, then you randomly select your book club pick

• Read Harder Challenge

DISCUSSION

The hardest part of a book club is trying to come up with interesting discussion questions to get people talking more. If you can’t think of a whole list ask everyone to come up with a set of questions to ask the group. You also don’t have to talk just about the book in the spotlight. Here are some beginner pointers:

• Favorite character(s) and why?

• Favorite part of the story?

• Least favorite part of the story?

• Thoughts on the writing style?

• What does everyone think the theme is? How did it affect them?

• Are there any personal experiences that can relate to the book?

SHARE ABOUT IT

Now that you’ve went through all the finer details share about your book club to get more people to join! Share on all your social media apps and add your club to the Book Riot public book club list to get more people in the know! If you decide to start one let me know so I can check it out and share it with others!

Other Related Article(s):

Read These: Festive Christmas Books for Book Clubs | Book Riot

Discussion Starters for Every Book Club | Book Clubbish

How to Start a Book Club | NPR

Read my other posts in the #25DaysofBookmas series!

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