The Perfect Social Event For Cold Nights: Join a Book Club and Meet Other Book Lovers This Winter

It’s winter, when normally many of us feel like hibernating. Who wants to leave the house at night when you can curl up in front of the heater with a book? But after our recent experience with isolation, and the easing of these restrictions, we’re all looking for ways to connect with people, while still remaining safe. Why not combine both by joining a book club?

Book clubs are a chance to meet up with like-minded bibliophiles for some good old-fashioned book banter (and bubbly). They are a fantastic opportunity to make new friends and connect with other book-lovers. Many of our Better Reading community members already have their book clubs, but if you don’t belong to one yet, here are some ways you can find a like-minded club.

Join an already established book club

Once you’ve decided to join a book club, finding one won’t be too difficult. Ask around, your friends, your local library or local book store. A search of the website meetup shows hundreds of book clubs you can join, catering to every taste. From romance book clubs, to business book clubs, to the Jane Austen book club and one dedicated to Marcel Proust, there’s something for everyone. There are even book clubs for adults that read YA or clubs you can join with your kids. Stick to something fairly local, so there are no excuses to attend, meet new people and talk about books.

Start your own book club

Do a call-out online, or make some flyers to scatter around your neighbourhood, your local library included, and see who expresses interest then go from there. Include a mix of friends with people you don’t know to make things more interesting. Choose books that will generate conversation such as those with a controversial subject matter, or an interesting twist, or a complex moral dilemma at its heart. After all, the whole point of the book club is to talk about the book and not just drink the wine and eat the cheese and biscuits – isn’t it?

Who makes the selection at any book club? Some book clubs rotate the member who gets to choose that month, while others just throw a few books up for discussion at the meeting and vote on what’s going to be next.

Online Book clubs

You don’t even need to leave the house now to belong to a club. A simple search online will open countless book club doors, with the most famous clubs being Reese’s Book Club and Oprah’s Book Club. However there are also many clubs held via Facebook groups, and on other social media sites, especially in this age of COVID-19.

The Better Reading Book Club

Regular readers here know that on the last Wednesday of every month, at 8pm, Better Reading has always hosted a live, interactive book club where you can join in the passionate conversation about books. Our book club is special because we have the author of the book we’re discussing on our panel, along with their publisher. For now, while we continue to follow social distancing rules at our office, our monthly book club is on hold. However, we’ve replaced that with Virtual Book Events on our Facebook page at 8pm every Wednesday night. You can simply watch and listen. Or, you can type your questions into the Facebook comments section and the featured author will answer you. Thousands of people have already discovered the fun, so join in too.

Are you a member of a book club already? Tell us about it, and we might feature you.

Email details about your book club, including a photo, to [email protected]