How to Start a Successful Book Club

What do you need to know to form a successful book club? In the first place, eschew Oprah and pick your own books. Remember that Oprah chooses the titles for her book club based on a variety of reasons, the quality of the writing not necessarily being near the top of that list. (Anyone remember James Frey? A million little lies later and it’s clear that you don’t want to spend a week reading his—ahem—memoirs.)

When choosing to start a book club, it is important to focus on membership. Chances are that at the beginning you’re just going to want to get as many people as you can. That’s a mistake. If you aren’t choosy about whom you have as members of your book club from the beginning, it can and will come back to haunt you. While you certainly want a diverse and eclectic group of people, you also want people who can discuss a book intelligently and informatively. 

That doesn’t mean you have to exclude people who aren’t quite up to the level of a graduate course. But if you bring in somebody who clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but who is determined to share his every opinion regardless, you’re going to succeed not in being diverse, but in being small. Once the core group is established and the word of mouth gets out and other people start clamoring to join, let them in on a trial basis first. 

Let a new member attend one meeting and then take a vote on whether they should become permanent members. And by all means go with majority rule; don’t let one jerk be able to blackball anyone. Although the charter membership may be as little as three or four members, remember that once a book club gets beyond ten or fifteen, it becomes almost impossible to have a discussion where everyone’s voice is heard. So be picky. It pays off.

Another secret to successful book clubs can be learned by choosing a book about King Arthur as your kickoff: Learn from the concept of the Round Table. Everybody in the group is probably convinced they have the best insight into how the group works, not to mention what the book is about.