How to Host Your First Book Club Party
If meeting with friends about once every other month for snacks, discussion, and companionship sounds fun, you might be ready to start a book club. The pros? No huge commitment, no pressure to hold the bash of the century, and getting to meet like-minded people who share your interests. The cons? Well, depending on how you like to spend your free time, the only con would be that you actually have to read the book. Here’s a few quick ways to get a book club started:
- Find a book you absolutely love. Pre-reading is a great idea, since a stinker of a first pick could be the kiss of death for your club. Something fun and light (and not too long) is recommended.
- Talk to your friends to find out who’s interested. Tell them to ask their literary-minded friends as well. You only need three to four people to get started, so don’t worry about developing a huge following.
- Collect emails and officially invite everyone. Let them know what book you’ll be dishing on and when the meeting will be. Also let them know that there will be free food! Give everyone at least a month to read the book. (You can adjust to make meetings more or less frequent as you go.)
- If you can find coupon codes for online bookstores, you’ll have more people willing to dive in.
- Keep emailing. People will forget or may lose interest if there’s no feeling of community along the way. Create an email ring to: pick a good time to have the discussion, talk about your initial impressions and how the reading’s going, gossip, share other favorite books, and more. Email is also a great way for people who haven’t previously met to start getting to know each other. Your first get-together will feel more like a reunion than an awkward first meeting.
- Don’t spam, though. One email a week is plenty if no one’s responding. If they are, let it happen organically. However, you may want to provide some email folder filtering suggestions for those who may not relish tons of email.
Before you know it, it’ll be time to have the actual party! One of the best things about book club parties is that the entertaining end of it is easy. Small talk is covered, so you just need to focus on having enough comfy seating and tasty refreshments. Have coffee, tea, soda, and water available. (More risque book clubs might love to share a few bottles of wine!) Cookies, small sandwiches, appetizers, and even pizza are all food options. Base it on your crowd. If they don’t seem like the tea and mini quiche crowd, don’t force it on them.
Once you get going, you can start creating theme parties. Read a book by a Mexican writer? Serve margaritas (have virgin drinks available, too) and nachos! Into French lit this month? Try cafe au lait and cream puffs!
Most importantly, don’t let your group get stuffy. It doesn’t matter if no one has anything highbrow to say; don’t make them feel like they have to. Feel free to talk about who would making good casting choices if the book became a movie. Talk about whether you would’ve done the same thing as the main character in a particular scene. Talk about whether the cover of the book is ugly or not. If it’s interesting and fun, guess what–your book club is a total success!
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