How to start your own book club

People of all ages love to read, and book clubs have been around forever as a way for readers to get together and discuss their favorite literature. For seniors, book clubs are a great way to stay active and engaged while improving senior wellness and meeting others with similar tastes. If you're interested in creating a book club, take the initiative and get going. To help get you started, here is an easy-to-follow guide:

Choose a theme
With so many varieties of books out there, you need to determine what kind of club you want. Think about what kind of books you enjoy reading – whether that's sci-fi, non-fiction history or romance, the choice is up to you. Of course, you don't have to stick to just one genre. Instead, you could go for a theme of best sellers and pick books that are generally popular. Having a set theme will spark interest in others to join your club.

While you're thinking about a theme, you can also imagine what type of club you want this to be. For example, is this for high-brow academics or is it a social club? This will also help you figure out who you should invite to join your group and which books to pick out.

Invite members
Besides books, members are the most important part of a book club. Your book club can be a small, intimate group of close friends and like-minded people, but you can also make it a larger group if you wish. You will want to have enough members to create a good group discussion every time you meet, and should also take into account that some might be absent week to week. Start by asking three of your friends to join – ask those who you know are devoted readers – and tell them to invite a few others to grow the group.

If you're new to an area, you can start a club with online invites. See if there is a community page to post news like this so you can meet others and get your club off the ground. When you do start recruiting members, it's important to bring in people who have similar reading tastes. Otherwise, you could be disagreeing over book choices right off the bat.

Decide on a routine and meeting place
Once you have a group for your book club, it's time to determine how often you will get together and where you will meet. Once a week probably doesn't provide enough time to finish a new book, but you could meet at intervals throughout a book as well. Meeting once a month can be a good benchmark to finish a book and have time to reflect on it before meeting up to discuss it with others. However, if it's a longer book, you may want to lengthen the time period to six weeks or so. You will also need to determine a meeting time, so take poll as soon as possible to find out member prefer to meet in the morning or afternoon.

The meeting place may largely depend on how many members you have and how involved they want to be. For instance, you could hold meetings at members' homes, alternating month to month. If there are many of you in the book club, it might be worthwhile to hold meetings at a local facility like a community center or church, though this may cost money and require member dues.

Determine a contact method
As a club founder, you need to be able to reach out to your members to send information about book choices and meeting times. Using the Internet may be the best way to get in contact with everyone, either through email or social media. Check with all your members to find out their preferred method of communication so you're sure not to miss anyone.

Land on a name
While you might not be able to come up with a name that captures the spirit of your book club right away, it can be an important part of keeping and recruiting members. As your club gets going, think of what you might like to call the group to give it an identity. This will also help create a sense of community among members.

2014-07-16T05:15:11+00:00 June 16th, 2014|Senior Health & Wellness|Comments Off on How to start your own book club
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