Hosting 101: The Book Club
how to host an online book club
Instructions on how to host a book club.
Disclaimer: All of my book clubs have been virtual/online, and I use twitter to find people who are interested in joining.
Step 1: Gauge interest
Tweet about a book you are interested in to gauge interest from others. It will be easier if you pick a book that other people are interested in, and that is not a ridiculously dense tome. You can also find people in the replies to a larger discussion around a relevant topic. (If you have a hard time finding others, that is a topic for a different post around making friends on the internet)
I also suggest having a cohost. This eases some of the burden of facilitating every meeting.
Step 2: Create group chat
Once you find a few interested folks, you can spin up a group chat to coordinate meeting times and cadence. It’s nice to have a core group of 2-3 people who are definitely interested. I would keep a book club below 25 people… over that it becomes hectic/hard to discuss equally. Keep in mind that there is usually a drop off after the first meeting, so by the end of the book club you’re left with a much smaller group than the number of initial sign ups.
Introduce the chat— say something like “hey everyone welcome to Impro Book Club! We’ll use this space to coordinate times, discuss things as we read, share experiences etc.”
Step 3: Figure out meeting times
Pick your own cadence, but I typically use:
Meet 1x every two weeks
Read 1 chapter (or section) per meeting
90 minutes per meeting
Sundays from 10am-11:30am PST seems to work well for many time zones
The structure of one chapter per meeting helps keep people on track. I’ve found 90 minutes to be a natural amount of time for discussion to swell and close.
Sometimes I use a Google form to suggest meeting times and collect votes; other times I pick a few time slots and then have people react with emojis for their preferred times.
Once you decide on a meeting date/time and associated reading, rename the group chat accordingly, eg 7/24 10am PST Chapter One: The Poetic Act.
Set up a google calendar event with video chat to meet over, and voila! You are ready to go. You can share the google cal event in the chat but typically I find that people don’t use it; instead I give heads up a few days before and the day before, then on the day of I send the meeting link in the group chat.
I personally pay for a Google workspace account that allows for 90min meetings, but if you don’t, you will need everyone to drop at the 60min mark and jump back in (Google only allows 60min meetings for free accounts).
Step 4: Facilitating meetings
I typically set up a rough agenda to help myself organize.
Meeting structure (90min)
Welcome (5min) - say hi to everyone as they enter the room
Beginning exercise (1min) - It can be helpful to do a breathing exercise (1min breathe together in silence) to help everyone be present, co-regulate, and join a shared mental/emotional/somatic space. This also allows for the release of nervous energy.
Intros (~20-30min) - the first time you meet, make ample time to chit chat and get to know each other. Sometimes people join the club after the first meeting, so you will need to make quick intros later on too.
(First time only) Ethos and Structure (5min) - For the first time you can explain the general code of conduct/way you’d like the book club to go. You can also go over the meeting cadence and gauge appetite for exercises.
Discussion (~30min x 2) - I typically ask people to come with favorite sections of the book or questions. Be prepared to kick off the discussion with whatever you personally found compelling.
Exercises (~1-10min) - The book you choose may or may not naturally lend itself to exercises. For example, Somatic IFS, Impro, and Psychomagic all had exercises outlined in the chapters that we then tried out during book club. I like to go back and forth between discussion and exercises (25min discussion, 10min exercise, back to discussion etc) to keep things interesting.
Ethos
I like to lay out that this is a safe conversation space. Be kind and respectful, and allow each other to speak from their own perspectives. Favor the personal over the abstract.
Encourage everyone to create space for equal speaking time. Not everyone will want to contribute, but for the quieter ones who do, we should allow them space to come forward.
Extras
You can take notes or create artifacts from the exercises; these are a nice touch to look back on. I take notes on twitter throughout book club and compile them into a thread with other people’s notes.
Facilitation tips
(Optional) Invite people to raise hands before talking. Sometimes people will stay on mute and unmute to indicate desire to speak; other times everyone just figures it out.
Ask for comments explicitly from people who haven't talked yet
Make use of the comments section to capture references/links
Step 5: Wrap up
I like to do a little wrap up post at the end of the book club to conclude the club. It provides a sense of closure, and I thank everyone in the book club for participating. I also tend to make a thread of all the notes/discussion/threads that came out of book club for future reflection.
Here’s some book club threads I’ve made in the past:
Impro by Keith Johnstone - recommended article | book | thread | roam notes
Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander - book | thread
Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas - book | thread
And while I’m at it, here are some personal threads for books I read:
That’s all I have on hosting book clubs— I hope this is helpful!
Love this, I’m just about to host my first virtual book club meeting. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!!