Published Jun. 5, 2021
As a painfully honest joke in consulting went, "Do something once and
you're sold as a practitioner, do something twice and you're sold as an
expert." Recently, I became an expert in book clubs. Based on that
expertise and extensive market research (discussions with friends), I am
here to publish some best practices on how to conduct your own book
club.
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Align on objectives. Is your book club merely a pretense for wine
night with the girls? A way to affect social change? Or to
rip through classics well over your reading level to flex on
peers
steep yourself in literary history? All of these reasons are
separately valid but I would advise against putting a wannabe
philosopher-king in a room with Karen from work looking to unwind on a
Saturday night.
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Decide on a pace and stick to it. This is what separates being in a
book club from telling your friends that you're in a book club. Think
about how much time you would normally spend reading in a week and
assume maybe half of that will go into your book club. It's easy to
get overly ambitious here, nobody really wants to raise their hand as
the slow reader. But trust me, everyone going at the same pace is much
better than showing up with a handful of excuses and some extra wine.
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Ensure that you could have a political discussion with the
members. Whether you're reading
The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Das Kapital, the
discussion will inevitably veer towards life and society. If you can't
have open contentious discussion with these people, your book club
probably won't end well. The biggest trap here is not necessarily
having different political views but not viewing someone else as an
intellectual equal.
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Choose the right book. This seems obvious and should follow from the
objectives but this crucial step can feel like a UN General Assembly.
If there's not a clear book that inspired the idea in the first place,
start with a general theme, find a general time period, and go from
there. When in doubt, don't go for
Heather's Picks.
That's all the time I have today for pro bono expert advice. Please
reach out to me for additional hourly consultation. Results are not
guaranteed but slides are.