Photo by Ylanite Koppens: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-teacup-on-top-of-books-1831744/
Read on for some tips and tricks on how to set up a book club or run one. This is my experience running a B2+/C1 book club since 2018.
It all began because I wanted to be part of a book club but there wasn´t one in my area so I started my own. I was unsure if anyone would be interested and had even convinced my partner to join me for the first meeting in case no one came along ( by the way, he´s never left). I'd never even been a member of a book club, let alone run one. I went and sort out some advice from the local librarian, she told me it was the most rewarding thing she had ever done in her job but it was hard work!!
So here are some questions to ask yourself and my thoughts and experiences.
1: Think about what you want from your group.
I had it clear that I didn't want a teacher role in this group, this wasn't going to be a lesson. I marketed the group as higher intermediate and advanced as I wanted them to be able to work through the book independently. So people who had plenty of previous experience of studying and how to work through a text were key. Think about this for both you and your book-club members, in order to avoid any misinterpretations. How many "I only want conversation classes" have turned into something else because the student doesn't realise they need grammar and vocabulary to have a conversation!
Think about:
What role do I want? Teacher/Facilitator/Co-leader...etc.
How much time can I dedicate to preparing the group?
Will I be available between meetings for assistance?
2: Who is it for:
Having decided on your role, you need to think about who you will invite or target. Are you looking to offer this to some students you already have or are you looking to start a new group with new members? If you want to set up a new one, how you market it will be important. Because my book club is free, I wanted to ensure that they were coming for the joy of reading and not for a free lesson. If you have a small client group to tap into that's great, some simple poster via messenger services or put up in your place of work. Putting up a poster in the library seemed like a good way to attract readers. You need a bit more of a strategy if you plan to advertise it online and get more members, especially if you don't already have a social media community. Using hashtags like #bookclub will help, but you will have to be more proactive in marketing. A very large group can be challenging to manage, but with just two members, it might not be worth it. I like it when we are around 8, it gives everyone time to talk and avoids any small groups or pairings starting. My group welcomes new members at any time, and I usually encourage them to attend the first meeting without having read the previous book just to get an idea of the group and introduce themselves. However, if you have a large group or lower levels, you might consider a closed group with new members only able to join at certain points (start of a new year, after a summer break, etc).
Think about:
Who is your target group?
How will you reach them?
How will you manage admissions?
3: How often, for how long, and where?
I decided to start on the classic once a month for one hour. I went for the first Friday of every month, as it is an easy way to remember when the next meeting will be. We still have this schedule, but we almost always run over time and I think an hour and a half is closer to the real-time. This is one area where we have more flexibility, depending on the situation of the members we might move the date or time. It is our last point to discuss at the end of each meeting, we check the date and discuss availability and change the date if necessary. Please bear in mind, that this is a higher intermediate/advanced only group, if you want to start a book club for lower levels or children they may very well need more frequent but shorter sessions.
Now for the where. I've actually used 3 different locations with the same group, we started in the language school and it suited the job perfectly for the first year and a half, then when the pandemic struck in 2020 I decided to keep the club running with meetings online and we stayed online for several months, however, we didn´t go straight back to indoors meetings and had several months of meeting outdoors. We would do a walk and talk, and whilst this filled a necessary gap in the transition to indoor meetings it wasn't a great success. It was impossible to have the same sort of group chat whilst out walking. We are now back to meeting indoors which for me is the best place to get the most out of a group.
Are you going to be doing it in an actual face-to-face setting and do you have a place you can use? A place where you can organise the physical aspects of the room and that is quiet are two essentials but otherwise what suits you in terms of location and size will be great. Or perhaps you're thinking of doing a virtual group, then all you need to make sure of is a platform you are comfortable with and pre-prepare the settings (I'd think about share screen controls; video and audio control; names on-off, etc).
Think about:
How many sessions can I do?
What day/time works best for me and will be available to most potential members?
Can I be flexible if nobody can come/it runs over?
What level of support will suit the groups' needs?
Where do I want to hold the group (physical place or virtual)
If an actual physical place, do I need to make any changes to organise.
If online, which platform suits you? Do you need to change the settings, and preschedule a recurring meeting with (or without) a password?
4: What to read?
Authentic (not graded) books are my favourite, and I like to mix styles and genres. From romantic classics to modern comedy, we've read novels, autobiographies, short stories, comic books, and nonfiction. Short story collections are the most popular among the group, they say because even if they cannot complete the whole book, they have at least finished some of the stories. We did try reading a novel over several months, doing a few chapters per month, but it was a disaster. No one enjoyed it. Make sure your choices are culturally and age-appropriate. You should make it clear if you will read books with upsetting themes and allow members to skip a book if it is upsetting for them. It might be worthwhile thinking about how you will handle any emotions triggered by the book in the group meeting.
We take a break from meetings every summer, on the last meeting the members each choose a new book and we read from the combined list during our break. This year I tried a new approach to sharing the summer reading list. Instead of asking the members to recommend a book they haven´t read, I asked them to choose one they had already read, review it and explain why they liked it. From this discussion, each member has chosen the books they most feel attracted to and when we return from summer break we can share our thoughts and experiences. The proposal went down really and they enjoyed the sharing of their own recommended reads.
Each member is responsible for getting their own copy of the book, and it turns out this suits them very well. While some prefer paperbacks, others prefer eBooks on their phones, and others prefer tablets.
Think about:
What type of books are you going to read (style/length)
Who will be responsible for choosing the book? (you or shared by the members?)
How will you get hold of the copies?
5: The meeting
So you´ve decided on what, where, and when. The next step is to determine how you want the actual meeting to unfold. If you've identified what type of role you want to take this will help you plan this stage much easier. I wanted the meeting to be more like a native language book club than a classroom setting. I did prepare some general questions for the first few sessions as we were getting to know each other, I found a list of general book club conversation starters printed them, and cut them out. Starting with a question and going around the table, even in that very first session, the questions were quickly replaced by a more authentic and natural discussion. Since then, I have not bothered with them.
Nevertheless, I do actively facilitate the meetings, which means I open and close them and sometimes guide discussions by inviting members to share their thoughts/opinions (especially relevant when there is a new member).
Things to think about:
How will you facilitate the actual speaking part?
Do you want to have material like comprehension questions?
Do you expect them to do any other work (write-ups)? How will you work this into the meeting?
Other stuff:
As mentioned above I do this voluntarily as I love reading and wanted to do something for this motive not for money. The members take it in turns to buy the coffee and biscuits that we share. In addition, we have a WhatsApp group where I send reminders about upcoming meetings, the title and author of the next month's read, and any other relevant information.
Lastly, in all my 15 years of teaching, I think I have to agree with my local librarian and say this is possibly the most rewarding thing I have done on a professional level. It is so much more than a reading group and I am so proud of the group we have created.
The future: Right back at the beginning, we were planning a trip to Pamplona to visit the Hemmingway route with the idea of doing a book club-themed trip once a year, unfortunately, that never happened but it is something that I would like to reintroduce as an idea. We have also spoken of doing a film night spin-off (if the book has been made into a movie and then discuss the differences.)
Here are some of the books we have read books in order of most recommended to least:
(They are not ranked on what I liked as a story but which ones worked well in an ESL book club - ease to read, length, points to discuss, etc.)
Highly recommended:
Eleanor Oliphant by Gail Honeyman= the overwhelming favourite so far. Easy to read and length just right for a month. The plot and characters gave us much to talk about, it is still referred to now (more than two years later)
A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman = Similar to Eleanor Oliphant in that it led to some very interesting conversations on life topics.
1984 and Animal Farm (read separately) by George Orwell = short and easy, with plenty to discuss.
The horla by Guy De Maupassant = Classic short story, the mystery provided some good discussion points.
The Queen of Hearts by Alexander Pushkin = Another classic short story, the different interpretations of the plot and characters kept us going well past the hour mark.
Good:
Homefire by Kamala Shamsie = a good length and with plenty to talk about.
The time waster letters by Robert Popper - absurd and funny, we spoke about British culture and associations. Created good discussions.
The bone setters Daughter by Amy Tan = this book has two parts so we read it over two months. The two parts worked well in breaking down the reading in a very natural way, it made it easier to have something to talk about in the meeting and then make predictions about what is coming up.
Not recommended!
To whom the bell tolls Ernest Hemmingway = too long
Sea Swept Nora Roberts = Nothing to discuss.
Mother tongue Bill Bryson = Not funny as promised, rather boring
The time traveler's wife Audrey Niffenegger = too long and has been voted the worst book so far.
Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan - Not funny as promised, again not much for discussion
Musicophilia by Oliver Saks - It was a specialised subject that most members didn´t even finish due to its technical nature.
Leave a comment or question below. I would love to hear your recommendations for books.
Ruth
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