I’ll be the first to admit, I’m the worst at in-person book club. Although I did join one last fall, and it was the best while it lasted. I found myself in 2025 with no book club, but really just wanting to read and discuss books with people.
We’re two months in, and I’m in two online book clubs and two different buddy read alongs — and I’m having so much fun! I thought I’d give a couple of ideas for online book clubs, as well as tips to make it successful!
The Nitty Gritty
First, you’ll have to decide how to host. One book I’m in is hosted in Instagram chat. The host posts the reading schedule + discussion questions weekly, and everyone chats and gives their thoughts. It’s also fun because when another reader finds a fun reel that’s related to what we’re reading (The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion) they share it.
In another book club I’m in, we meet weekly via a video call to chat about the scheduled reading. We don’t really have discussion questions, we more just talk about what we’re loving, what we’re confused by, and predictions for where the story is going.
And my buddy reads, we just text thoughts as we’re reading — there is no set schedule we just try to have the book read in 2 – 4 weeks.
The best thing is, you can make an online book club work best for your schedule. Would a weekly (or monthly) call work best? Do that. Would just texting work better? You get to decide!
What do you Read? What about Reading Schedules?
This is something else you get to decide. Do you want to change it up every month, or do you want to pick one author or series and go with it? I’m doing both — and both are enjoyable!
As far as reading schedules, this is something else you get to decide how fast (or slow) you’d like to read a book. Most of the ones I’m in, we’re taking a book a month (which is perfect for me because I’m reading . . . like 5 all at the same time. LOL). While others we’re just reading until we both finish the book and we can chat. For the ones that do have a reading schedule, I enjoy making fun graphics/bookmarks with the reading schedule. I pop over to Pinterest and find vibey art (or character art — don’t know who created this one for Divine Rivals, but I LOVE it). I jump in Canva and make a fun graphic with the reading schedule, print, and that’s what I use as my bookmark for that book.
Hopefully, one day, I’ll find another in-person book club (or finally be able to secure a spot in one of those amazing cool silent book clubs that my husband makes fun of me for wanting to go to — in fairness, his points for making fun of my dream of a silent book club, make complete sense.) But until then, I’m loving online book clubs!
What about you? Do you have an in-person book club? An online book club? If you are looking for a virtual book club, check out the Fable app. There are TONS of virtual book clubs and book discussions on all types of books that you can join in!
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