Why book clubs are important..

to me and many others!

Photo by John Salvino on Unsplash

Are you a member of a Book Group? I am currently a member of two, one online and one in person, and I am about to start going to one at my local bookshop. I think I might be coming addicted to them, after all they feed my insatiable desire to buy books. After attending a book club meet up last week, (we had read The Household by Stacey Halls, more on that below), I was thinking about why I am enjoying bookclubs so much at the moment (because I haven’t always) and there are two compelling reason. One is linked to why I read and write, it’s for connection. Connection to people, to the past, to other’s experience, it has become one of the most important values for me at this moment in my life. The second is they are helping inform my writing and feel I am learning so much from attending and also when I read for a book group I find myself thinking more about the writing and my reaction to it.

The in-person book group I am a member is a local one, mainly of women who live on my street in suburban South London. I actually started it many years ago but dropped out when it got too large for any meaningful conversation and also motherhood had got in the way of my reading. When I was struggling to find the time or the energy to read, the pressure of getting a book read for a deadline just took away all the enjoyment. I now think that at times like that it is good to have easy reads (that is personal for each individual), novels that don’t take much effort to consume but allow you to escape, maybe by an author you know you love and enjoy their writing. For me it was authors like Marian Keyes or Freya North. I recently came back to Freya North and I have found it lovely how her writing seems to have almost ‘grown up’ with me, less about finding love and more about family, the importance of place, friendship and finding meaning.

The middle of last year I was chatting with one of my neighbours and realised the Book Club I set up was still going, and I was quite proud that I had started something with such lasting impact. It is now with a much more manageable group, and now that I am a voracious reader again I decided to rejoin. The group is all women and all older than me, we are all at a slightly different stages of life. I love sitting and listening to them talk about grandchildren and the different challenges they face. I enjoy their perspectives on the books we read, as we do spend at least half the time discussing the book. As an aspiring author it gives me lots of food for thought, as these women are going to be a potential big chunk of the readership of any book that I write.

For most people, what is so painful about reading is that you read something and you don't have anybody to share it with. In part what the book club opens up is that people can read a book and then have someone else to talk about it with. Then they see that a book can lead to the pleasure of conversation, that the solitary act of reading can actually be a part of the path to communion and community.

Bell Hooks

Did you know Bookclubs have been around since the 1600s? They started as scripture reading circles for women, a place for women to study and discuss scripture, presumably as they were excluded from the spaces that men did this and also these were the first books to be printed. But book clubs really took off in 19th century as a way for women to expand their knowledge, to question and debate issues of the day, before they were allowed a formal education. They were often regarded as harmless by men, dismissed as a place women would come together to gossip and drink tea, completely underestimating their female relatives and companions. But in fact they were often spaces of feminist debate and it is probably no coincidence that the feminist movement was also gaining momentum around this time.

So book groups have had an important role in creating safe places for marginalised groups to gather and connect, first white women but also in the 19th century book groups for black men and women in America were formed, often at great risk in States where slavery was still legal and literacy was punishable. The 20th century has seen the growth of book clubs for LGBTQ+ community, alongside a huge growth in LGBTQ+ literature. There are now book groups for any interest, community, or genre. You only need to go on to Eventbrite to find so many groups, in almost any area, include online. There are also lots here on Substack,

💛 The Shelf Help Club

by Toni Jones and

Emily’s Walking Book Club

to name just a couple.

In Hay on Wye you can find Gay on Wye focusing on LGBTQ+ literature

In recent times modern technology, the Covid pandemic and social media has meant a huge growth in online book clubs, bringing community and connection where there couldn’t be physically because of restrictions or proximity. The late 20th century also saw the rise of the celebrity book clubs. Probably the most famous being Oprah Winfrey’s and more recently Reese Witherspoon’s, even Dua Lipa has a book group now. Here in the UK The Richard and Judy bookclub is still going strong 20 years later even though the pair are no longer regularly on daytime television. Despite their popularity there can still exist some snobbery around bookclubs, apparently a little while ago one very prominent male author expressed concern that one of his books being picked by Oprah’s bookclub, that it might make it seem middlebrow! WTF! Surely you write a book so that is read by people, and as many as possible. Fortunately he got quite a lot of pushback on this view!

Book groups are still in the majority run and attended by women, and approximately 80% of fiction books are bought by women, (men tend to buy more non-fiction). All of the bookclubs I have been a member of have been all women, not by design, men would be welcome it’s just the way they have worked out. Some have been stereo typical in the sense that it was more about the wine and the chat, than the books. I have enjoyed those evenings in the past, but now I am no longer drinking, and reading and writing have become such a big part of my life, I want to be talking more about the books. Not that it being about the books make for a better book club, one book club I left because it destroyed my love of reading, it felt too judgemental. It was a small group and it dominated by one person who only wanted to read literary, more challenging books. I often found the books really dense and slow going, and I am not really one to put a book down very often, so I never got round to reading books that I would have enjoyed. At that time I needed different books, and less challenging environment in which to spend my precious child-free time. I think book clubs can be like friendships, they have a time and place, and it is ok to step away if it isn’t working for you. Plenty more fish in the sea, to borrow an old phrase!

Before I go, I thought I would share a little about the book we discussed at my book group last week, it was The Household by Stacey Halls. The historical fiction novel is set in the mid 1800s, about the establishment of a household for ‘fallen’ women (or should I say girls as many were very young), to give them an education and train them for service in the colonies. It is based around an actual household, the Home for Homeless Women, at Urania Cottage in Shepherds Bush (at that time a semi rural community on the edge of London), set up by Charles Dickens, his friend Angela Burdett-Coutts, and other wealthy patrons. I found it a fascinating and compelling read. Stacey Halls’ writing transports you back in time and creates some wonderful characters. The book group members all rated it a 7 or 8 out of 10, the main criticism being the way the ending felt a little rushed. We all said we would recommend this book, it’s a perfect book club read with lots to discuss and everyone wanted to read more of Stacey’s books, if we hadn’t already.

Are you a member of a book group? If so what are you reading at the moment?