Reading in Community
How many book clubs is too many?
I have always been a reader. I can lose myself in a good story even if it is a book that I’ve read before. I love talking about the books that I love with my friends, family, and students and even strangers/acquaintances who didn’t mean to start that conversation. As a person who has four English degrees I have, of course, been involved in many formal conversations about books that I did not choose, but it is only now that I have decided to become a book club person and true to form I jumped into book clubs with a passion.
Part of this possible over commitment is that I am not certain that I will enjoy the book club experience. What if the group/leader picks books that don’t interest me or, even worse, actively loathe? I admit the January selection for my library’s in-person book club (which will be my first meeting!) did not fill me with confidence. I had read The Color Purple as a graduate student, but so many years have passed that most of what I could remember was all the trauma and struggle. In a world that inflicts trauma on the daily did I want to invite more trauma into my life? And, my second book club worry, do I want to have a conversation about that trauma with a group of strangers? I don’t know these people and I certainly don’t know if they are trustworthy. We have our first meeting on Monday and I cannot even tell you how nervous I am about it.
The good news is that once I actually re-read The Color Purple and acquired the 2026 book list I am not as nervous about being forced to read a book I won’t enjoy. There is only one of the 12 titles that I am not willing to read (I read it long ago and was not a fan) and as it is later in the year then I will be in a position to know if I need to skip that meeting or can enjoy the community without enjoying the book. And as for The Color Purple I just have to say that Alice Walker is a wonderful writer and I loved the book and the characters. Despite the trauma, I did not have to put the book down to recover because I loved Celie and I was rooting for her all the way through. Note: Check out Blue Inspiration for more thoughts plus writing invitations!
The second book club I joined is one I felt much more confidence will be an enjoyable experience. This is an online book club engaged in a slow read (six months!) of The Stand by Stephen King. I’ve read The Stand before (maybe twice?) and I trust the moderators to engage us in interesting conversations so I’m willing to trust that any trauma that this reading introduces into my life will pay off. We’ve just begun this journey and I’ve already got some interesting things to think/write about including the challenge to explore more horror (although to be honest I have flirted around the edges before and am a fan of both Stephen King and Dean Koontz).
As a longtime fan of Pantsuit Politics I was drawn first into the Slow Read book club and then the America250 Book Club by Sarah Stewart Holland. I even recently engaged with the last read of the 2025 book club (Western First Books Club) but I don’t want to go into detail about that here as I have more to say than I can put here. Suffice it to say that I am highly confident about this communal reading experience.
Last, but not least, I have another in-person book club, but this book club I have zero concerns about. My son is a major movie fan and he was very interested in starting up a movie club. Then when I was quizzing Noah and his girlfriend about their reading (past, present, future) to help guide my Icelandic Christmas gift tradition I was inspired to buy the three of us two books (Wuthering Heights and Vineland) so we could read and watch then discuss together. I think this could be a really fun thing for us to do.
Note: I also signed up for Fable in hopes of building my community and tracking my reading in 2026. Stay tuned for more about that. I am also considering the Decades Reading Challenge: 2026 Edition because I think it might be a good source of inspiration for my writing. Finally, my mother and I started up a monthly group at our church called Arts, Crafts, and Conversation which is not a book club but we will share books and talk about books so is book club adjacent!
While seeking to answer my original question (How many book clubs is too many?), I will also discover how I feel about book clubs in general as well as what form/type of book club works best for me. Here’s hoping I love them all! Last, but not least, I will learn just how many books I can juggle at one time. Currently, I have listed seven books on Fable (although I have not yet begun to read Wuthering Heights) and this does not count the two audiobooks I listen to while puttering about at home. I never used to be this kind of reader - usually diving into one book at a time or possibly two - but some time during the pandemic this shifted - especially when I renewed my library card which brought with it two different databases with the complication of holds. Even before multiple book clubs put more books on my to-be-read pile, Sarah Steward Holland introduced me to the idea of texts in conversation and I am finding this to be true in so many ways, but surely there must be a limit!
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