How to Host a Virtual Book Club
Blair H. Lee, M.S.
Book Clubs Are an Excellent Addition to Your Homeschool!
Book clubs are perhaps the perfect mix of the academic and the social. They’re also an excellent way to bring people together virtually. Meeting to discuss a book provides participants a focal point without putting too much pressure on an academic conversation. Virtual book clubs are wonderfully flexible and can be adapted to meet the needs of a particular group with ease.
Got a group of voracious readers? Meet every week! Have a bunch of busy people who struggle to get through a book? Meet once a month! Have casual readers who just want to chat? A book club is perfect! Want to dive deep into every aspect of the text? You can do that, too!
Book clubs are also excellent additions to homeschooling curriculum. They provide the chance to build a habit of reading and set pacing goals to increase your reading speed and fluency. They offer the opportunity to ask questions and hear different perspectives to truly understand difficult texts. Book clubs with themes help to draw connections across different genres and historical periods, helping participants synthesize information — a key research and critical thinking skill.
Finally, book clubs do not need to be the end of the exploration. They can provide a basic framework of books with endless opportunities for expansion and deeper dives. Use a book club as your spine and then go deeper. Craft writing prompts and write essays. Find a partner from the club who wants to explore the same aspect of the book you do and create a project. Journal about your reading experiences to self-reflect on your strategies and approaches. Put on a puppet show. Start a podcast.
I hope I’ve convinced you that book clubs are an excellent addition to your homeschooling practice (whether it’s for kids or adults!). Now, I’d like to share some easy steps for getting started if you want to host a virtual book club of your own.
7 Steps to Creating a Virtual Book Club
Step 1: Choose a Format
Even before you pick books to read, you should decide how you’re going to “meet.” There are a few different ways that you can interact:
- Asynchronously– While you may be reading the book at the same time, you do not have to find a time that works for everyone’s schedule to discuss it. You can share ideas through discussion boards and video posts, letting you interact without having to sync your schedules across time zones and other obligations.
- Synchronously– Even without being physically together, you can still capture the spirit and feel of a face-to-face book club. If you all join a video or voice chat at the same time, you can have real-time discussions.
- Hybrid– You don’t have to pick between the two! A great book club can have both asynchronous and synchronous elements, allowing people who can’t always participate in the live meeting to still take part in the community you’re building. It also allows people who best connect in real time the opportunity to do so. It’s the best of both worlds!
Step 2: Choose a Platform
There are several different platforms to use for a book club. The best bet is to choose a platform where the bulk of the participants are already active. Facebook, Google Drive, Google Classroom, or a Wordpress site are all possibilities for setting up asynchronous interactions.
Zoom is the most popular synchronous platform. Skype or Google Hangouts would also work.
Step 3: Determine Pacing
Now that you know how you will be meeting and what technology or platform you will be using, there is one more step before you start choosing the books themselves. You need to decide how often you will meet (which therefore determines the reading pace).
A weekly book club might make sense for voracious readers going through relatively short works. Monthly book clubs are the most popular and seem fairly easy to manage. There are no rules that say you have to meet that often, though. If reading a book for six weeks or two months keeps everyone’s stress levels down and makes it more fun, go for it!
Step 4: Choose Your Books
You’ve made it to the fun part! It’s time to choose books!
It might be a good idea to poll participants and see what they have in mind. Do they want to read fiction or nonfiction? Are they interested in exploring the classics or diving into new releases? Is there a particular genre of interest? Are there some content goals to connect to a larger homeschooling lesson or discipline?
There are also no rules that say you have to stick with a single genre, format, or length throughout your book club.
Personally, I really enjoy book clubs that operate around a theme for a set of books. When there’s a single topic that can weave together some classic and modern fiction with nonfiction, I leave feeling like there was a really deep and meaningful exploration of multiple perspectives.
A consideration to keep in mind when choosing books is accessibility. It is not always feasible for everyone to purchase new books (especially if you plan to make this an ongoing book club). Check with participants to see what kind of access they have to library services and used books. Keep in mind that services like Hoopla are on-demand while other services may have limits to how many copies of an e-book can be checked out at once.
Step 5: Determine the Organization
Whether you want to appoint a leader or have a more egalitarian approach to your discussions, you will need some kind of order and organization to keep things moving. If you’re meeting asynchronously, how often will you post discussion questions and links? Who will be posting those?
If you’re meeting live, who is guiding the conversation? Will you take turns? Will everyone be expected to speak, or is it okay for some people to sit back and listen?
Some of these guidelines will change as you fall into rhythms and adapt the flow of your particular group, but it’s a good idea to think about them ahead of time. The biggest downfall to a book club (and, really, almost any plan) is having good intentions without concrete follow through. Protect your new idea from that fate by taking the time to map out a framework before you get started.
It’s also tempting to just say “whoever wants to post can post” or “whoever wants to lead can lead,” and that’s great! But don’t rely solely on that. Appoint someone to post a minimum number of discussion questions for each book. Determine someone who will start out as the discussion leader each time — even if they will pass the torch mid-session.
Step 6: Add Some Extras
A book club is pretty low maintenance. If you have some people, a book you all read, and a way to communicate, you did it! Congratulations!
However, you don’t have to stop there. If you’d like to keep your book club interesting, engaging, and creative, you can play around with some other ideas. Here are a few to get you started, but I’m sure you can come up with plenty on your own if you take a little time to think about it. Don’t be afraid to lean on the talents and passions of your particular group!
Idea 1: Participate in Character
One of the best elements of book clubs is that you get a chance to talk about your favorite (or not-so-favorite) characters. Take it a step further and show up in character. Dress up! Respond like your character would!
You can have people choose character assignments ahead of time to make sure everyone is represented or just let people come as they choose and roll with it.
Planning a few discussion questions that are specifically designed for characters to answer can make this activity as educational as it is fun.
Idea 2: Incorporate Writing
Sometimes just showing up to a book club meeting makes it hard for people who need more time to think to fully participate. Using some planned writing prompts lets those who like to choose their words more carefully have time to think through their response before sharing.
It’s important to take the pressure off of these writing activities. They aren’t going to be shown to anyone else, and they aren’t being judged on grammar or spelling. They’re just a way to get your ideas on the page before you choose which parts you want to share with everyone else.
Idea 3: Create Groups Intentionally
Many online meeting platforms allow larger groups to separate into smaller groups for more focused discussion (Zoom’s “breakout rooms” is one popular way to do this). If you have participants fill out some information beforehand about their thoughts on the books, you can pair people based on their particular perspectives and interests. Here are some ways to put people together:
- Shared favorite character
- Shared response about what they would have done in a character’s position
- Shared favorite line
Use the small groups to let those who have this shared interest talk and explore their ideas first, and then bring everyone back together into a large group to have a more robust, conflicting conversation. Often, letting people talk with those who see things the same way first helps them to be more confident and clearer when they’re discussing ideas with those who disagree.
Step 7: Reflect, Revise, and Keep Going
Some of the things you try won’t work out. Some books will be duds. Occasionally everyone will get busy and won’t finish in time for the meeting. Sometimes you’ll try a creative way to interact that will fall flat.
None of that means your book club is a failure. Change up the book list. Try something new. Give an extension when no one has finished and try again in two weeks.
Being able to reflect on what you really hope to get from this experience and being willing to experiment to get it is a recipe for success.
You've Got This!
As you start your virtual book club, remember it’s all about making the experience fun and flexible for everyone involved. Whether you meet weekly or just once a month, in real time or at your own pace, a virtual book club creates a relaxed space for readers to connect and share ideas. Don’t be afraid to get creative and explore new ways to interact! Most importantly, enjoy the journey of discovering books together while building a warm and engaging community—right from the comfort of home.
Book selection feel overwhelming? Have a solid grasp of hosting your own virtual book club but need help choosing an engaging read? Check out this article about living books and how to choose books that excite the imagination and compel you to care about what you are reading!
