Book club checklist

Use this checklist to establish and develop
an interesting, enduring book club.

Before you start a book club, answer these questions

☐	What type of members do you hope to attract? Academics? Bibliophiles?

☐	How many members will be allowed? Smaller is better, between 4-8.

☐	Will the club focus on a specific genre, or will there be flexibility?

☐	Where and when will the club meet for the first time?

☐	How many people can the venue accommodate? Will there be a charge to rent the venue?

☐	Are you going to provide refreshments for the first meeting?

☐	How do you plan to invite and attract members to the club?

☐	How are you going to lead the first meeting? (Use this list!)

☐	Are you going to send reminder and thank-you emails before and after meetings?

First meeting points for discussion

☐	Decide how refreshments will be organised for each meeting.

☐	Determine whether membership fees need to be charged to cover the venue rental and refreshment cost, and how they will be collected.

☐	Select a location for meetings, for example, a restaurant, coffee shop, book shop, church hall or someone’s living room.

☐	Determine the frequency and time of meetings. Use Outlook to schedule group activities.

☐	Assign a leader for each meeting.

☐	Assign someone to take notes and manage the reading list. Use OneNote to take notes and share lists with the group.

☐	Discuss how books will be chosen.

☐	Decide on a price limit for each book.

☐	Collect member contact details, including email addresses. Create a contact group in Outlook to make club communications easy.

Options for choosing books

☐	Allow each member to make suggestions, then take a vote.

☐	Search the Internet for book club lists and choose from those.

☐	Search for book reviews, then choose from the best.

☐	Decide on a writer and let members choose books from the writer’s collection.

Questions for kick-starting discussions

☐	Did the book appeal to you? Why or why not?

☐	Why do you think the author choose the title?

☐	What did you think of the character, plot and theme development?

☐	Which parts or aspects of the book didn’t you understand?

☐	Read your favourite passage or quote to the group. Why is it your favourite?

☐	What are the similarities to other books?