Setting up a book club at work

[biddyboo]

I've been tasked with setting up a book club at work. My department is quite big and it's made up of lots of mini teams. The idea is that more social clubs, such as this potential book club, would help us to get to know those on the wider team better.

Does anyone have any experience of running or participating in a book club at work? If so how do you run it? I would be looking at doing it on MS Teams or Yammer (or both). How do I get started? This is all very new to me. Thanks!

It's quite straightforward- email everyone about this and ask that people who are interested in joining to reply.
Once you have a few people who are keen, set up the first meeting! You could suggest a book to keep it simple and just get it started. We do our work boom group via Teams, 1 hour, once a month. A week before the next meeting, the organisers ask for suggestions for the next book (you can have themes, or not!), those are then presented at the meeting after we finish talking about the book. Either you vote for the next book at the meeting, or afterwards (we do it via email voting).
Our IT team have set up an email list for the book group members.
Our work book group has been running for years now, it's lovely. Good luck!

Thanks! That's really helpful. It's nice to hear you have a sucessful book club at your work.

I guess I'm just worried about the logistics of it as there are about 80 people in the department and I've no idea how many will be interested in joining. And I think when I set up a meeting I inevitably will get people saying that time won't suit them, but I think it will be difficult to find a slot that suits everyone.

I think I will just have to ask for some initial thoughts and go from there.

I did it, but before Covid and the adoption of Teams, when virtual meetings weren’t an option.

We used to meet monthly, and drew up our reading list a few months ahead, as some members got their books from swap websites, which sometimes took time.

To get started, I suggest you pick a book and a date (first Wednesday of the month, or whatever). Otherwise, you’ll go round in circles, simply to agree when to meet! Feel free to PM me.

If it was me personally I would send an email and pick mentioned meeting details and the first meeting just to take about books and see where everyone wants it to head

I find 'now we have to read this book this month' ok sometimes but the older I get I love talking about books in general more, but at your workplace the set book thing might work

I loved my bookcrossing meetings I went before

Thanks. That is a good point about needing to give people enough notice so they can get their hands on a copy of the book.

I was thinking about suggesting every 6 weeks for meeting (because of how busy everyone's workloads are) but every 4 weeks seems to be more standard. I might send a form with a poll asking how often it should be.

The advantage of a monthly meeting, I think, is that it helps fix the date in people’s minds and they’re more likely to remember to keep that time free.

The other thing I learnt (assuming you’re going to discuss a book at each meeting) is to take it in turns to pick the book. I’ve been in other groups where the book was chosen by general acclamation, but that meant some people always vetoed others’ choices and insisted on their own, which was annoying.

I like just having a general chat about books too. I think I will see how the group dynamic is and then decide whether we could take that approach or whether a more structured one will be better.

I think a monthly meeting will be best, rather than leaving it longer than this. I guess I am feeling conscious of everyone being really busy, but the reason this was suggested in the first place was to promote wellbeing and to try and bring the team together when we are all working remotely. So, with that in mind, I'll try not to feel guilty about suggesting an hour a month : )

Sounds good to me!

Every workplace and every book group is different, but our group valued the social aspect as much as the books, so the consensus was it was better to meet monthly, even if some people couldn’t make it, than to hang on longer in the hope that everyone could attend.

Good luck!

The best book group I went to, spent the first 45 or so minutes discussing the book, and then the final 15 talking generally about books and if we had read anything we liked recently. It was wonderful!

Most meetings, not just book groups, are monthly e.g. the first Tuesday of the month, the third Thursday etc. Pick your slot and stick to it or you will get clashes and therefore people dropping out.
You don't want all 80 people on the zoom call! I think any more than a dozen people gets difficult because, by the time the Chair has done the intro and the ending sign-off, each person only gets about 4 minutes to say their piece. You could do specialist sub-groups e.g. detective / murder mystery, biographies.

I second the idea of giving plenty of notice. If a book is a current bestseller then it usually has a long reservation list at the Library.

If people do random chat about books they have read then don't you get into the problem of spoilers? I used to belong to a group that did similar and, as a person who struggled to read one book a month, I found others reeling off the numerous books that they had read in the same period was quite off-putting.

For us we also added a page limit for recommendations to the book vote as well, as some books were a bit much to read in a month alongside other commitments.

We meet once a month. Maybe have it a set day, ie, first Monday of each month.

We’re a small bookclub so tend to all suggest books and, look at Amazon for reviews, and have a general consensus. However, maybe suggest a few in advance - thriller, classic, modern, etc. if you look online, you can usually find suggestions of books. You can also find questions for books.

Forgot to say, we don’t all read books, some read kindles and others listen in audible.

Just a thought...

A lot of libraries have sets of books for reading groups, and this can be really useful. It saves everyone scrabbling around trying to find the books, either new or second-hand. You'd have to nominate someone to register the group, get a library card for the group, and then order the books from the library and collect them. (I'm thinking you all work in one place, but maybe not?). The books are issued for longer than usual, six weeks or something like that. The library might charge a small admin fee for the service but that would work out cheaper than everyone buying a book every month. Also, the library has a list of these book titles so you'd get ideas of some books to read. If anyone uses a Kobo they can download books from the libraries (using Libby) if they don't want a physical copy.