Book club - what works for you?

[nougatcougar]

Hi all, I'm in a book club which is a sub set of a larger general club and for this reason we have to allow any of the wider group to join.
It's a really good club, been going 10+ years and we all really enjoy our monthly meet up. Lots of chat outside book discussions.

Maybe as a result of it working so well, our book club numbers have swelled to 10-12 attendees on average, which is making it a challenge to find a venue where we can discuss, without a lot of background noise. We have been meeting in a quiet restaurant for about 6-12 months which does offer most of what we need, but the size of the group is a challenge. I don't think it's really possible to have a good in depth discussion with 12 or more people. It breaks off into lots of small conversations. We're having a bit of a rethink and my suggestion would be maybe to sit on 2 tables and allocate members at random each time so we don't form cliques and hear different views, maybe with a round the table at the end where each person can share one thing.

Any ideas? Anyone have a large group and any tips to make it work?
Also should add it's very democratic, we share responsibility mostly but some people do take on a bit more because they are good organisers

Our book group is max 9 people, mostly 7/8 attend each time.

We take turns to host at our homes, which can be a bit of a squeeze as we all have small -medium size places.

In summer we're out in the garden, but if you don't want to meet at homes you could meet in a park or pub garden.

In winter use quiet pubs , lots have tucked away areas or separate rooms.

I think anything bigger than about 8 makes a book club too big for a good discussion. We used to meet in a library. We were the noise problem then.

We meet in pubs and find round tables work for us. However, we’re 5-8 people. We find a Monday works best - less noisy.

lol thanks you're all saying no more than 8. I agree but we are compelled to take anyone who wants to join, which is how we've ended up here. 🤷‍♀️
One suggestion was to start second group for new people (then another when that fills up) but we'd have to bump people who've already joined recently, plus it would mean 2x the organisation

Do they all read the book or do some come along without having finished it-or even started it?
If so, could you make it a rule that in order to come along, the book has to have been read from start to finish. It might naturally reduce the numbers.
12 or more in a book group is going to be very, very difficult.

We have a similar situation, OP, and it’s so annoying. The person who set it up keeps telling everyone locally that 'all are welcome to join!' and desperately tries to recruit any new residents. But we meet in each others' homes and most of us just couldn’t accommodate it if everyone turned up! We probably have around 15 members which is far too many already. He can’t seem to understand the issue. Admittedly we’ve never had everyone turning up - thank goodness! - but we’ve definitely had over 10 on more than one occasion. It’s been a very tight squeeze…..