Starting or joining a book club? Setting book club rules and expectations ahead of time can set your book club up for success and help everything run smoothly when you actually meet. So here are 8 of the best book club rules for successful book club meetings!
1. Read the Book
The first rule of book club is to read the book! This is essential to any good book club meeting. If all the members come prepared having read the book, then you are sure to have a much better discussion time together.
2. Arrive on Time
Another of the book club rules and guidelines that all members should follow is to arrive on time. When all the members do their best to show up on time, they show they value and respect the time set aside for book club.
3. Be Kind and Courteous
Sometimes, discussions can get heated! Which is why being kind and courteous is one of the top book club ground rules for any successful book club.
Treat the other members of your book club with respect and kindness. And if two or members are in a heated discussion or argument that can’t be solved, agree to disagree and move on to other conversation topics!
4. Speak Up and Share Your Thoughts
Whether you’re setting in person or virtual book club rules, speaking up and sharing your thoughts is another important rule to include!
After all, book clubs are mostly based around discussion. So if each member is willing to speak up when they have thoughts then the book club is going to be better for everyone! But it’s also important for book club members to not feel pressure to speak if they don’t have anything to share, so try to find a balance here.
5. Take Turns Sharing
Following up on the previous rule…while it’s great to speak up and share your thoughts, you also want to make sure you aren’t speaking over others! If someone hasn’t had a turn to share yet, be sure to give them the space to share if they would like to rather than continuing to talk and ignoring those who haven’t yet spoken.
6. Bring Questions
Another of the best rules for book clubs that you might want to institute is for each member to bring questions with them to the book club discussion.
While the host of the book club can have general book club questions on hand to help get the discussion started, members are sure to have some of their own questions when reading through the book. Encourage members to write down these questions as they read and bring them with them for a more robust book discussion time!
7. Stay on Topic
If you’re committed to keeping your book club about, well, books…then it’s important to institute a book club rule of staying on topic during discussion time.
When getting together with others, it can be easy for social time and small talk to encroach on discussion time. So consider keeping social time and small talk to before and after the meeting as one of your ground rules for book clubs.
8. Have Fun!
And for the final rule on the book club guidelines, have fun! After all, that’s what reading and book clubs should be. So encourage your book club members to remember that it’s meant to be fun, and by following all the guidelines here they can help make it fun for everyone!