How to Run an Office Book Club

You found our article on how to run an office book club.

An office book club is where book lovers in a workspace come together to discuss their favorite novels. A book club is a great way to incorporate constant learning in the workspace. This activity aims to foster a great relationship with your employees and improve their work experience and overall organizational culture.

An office book club can be part of team building exercises, relationship building activities, and culture building ideas. For some great workplace reads, check out our lists of motivation books, communication books, and company culture books.

This article includes:

• how to start an office book club
• work book club recommendations
• how to run a book club discussion
• book club agenda ideas
• how to run a great book club at work

Let’s jump right into it.

How to start an office book club

If you are searching for ways to create an excellent work experience for your employees, then creating an office book club is one of the best options. An office book club is one of the best ways to foster personal and interpersonal development among your employees.

Before starting a book club, you want to make sure your employees have adequate information and have shown interest in joining. To make your club a success, focus on the most important steps.

1. Understand the Purpose of the Book Club

To run a successful book club, you should clearly understand its purpose. It is up to you to decide if the book club focuses on leadership training, professional development, or recreation. You may want to create a book club simply because you want to read more and encourage others to join.

Once you have decided what your book club is about, communicate the purpose to interested employees. Creating a flyer highlighting the book club’s purpose, the activities, and what your employees stand to gain from joining is advisable.

2. Select the Right Books

Since you are the boss and book club president, selecting only your favorite books for book club discussions would be easy. However, that approach will not ensure your team’s interest. Selecting books that align with the book club’s purpose is a good idea. Better still, choose general interest books if there is no specific purpose for creating the book club.  If you are still deciding which books to discuss, then ask every member to send a list of books they would like to read, maybe five to ten each.

You can compile all titles and create a survey asking employees which books they want to read. The title with the most votes wins the book of the week. This method is great because it creates a cooperative environment and gives you a rich collection spanning different genres and authors.

3. Set a Suitable Time

After choosing the right books for your first meeting, setting a suitable meeting time is the next step. There is no specific timeframe for hosting an office book club meeting. For example, organizations may decide to host meetings every Wednesday and Friday, each lasting 30 to 50 minutes. Choosing the best time can take time and effort. If your employees agree, then you could set each meeting for 8:30 a.m. when participants are still mentally ready for work. However, to ensure employees finish daily tasks, you may want to set book club meetings an hour before closing.

After choosing a time that works for the whole group, you should be consistent. Consistency retains members and boosts engagement. However, you have to understand that it is an office book club, and only some members may be free to attend at a particular time.

4. Create a Simple Reading Schedule

After a grueling day at work, only a few employees would want to pick up a book to read. However, you can engage your employees by creating a simple reading schedule. To avoid overwhelming book club members, include the number of chapters or pages to read in your schedule.

Although employees could read only one chapter, there would hardly be enough details to discuss during the meeting. For starters, a good idea would be to ask members to read two chapters weekly in preparation for the upcoming meeting.

It is also important to share these schedules a week ahead so all members know the timeline. You could send the schedules to your members’ emails or pin them to the office’s notice board so no one misses them.

5. Keep Each Session Lively

Creating a book club is about more than just reading books. Keeping every session lively and fun fosters connections. One of the best ways to keep your members interested is to create dynamic and engaging conversations around a particular chapter. A useful tip is highlighting controversial points in the book and asking members what they think about them.

You can also ask interesting questions, like what the reader felt when reading the book, the lessons they learned, and their favorite characters. If your book club focuses only on nonfiction or personal development books, then you can ask members to highlight valuable lessons they have learned. You can even make the session more fun by assigning a chapter to each member, so when it is their turn, they can read it out before discussions.

Work book club recommendations

There is a never-ending list of e-books and paperbacks. Choosing which books to read might feel impossible! So here are work book club recommendations by genre.

1. Self-Development

The following are some of the best books in the self-development genre:

• Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
• Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation by Daniel J. Siegel

Here are more professional development books.

2. Business

The following are discussion-worthy books in the business world:

• Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
• Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business by Paul Jarvis
• Getting Things Done: The art of stress-free productivity by David Allen
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
• Creativity Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

Check out more business books.

3. Fiction

Here are some of the best fiction books to include in your book club readings:

• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• The House of Wolves by James Patterson and Mike Lupica
• The Shining by Stephen King
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

There are many different types of fiction, and your group may gravitate towards some more than others. For best results, ask members to name some of their favorite books and choose titles with similar themes.

4. Memoirs

Here are some of the best-selling books in the memoir niche you should add to your reading list:

• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang

These books are some of the best-selling books in their genres and are among the most reviewed reads by many book clubs. If you are not sure what books to read first, then you can rely on these ones for an interesting book club meeting.

How to run a book club discussion

Incorporating a work book club into the office’s activities can be challenging, especially if you have never been a book club president. Discussions are an essential aspect of any book club. It is hard to lose members if you create lively, dynamic discussions. The following are useful tips for running a book club discussion.

1. Start by Reading the Book

You cannot discuss a book you know nothing about. It may seem obvious, but reading the designated book is essential to create an engaging discussion. As the book club president, you may need to finish reading the book early to help you gain a sense of familiarity and prepare valuable points of discussion for your next meeting.

You should note intriguing chapters, page numbers, or excerpts that would make a great discussion topic. Reading the book also helps you craft thought-provoking questions to ask members at the next book meeting. If you do not have enough time to write questions, then many bestsellers have general questions or talking points, so you can focus your discussions on those.

2. Allow Members to Do More of the Talking

It is easy sometimes to forget that a work book club differs from being in the office. The office book club should be a safe space for employees, even if you are the boss. Each meeting aims to discuss the book you have read, so try not to do most of the talking. When you ask questions, allowing the members to answer first is best.

Even if you finished the book before other members, then it is best to act oblivious and ask questions about chapters that you have covered. You can also leave each answer open to comments from participants who choose to support or oppose the idea. Ideally, back-and-forth discussions are more engaging than one participant doing all the talking.

3. Avoid General Questions

One of the best ways to build momentum and engagement during a work book club discussion is to avoid general questions. General questions require either a yes or no answer or a short response. Instead, it would help if you asked questions that lead to thought-provoking conversations.

A trick that works very well is choosing the most controversial excerpts and basing your questions on them. It is also better to ask open-ended questions concerning the book’s theme, character development, and real-life applications.

4. Give Members Time to Answer

Certain individuals like to mull over a question before answering. Be sure to avoid being too eager to move to the next question when an answer is not forthcoming. You want every reader to know their opinion matters, so you should encourage the shy ones to speak up.

As much as you should avoid putting members on the spot, ensure they answer the questions thoroughly. Similarly, you do not want to be the one to answer almost all of the questions if no one has the answers. The aim is to discuss a book, not lecture members.

5. Link Comments to Questions

This process requires using your initiative to make the discussion more interesting. If one reader makes an intriguing comment that aligns with one of the questions, then introduce that question right after the comment. You do not necessarily need to ask your questions in chronological order. By linking comments to questions, you make the discussion flow more freely.

6. Avoid Being Dismissive

One important tip to help you run an effective book club discussion is to avoid being dismissive. Saying, “That does not make sense,” or “You sound ridiculous,” is a huge way to discourage participation. Instead, if a member gives an answer that you disagree with, then dispute it respectfully.

Similarly, it would be best to encourage members to be cordial whenever they disagree with an answer or observation. A work book club should improve employee relationships, so facilitate respectful discussions at all times.

Book club agenda ideas

A book club agenda works like every other meeting agenda. The agenda lists all activities in the order of execution, usually including timestamps. Your agenda should be simple enough to fit into the set meeting time. A book club agenda should typically have five main parts, including the following.

1. Introduction

Here, you welcome new and existing members to the book club. You also introduce the book the group is reading and the section you will discuss.

For example, “Welcome to our second meeting this week. We are reading The Shining by Stephen King, and chapters three and four will be our discussion points.”

2. Summarization

Summarization involves book club members recapping the main events of different sections in the reading selection. To involve group members more fully, you can assign a different participant every meeting to give the summary.

3. Discussion

At this point, ask club members about their reading notes and discuss their topics. Then, you can discuss the predictions from last week’s reading selection and intriguing sections in the new chapters. Finally, you can ease into the questions you have prepared.

4. Prediction

After thoroughly discussing the chapters, the next activity on the agenda should be predicting what will likely happen in the following chapters. Guessing the next chapters’ points builds momentum and makes members eager to read on.

5. Set Reading Goals

The next point on the agenda is setting the next reading goals by selecting the chapters to read. You can create your book club agenda following this format or download online templates.

How to run a great book club at work

If it is your first time heading a book club, then it may initially seem intimidating. You be overwhelmed between conceiving the idea and actually creating the group. However, starting an office book club differs from running one. You have to work hard to ensure its success. We recommend implementing the following tips to ensure you run a great book club at work.

1. Do Not Force Participation

Even though you are the company’s boss, you should avoid forcing any employee to join your book club. Some workers are not interested in books, which is completely fine. Once you start an office book club, send out invitations the whole company. However, ensure that only those genuinely interested become club members.

2. Select Captivating Books

A book club is for reading thought-provoking books that provide the basis for enlightening conversations. You can start by reading bestsellers or highly recommended books on most social media websites. You want a book that attendees would enjoy reading and debating, hence the need for captivating books. Then, members will look forward to every discussion session.

3. Provide Books If Necessary

Since it is your idea to create a book club, you may need to invest in purchasing some of these books for employees. Depending on your audience, you may need e-books or paperbacks. Although some employees may have personal copies, providing books is a great way to encourage participation. It is also a great way to grow the company’s library.

4. Make Meetings Easily Accessible

It is almost impossible to have each member present at every meeting. However, you can include those physically absent via conference call. You could also create audio recordings of the meeting and send them to members. Aim to include the book club members in every session, ensuring a successful book club all year long.

5. Stick To Your Schedule

If you decide to hold book club meme time biweekly, quarterly, or every month, then ensure that you stick to that schedule. When you are inconsistent with the timing of your meeting, it becomes easy for members to lose interest because it shows a lack of seriousness. Aside from sticking to your schedule, we recommend emailing members beforehand to remind them of upcoming meetings.

6. Offer Refreshments

You should not underestimate the power of refreshments. Sometimes, the idea of having extra refreshments can draw workers to the book club. Besides, if you meet just an hour before closing, then you will need to serve light refreshments. By then, most employees may be too tired and hungry to want to attend a meeting. Offering refreshments is convenient and makes your employees feel welcome.

Conclusion

Aside from helping improve the company’s culture, starting an office book club is a great way to foster cooperation and understanding among employees. If you need help forming a proper office book club, then this article is the ultimate guide to establishing one. The book recommendations, agenda ideas, and tips will help ensure the continued success of the book club.

Next, check out our lists of leadership activities, social committee ideas, and community building activities.