A large group of people pose for a photo holding copies of the same book

How we built a book club community – and how you can too

Want to set up a book club but unsure where to start? From finding your format to preparing in advance, discover how to kickstart your own club and create judgement-free spaces for talking candidly about books

Written by Jess Pancholi, The Candid Book Club

Published August 13, 2025

If you look up The Candid Book Club online today, you’ll find us engaging with our thousands-strong community across social media, posting about our latest events at Waterstones Piccadilly in central London, curating news and views on all things bookish, as well as sharing our honest reviews of what we’re reading. Go back nine years, however, and you’ll find our book club started exactly like yours might, as five book-loving friends on a WhatsApp group.

Linda brought us together. She and Mimi grew up in the same church, and she studied chemistry at university with me and Omma. Tanya is Omma’s sister. We’d all hung out at various points over the years, but when Linda clicked that we all liked to read, the group chat was created, and a book club was born.

Known as bookworms to our family and friends, we’d often get asked for recommendations on what to read. So, we set up an Instagram account to share what we were reading with more people.

The five founding member of The Candid Book Club sitting close together on a bench, with an intricately tiled wall as a backdrop — The five founding members of The Candid Book Club, from left to right: Omma, Linda, Tanya, Mimi and Jess
*© The Candid Book Club*

We wanted to escape into other worlds, learn about new cultures, explore identity and language, and read stories that reflected us and our diversity

Find your niche – and your north star

Whether your chosen community is a big group online or just a handful of friends in real life, the key is that everyone involved is open to each other’s ideas and tastes. Our name, The Candid Book Club, came from our desire to be unfiltered and honest. We weren’t necessarily reading bestsellers or from the prize lists; instead, we wanted to escape into other worlds, learn about new cultures, explore identity and language, and read stories that reflected us and our diversity.

We knew our friends would appreciate our choices and our candour, and that it would be a great niche for us to be in if our Instagram account happened to reach more people. Importantly, all five of us felt a strong desire to encourage more people to pick up a book from time to time, and to bring everyone into a community of judgment-free reading and honest discussions about books. This holds true nine years later, and, particularly for our in-person events, it’s still the north star in everything that we do. The love of reading authentically and sharing the joy with others is the core of our book club, and long may it continue!

Knowing your ‘why’ and what you want your book club to represent is a helpful guiding ethos. Being passionate about the books you choose to share and discuss will radiate through your members and community. Show up for the things you care about, and your people will find you.

Establish a format – and don’t forget food

Our first meetings were mostly just the five of us going out for brunch, because honestly, food makes everything better, doesn’t it? We’ve never followed the traditional format of a book club. Fun fact: our first-ever review on Instagram was of All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a book that I’m certain half of us still haven’t read!

It was rare that we all read the same book at the same time, but that allowed us to share our collections with each other and only made our chats more fun. The more the five of us met up, the more we began to think it’d be great to involve more people, in person. Not only was it something we really wanted to do, but we were also getting requests from our friends, colleagues and online followers to bring the book club offline and into real life.

After many months of talking, we decided it was time for action. We kicked off 2019 with our first-ever in-person book club event, complete with a book swap and some picky bits to eat from the local shop. A month before the event, we started promoting it on Instagram. We set up a mailing list and a sign-up link to get people involved, and we also made sure our friends, family, and colleagues could come along, just in case we needed a friendly crowd to fill the space! We met at Mimi’s London office space after work on a weeknight, and the book we chose was Gail Honeyman’s debut, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

We planned our talking points in advance to help keep the conversation going and decided to sit everyone in a circle to encourage interaction. Little did we know that our attendees wouldn’t need any guidance to be candid and upfront. The turnout was amazing, and we could not believe how many people wanted to talk about reading with us. So, we kept going.

As our amazing community has grown – whether that’s joining our events online or in person – we stick to our vision and guiding principles: being consistent in format and style, preparing in advance, and fostering open participation.

If we hadn’t made that move to just set up the first meeting and see how it went, we would never have grown to be the book club we are today. Don’t be afraid to go for it – you never know where it could take you.

Five women seated on high chairs and with a microphone, discussing a book — In conversation with Poorna Bell at Waterstones Piccadilly
*© The Candid Book Club*

We believe that book clubs should open your mind to new ideas, foster connections and friendships, and most importantly, be about having fun with reading

There will be admin – but it’ll be worth it

Of course, maintaining a book club is never smooth sailing. There are logistical and administrative challenges aplenty. You need to consider locations for hosting your events, juggle multiple members’ work schedules and life responsibilities, and – if you want to build an online following – navigate self-promotion and the often-harsh landscape of social media. As our book club has grown, we’ve constantly had to adapt and learn along the way, whether that was moderating over 150 attendees on a Zoom call or dealing with the demands of a sell-out event.

We know, though, that we wouldn’t change these things for the world, and that all the hard work is worth every second of effort. Through all these challenges, we’ve been so fortunate to have met and supported some incredible, diverse authors, and had so much fun dissecting their characters and plot points. Many members of our community are now firm friends with us and each other, and our lives are richer with the laughter, opinions and books we share.

Once you’ve found your community and format, you’ll never look back. We believe that book clubs should open your mind to new ideas, foster connections and friendships, and most importantly, be about having fun with reading! There’s a place for everyone in the book club world, and we hope you find yours.

Our five most memorable moments, so far

Inaugural Candid Book Club Festival (September 2024)
Our first book festival, at the big Foyles in central London, consisted of five events held throughout the day, making it the largest event we’ve ever organised. It was truly a labour of love, and the attendees brought such a positive and vibrant energy. Our panellists, including Mishal Husain, Etaf Rum, JJ Bola, and Wiz Wharton, all commented on the unique and electric atmosphere in the room. The festival, by design, felt inclusive and welcoming – a celebration that proves reading truly is for everyone. We’re now busy planning our second festival, which will take place on Saturday, 27 September 2025 in London.

Book Club with Elif Shafak at Waterstones Piccadilly (May 2022)
When our book club discussed The Island of Missing Trees with Elif Shafak, it stood out from all our previous events. The atmosphere had an almost ethereal quality as Elif captivated our attendees, who were completely enthralled and hanging onto her every word. Hosting an author of her calibre felt like a dream come true and was truly a bucket list moment for us.

Online Book Club with Kate Elizabeth Russell (April 2021)
It’s always a challenge to recreate the atmosphere of an in-person event in a virtual setting, but Kate Elizabeth Russell’s engaging presence made it possible. Our global online attendees were completely captivated as she discussed her profoundly powerful book, My Dark Vanessa. The event tackled a deeply dark and sensitive topic, requiring careful handling throughout. Despite the challenge, it felt like an important and meaningful conversation to have – one we were proud to navigate thoughtfully.

Book Club with Poorna Bell at Waterstones Piccadilly (May 2023)
Poorna Bell, who has come to feel like a friend since her involvement with our book club, brought immense joy to the discussion of her brilliant debut novel, In Case of Emergency. The book explores themes including being a South Asian unmarried woman, navigating family expectations, and the complexities of friendship and relationships. Her words struck a deep chord with many of us, and it was clear during the conversation that her writing holds a truly special place in our hearts.

Book Club with Kasim Ali at Waterstones Piccadilly (July 2022)
The moment we truly realised how brilliantly the book club format works with authors was during Kasim Ali’s event, discussing his debut novel, Good Intentions. He looked a mix of shocked, delighted, and amazed as participants passionately discussed his characters as if they were real people. It was a powerful reminder of the deep connection readers can form with a story and how engaging and impactful shared discussion can be.