We asked you to tell us about the book clubs you’re in and you really delivered, sharing the joys of reading alongside other people, both in-person and online. Here’s a selection of your best, most heart-warming book club stories
‘I started a book club with eight other women 23 years ago. We have been through it: engagements, weddings, births, divorces, graduations, the deaths of our parents and siblings, moving away, moving back, small mutinies, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, Covid-era Zoom gatherings, reconciliations. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for any one of these women.’
Angela Cummings, Substack
‘Our book club has been going since January 2007. In those 18+ years we have read so many good books and a few not so good books. We have laughed together and cried together. I now see that the book club has become a type of therapy for each of us and that it has enriched each of us. Many of us didn’t know each other at all or very well and now we are all friends – such a gift! Reading books is a delight but sharing that joy with people you love is the best!’
Ann Zogg, Substack
‘I sort of accidentally started a book club three years ago. I told friends online that I was going to re-read one of my favourite books, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, over a year, and would anyone like to join me? I expected maybe half a dozen to be interested in the idea. But the post went viral, and hundreds of people got involved.
By 1 Jan 2023, there were over a thousand of us from all over the world! I had never been part of a book club, and now I was running this enormous international group – it was a forbidding prospect, and exciting!
Our first year was extraordinary. We read a chapter a day and discussed it online. Our reading group became this place of calm, while individual readers faced personal challenges and the outside world felt more turbulent than ever. We had these wonderful connections across continents, with everyone reading the same page and immersed in the story. Towards the end of the year, people shared what the slow reading group had meant to them – it was incredibly moving.
As normally such a solitary reader, I never knew I would get so much satisfaction and fulfilment from reading together. This book club is certainly the best accident I’ve ever had!’
Simon Haisell, Substack
‘I met my fiancé through my book club. He told me he’d read one of my favourite books as a way to impress me – he actually had just googled an online synopsis of it – but I chose to overlook that little white lie because, as I quickly realised, he’s the best person I’ve ever met. And as lifelong book lover, I love that my book club brought us together.’
Leah, Substack
‘We’re 60 readers – parents, nurses, librarians, teachers, care workers, accountants, retirees and more – bound together by stories. We’ve welcomed babies, seen members move towns, and watched quiet coffees bloom into lifelong friendships. People come and go, but what anchors us? The revelation of seeing a story through 60 pairs of eyes.
And Booker novels? They’ve been our companions. We’ve lived inside Bernardine Evaristo’s kaleidoscopic Girl, Woman, Other, argued fiercely over Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, and sat quietly with Damon Galgut’s haunting The Promise. We grappled with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, and Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar. And just this year, we let Yael van der Wouden’s The Safe Keep settle into our bones.
What binds us isn’t just the reading. It’s showing up, month after month, year after year. Turning pages together, we’ve built a quiet kind of family.’
Back Cover, Substack
‘I have been a member of my book club for over 30 years. We were 10 women, now we are nine, and we meet more or less monthly in each other’s houses. Five of us are English, two American, one Canadian and one Slovenian. What we have in common is that we all married Mexicans and moved to Mexico many years ago. We have read a lot of books, nearly all in English and the only problem we have is circling the book between us all in time for the next meeting. It’s not so hard nowadays since the invention of Kindles and online reading, but most of us prefer the real thing.
Our club is about long-lasting friendship, which has held us together for such a long time. Through divorces and death, changes of government, hurricanes and earthquakes, and now aches and pains. And many, many books, including Booker Prize winners and runners-up, of course.’
Rosalind, Substack
‘Hours before Bojo [then British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson] announced we were going into lockdown, we buried my grandfather. At the afters, as we acknowledged that we likely weren’t going to see each other for ages, my aunt, sister, cousin and I decided to start a family book club – Lue Girls Book Club.
Our first read was Pao by Kerry Young in honour of my Jamaican Chinese grandfather, and now we’ve been going for over five years, typically gathering online once a month. We’ve had a few other family members dip in and out, but the core four remain.
One of our favourite things is howling laughing in anticipation of my aunt’s reaction to sex scenes We’ve read diverse books across pretty much all genres, and long may our group continue.’
Natalie Lue, Substack
‘Two friends and I started the “Washington DC Literary Society” Book Club in 1989. We grew to and have remained a steady 12 members till today. From the start it was co-ed and focused on fiction. We meet almost monthly with a book discussion first, and then dinner and lots of wine.
Over the years we have filled four journals with notes, menus, photos and commentary on every book we’ve read. It’s fascinating to see the different hairstyles, houses and clothes that changed over the years and things that were on our minds 20 some years ago.
We’ve celebrated marriages, many babies, mourned the loss of parents and divorce, but we remain devoted to each other and our diverse literary taste. We’ve read nearly 300 books together.’
Susan Koch, Substack
‘I started Cyprus Bookworms Club just after Covid, during the darkest chapter of my life. I was locked at home with an abusive partner, raising my son in silence and fear; and the only escape I had was through the pages of books. When I finally broke free and rebuilt myself, I gathered the courage to post an open invitation on social media: “If you love books, come read with me by the sea.” 12 people showed up. Six of them are still part of our circle today.
Two years later, we’re 240 members strong across three cities in Cyprus. We cry together, laugh loudly, and grow wiser with each story. Books saved my life; and now, through them, I get to witness lifesaving others too, connecting them through friendships, relationships and business ventures.’
Marianna Charalampous, Substack
‘Started an online book club during Covid. We hosted a readathon every Saturday. Used to stay up all hours of the night so we could talk to people around the world. It was incredible, met some of the most amazing people! Three of us ended up bridesmaids at a wedding of one of the gals, one bridesmaid even had to be flown over from Texas to Wales.’
Kira L Curtis, Substack
‘In our literary bubble, we might disagree on author’s style, purpose, point-of-view, but we all share values which have allowed us to remain fast friends through many changes. We also share the commitment to read and discuss.
We always read the Nobel Prize winner, the Pulitzer, and the Booker. We’ve added the International Booker. In the summer, we read a play and a classic, and for our winter celebration, we select a poet for an evening of verse. We often wonder aloud if we would have read so many amazing books without doing it together. And we know we are each better readers for having this rich life together.’
Lynne, Substack
‘I am a member of the Ukrainian Finnegans Wake book club. We came together to tackle what might be the most fascinating book ever written while raising money for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Most of our members are Ukrainian but we have also attracted international readers as well as expat Ukrainians like me. Our discussions are often accompanied but never cancelled by the Russian bombardments of residential areas in Ukraine. Sometimes the candles come out.
We read the Wake three pages at a time and are barely scratching the surface of all the language games, allusions, mythologies and politics. In the process, we are learning Irish folk songs, Australian military jargon, heraldry, Kabbalah, and information theory. The club is an oasis of learning, creativity, humour and camaraderie in a chaotic world.’
Igor b, Substack
‘Brixton Book Group has its 20th anniversary this year. We meet in the pub monthly. We had a long-standing ban on Dan Brown books, but this was temporarily lifted in 2023 so we could read The Da Vinci Code on its 20th birthday. This led to a treasure hunt being set up around the pub so we could all be cluematicians and solve puzzles at least as difficult as the ones Robert Langdon has to solve in this silliest of all books. Please note that in usual times booker winners are more our thing, our most recent meeting was to discuss Disgrace.’
Alison Sakai, Substack
‘My friend and I started a book club in 2001. 24 years later we are still reading and meeting once every two months instead of monthly, as some of us have moved out of London. There are eight of us and we’ve only lost two members over the years. We are all women. Some of our partners set up an album club in competition and I was in both for a few years.
We have produced six children, lost a husband, and sadly quite a few elderly parents, and supported each other through various health crises. The kids are friends too. It’s been great to have the kindness and strong connection of friends through difficult times. Sometimes the books take second place, but we are still discovering great reads and won’t be stopping anytime soon!’
Lesley Davis, Substack
‘I run a monthly book club in Wales, I choose the books from a list provided by the library, and we have nine members.
They have been part of the group for nearly 20 years, and I only joined after COVID so I have to be careful not to order books they have already read and try to choose Booker whenever possible.
I am often surprised at their take on books and the detail they notice. Yesterday we discussed The Bee Sting and two of the group said they felt totally bereft when they finished the book. Two are still to finish it and we agreed to return to the discussion next month. That is the sort of commitment which many book clubs would be envious of.
Yesterday was special – one member had just recovered from pneumonia, one from a hip replacement after a fall, one determined to drive although she had just had a fall on a walking trip and one just back from holiday in Sicily (where she adopts a different name and persona!) – all in their 80s and we had a delightful Italian lunch afterwards.
I learn so much from their insights and feel privileged to lead this reading group!’
Mary King, The Booker Prize Book Club, Facebook
‘The only book club that I have been a part of is this [The Booker Prize Book Club]. And I honestly feel that I have found my terra firma and life is so much more beautiful. I have been a Booker tragic since Arundhati Roy’s win in 1997. I have diligently followed the prize and tried to read as many Booker books as I could. However, there weren’t many around that shared the same enthusiasm and I ended up being a bit of a “lone ranger”. However, I thank my stars when I accidentally stumbled upon this group and l have found my happy place. This is one of those rare spaces where members are respectful and tolerant of differing opinions. And I am so grateful that I have found this group.’
Ajay Naidu, The Booker Prize Book Club, Facebook
