How to Start a Women's Book Club

Starting a women's book club will not only allow you to share your love of reading, but it will allow a group of women to discuss great literature and form intimate friendships.

Things You'll Need

• Book lists
• Discussion questions
• Meeting calendar
• Books

Instructions

1. Invite friends and family to join your book club. Make a list of friends who love to read, and invite them to coffee to discuss joining together to form a women's book club. You don't have to limit the members to those who live nearby. Send out an email to long distance friends and see what they think of doing a web discussion as part of a book club.

2. Prepare a list of books. You may be able to compile a list of books off the top of your head that you have been dying to read or have already read. If not, get a little help from other book club websites. Even your library that has lists of great classic and current women's literature.

3. Write out discussion questions. Having some questions prepared about the book to discuss during your book club meetings will make the discussion a little more lively and educational. Many new editions of books have ready-made reading guides in the back. You can find many different guides online at Reading Group Guides, or come up with some pertinent questions of your own.

4. Set a date and time. Look through your calendar and set a recurring date and time for each of your women's book club meetings. Having a monthly meeting will ensure that everyone has had time to read the selected book. If your group is full of fast readers, consider having your meetings every 2 weeks instead. Make a calendar for each of the members marking the days of the meetings.

5. Alternate hosting duties for variety. Assign different books to different members, and they can host the meeting for that book discussion. This will give each member the chance to add some of their discussion questions to the meeting as well as pick the location.

Tips & Warnings

• Having a specific genre for your book club can help you to narrow down the list of books. Consider doing only women's fiction or perhaps autobiographies.

• Check with the bookstores in your town to see if they would be willing to display your book choices each month.

Resources

• Go to readinggroupguides.com for prepared book discussion questions.
• Visit Amazon.com for a wide selection of books for your women's book club.