How to Start a Book Club At Work (That Lasts!)

Looking to start a book club at your place of work? You’re in the right place.

I’m currently in two book clubs, and have been a part of the creation of several book clubs over the years; both at and outside of work.

Starting a successful book club that will stay running can be tricky, and a little intimidating. There are a few extra things to keep in mind when you’re starting a book club at work.

I’m going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to start a book club. We’ll go over:

• how to recruit staff members to the book club
• how to go about selecting book(s)
• how to run the meetings
• tips for success

Whether you work for the private or public service sector, or are self-employed – these staff book club starting tips should suit any workplace (and you can make tweaks where needed.)

So, let’s jump in!

How to Start a Book Club at Work in 5 Steps

1. Gage interest

Start spreading the word that you’re interested in starting a staff book club. Casually mention it in the staff room, and get a feeler for if there are other people at work interested in your book club idea.

This helps build some anticipation among coworkers and gives you an idea of how many people you can expect.

2. Put out a formal email invitation to be a part of the staff book club

Now that you know that there are at least a few other people who would be interested in a book club, put out a formal staff email inviting everyone to join. (Don’t worry – it’s very unlikely that everyone will join.)

Most book clubs I’ve been involved with starting had an initial 5-10 people that want to be involved.

Here’s a suggestion on how to word your email to staff about the book club:

“Hi everyone, I’m interested in starting a staff book club and am wondering how many other people are interested. Please reply and let me know if you’re interested in being a part of a staff book club, so I can add you to an email group where we can discuss the details. Once I have everyone who’s interested in the email group, we can decide on next steps. Hit reply and let me know if you’d like to be a part of it – all are welcome! Thanks!”

Once you have a few replies, create an email group chat to talk about the book club separately. This way, other employees don’t have their inboxes full of book club emails when they don’t want to be apart of it.

2. Decide on the logistics for the book club

Once you’ve started a staff email group to discuss the book club, a few things will need to be decided, such as:

• meeting frequency
• where, how and time of day that you’ll meet
• the first book that you’ll all read and how to choose future books

Meeting Frequency

Different book clubs do things differently. In all three book clubs that I’ve been a part of, meetings were monthly.

Depending on where you work, or how busy your coworkers tend to be, monthly is probably the best bet. It’s often enough, without cutting too much into people’s already full plates.

The other alternatives are to meet bi-weekly (chatting about the book up until a certain chapter) and chatting about the rest of it 2 weeks later. Pick the one that works best for you, and your interested members.

Where, how and what time to meet

Amongst your group, you’ll have to decide the best time and place to meet. Some options are:

• alternate hosting at different people’s houses
• staffroom during lunch
• after work in the office or nearby coffee shop
• virtually
• at a bookshop or cafe the evenings, if everyone doesn’t live too far away

If you can decide on a place to meet every time that works for everyone, great. If not, then make a deal to alternative places so that if the plans don’t work for some people one time, it may work next time

Pro Tip: The meeting location can change monthly, but book clubs usually work best when you can decide on the same day and time every month – for example, first Monday of the month at lunch, or last Friday of the month after work. So, I recommend trying to decide on a schedule like that.

4. Decide on the first meeting date

The first meeting date should be decided on before the first book is chosen.

The reason I think that people should know the first meeting date before buying the book is because this way, they don’t fork out the money for the book, only to find out that the meeting is being held on a day that they can’t make it.

So, to prevent that awkwardness, I recommend deciding on what date and time everyone will be meeting before the book is selected.

5. Pick the first book

The fun part is here! Now that you have a group of interested people and know when you’ll be meeting and how often you’ll be meeting, you can decide on the first book.

There are a few ways to go about how to choose the first book:

• Everyone nominates one book, and you hold vote (I’ll explain options for how to facilitate the vote below)
• Just you nominate 5-6 books, and then everyone votes on them
• You simply pick the first book, since you are the one taking the initiative to start the book club (or are appointed to run the book club)

The last option uggested to me when I started my last book club. Everyone actually preferred that I simply choose the first book, because I had been thinking about starting a book club for a while whereas they had no idea what book they wanted to read and just wanted me to pick one.

So, get an idea of what your coworkers prefer in terms of choosing books. If it works out, you can continue deciding on books that way in the following months.

How to Vote on Books

Sometimes book votes can come with some learning curves and be a little tricky, so I’m going to walk you through some tips so it goes as smoothly as possible

The best kinds of book club votes are virtual, because they give everyone a chance to look up each book, read about it, and decide which ones they want to vote for. If you do the vote synchronously, then its harder for people to have that time to reflect.

So I recommend holding a vote virtually somehow. Here are some options:

Facebook

In my personal book clubs, we do book votes via Facebook. You could create a staff book club Facebook group (be sure to make it private) and do book votes there via a poll.

Messenger

It’s also possible to create a poll within a Messenger group chat. I prefer voting for books in a Facebook group, because the poll can get lost in the chat if people are talking a lot.

Online poll via a website

One of the above two options to be the easiest, but you can certainly use a website service to generate a poll for you to vote on. You would then just share the link with each member so they can vote.

Some of the free options are:

• Poll-Maker – super easy! And you can even add a photo with each poll option, which I love. The person creating the poll will need to provide their email address
• Slido (the host who is creating the poll needs to make an account)

Pro Tip: If you do a book vote, require everyone to vote for at least 2 books on the list. This prevents people from only voting for their own if you have everyone nominate one, and it just forces us outside of our comfort zone a bit.

Suggestions for Good Staff Book Club Books

The best kinds of books for a book club (especially if its a workplace book club) are ones that spark a fun discussion and debate

The only kind of book you should avoid for a staff book club is anything that is biased, or that would trigger a religious debate. Reading should be fun, and book clubs (even at work) are mostly a social event.

Here are some suggestions of books that are fun page-turners and promote a good chat. I think these books would work well with any workplace book club:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkin’s Reid. About a former movie star, now in her 90s, with a mysterious past. There’s a mystery as to why she’s chosen a specific interviewer to help her share her story. (I want to add that I’ve read all of TJR books, and anything she writes is great.)

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza. A woman travels to Sicily to uncover the mysterious past about her great-grandmother. This book will make you want to go to Italy.

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McGonaghy. A book about a team of biologists re-introducing wolves into the Scottish Highlands, where they’ve been extinct for hundreds of years. There’s a romance, a murder mystery and some controversy about the wolves.

I use Goodreads to check ratings and reviews for books, and Goodreads also has an excellent list of book club book ideas.

What to Do at Your First Few Meetings of a Work Book Club

The person who selected or nominated the book that was chosen should prepare some questions to guide the discussion. (It’s very easy to find book club questions online – type your book title in with ‘discussion questions’ and ideas will come up.)

Bring food! Munchies pair well with a book club discussion. You could suggest a potluck, but I think its best to not pressure people into bringing food. People will naturally bring treats to share if they want to; I find that most people do. (Be sure to find out and highlight if there are any allergies.)

Try to go around the room to give everyone an opportunity to share if they want to.

Additional Tips for Starting a Book Club at Work

Sometimes your book club will come together easily, and sometimes there will be some growing pains. Here are some tips to make your workplace book club a success

✅ It can take months sometimes to see who the committed members of a book club are going to be. Some people stick with it for a month or two, and then you don’t see them again. Or, you may start with only 2-3 people, and the numbers grow over time.

✅ The best number of people for a book club is less than 10 people. After that, it can be hard to have a group discussion and begins to feel less tight-knit. If you have 20+ people wanting to join, then maybe consider having two book club meeting times.

✅ The invitation to be a part of the staff book club should remain open to the whole staff. Since we’re talking about a workplace book club here (and not a purely social one) then I believe that there is some responsibility to always have the door open to new members. Not doing so could lead to people feeling left out, which you don’t want in a workplace.

We started a book club at my school as a teacher morale booster, and only about 5-10 of us would show up every month, in a staff of almost 50 people. Every few months, the teacher who started the book club would send an email out to staff, reminding them that we had a book club and that invitations were always open if anyone wanted to join us. No one ever did, but it was important to keep that door open so that no one would ever feel left out

✅ If you decide that don’t want the book club to be open to members (for instance, if it gets too large, or you simply just like it how it is after some time) then you could do a few things:

• split the group in two and have 2 meetings for each book
• move the book club off staff and have it just be a social book club. In this case, you would no longer use work as a platform for the book club (no more communication through staff email, having book club meetings at work, or anything involving work.) This prevents others from feeling left out

✅ Voting power should remain with the people who are committed to the book club. It can be frustrating when people participate in the votes, but then never bother to read the books or come to meetings. Often, this won’t happen – but if it does, just have a kind chat with that person. You could also include in the email that people should only vote if they’re serious about actually reading the books.

Starting a Book Club at Work FAQ

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about getting a book club started at work

How to lead a work book club?

Leading a workplace book club can be intimidating. first of all, invite all staff to join, and keep invitations open. Decide on a time and place to meet each month, and have some discussion questions prepared.

How often should a work book club meet?

The best meeting frequency for a work book club is usually about one month. This gives everyone a chance to read the book. It’s frequent but manageable enough for members who have a lot on their plates.

Final Thoughts on Starting a Staff Book Club

Staff book clubs are a great idea. They bring people together, they encourage reading, and they’re a really nice way to socialize with coworkers in a setting that’s relaxed and casual, but still has a little bit of structure.

I was a stressed-out teacher, and found our staff book club to be a great way to destress, connect with some of my teaching colleagues and engage with a hobby. It helps build community at work, and foster good workplace connections.

I hope that some of my tips above will help you grow a staff book club that people enjoy as much as we did on our staff.