15 Best Online Book Clubs
Book clubs are very essential because they foster a love of reading and encourage social interaction helping members to also build a community. Book clubs also broaden perspectives, and provide a platform for intellectual discussion. This makes them valuable for individuals and communities alike. Whether online or physical book clubs, it is a known fact that you can be made to develop a passion for reading just because you belong to any of such clubs.
Though in-person book clubs are the traditional ways known for years in the society, online book clubs have sprouted up across the globe, breaking physical barriers and crossing international borders to bring like-minded bookworms – and your favorite authors – into your living room. The online book clubs have the advantage of breaking the physical barriers to connect you across the world to diverse multi-cultural membership base and a whole lot of virtual books you would never have had the opportunity to read. Here are fifteen of the best online book clubs you can join and have fun.
Celebrity Book Clubs
1. Reese’s Book Club
Reese Witherspoon Book Club is one of the biggest online book clubs you can come across. Each month, Witherspoon (who has turned many of her books into big screen hits) picks two current, joyful, and thought-provoking books with female leads – one for adults and one for YA readers – and shares them through Reese’s Book Club. This book club has a membership base of over 2 million book lovers and you can follow the club on Instagram and Facebook by downloading the app, or subscribing to the newsletter for some sunshine in your inbox.
The huge following which Reese Witherspoon Book Club has facilitates exciting virtual conversations and several authors flock to the virtual book clubs feed to talk about their books and answer all your burning questions. This is really an intriguing virtual book club to join.
2. Between Two Books
Between Two Books was established in 2012 by Florence Welch fans. Florence Welch is an English singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the indie rock band Florence and the Machine. The singer immediately gave her full support to the book club idea, further recommending her favorite titles and reeling in big-name bookworms to share theirs, too. Now, this book club is a vibrant online community with a beautiful aesthetic and over 130k members. The book club has strong social media presence especially on Instagram where you can see book recommendations, discussions prompts, video readings, and, most importantly, to get to know what this online book club is currently reading. The community is always vibrant and worth your time.
3. Belletrist
Belletrist was established by two best friends, Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss, who were sharing their love of reading by exchanging books by snail mail and writing little notes inside. With time they started an online book club of like-minded subscribers, who celebrate a new book – and cool indie bookstore – every month. Authors and influencers always share their current reads in their weekly newsletter where you find the Belletrist Brief. They use their Instagram platform to host live author interviews, a weekly installment of what they call ‘the MTV cribs of bookshelves’, and recipes from the latest and greatest cookbooks. This book clubs is primarily a community of friends who share interesting books among themselves.
4. Read with Jenna
Read with Jenna was established in 2019 when Jenna herself decided to transform her love of reading into a book club – the Read with Jenna book club. The book club’s monthly picks have ranged in author and genre, but Jenna knows her taste well. This book club’s social media presence is strong with an instagram account has huge following.
Local Book Clubs
5. Poppy Loves Book Club
Poppy Loves Book Club is a women-only club which gives you intimacy of a local group and serves as an umbrella community which joins together hundreds of local book clubs from all corners of the world. The book club is run by Eva of Poppy Loves London.
The interesting thing about this book club is that you can just take part online – and enjoy the aesthetics of the Instagram page – or you can join (or even start) a club near you. Also, you can pick up the Poppy Loves Book Club monthly pick, and know that women all over the world are reading along with you. Then, at the end of each month, Eva’s book-lovers come together (usually with the author) to share their thoughts – and their love of reading. Interesting dialogues also take place among members making this an intriguing club to join.
6. Silent Book Club
Silent Book Club was established in 2012 by a couple of friends who liked to read in cordial silence. This virtual book club primarily provides a platform where members enjoying book, company, and beverages. It now has over 240 “chapters” (that’s a group) who gather across 30+ countries to read together in silence.
Silent Book Club which is seen as both good for introverts and people who socialize because much as you sit quietly and read your book with a glass of drink you’re also permitted to sit with a book and a friend in a cafe and chat about what you’re reading. They have an amazing website you can checkout to find online meet-ups hosted from the US, Canada, South Korea, Germany and beyond. The concept of “reading in silence” is a nouvelle and amazing idea. You should try joining this club.
Subscription Book Clubs
7. Book of the Month
Book of the Month is a platform where you meet excited book lovers who have great taste and search through hundreds of new releases every month to find the five best books hitting the shelves. There primary interest is finding the best new reads, that is, early releases, fresh perspectives, and debut authors. Then, for $14.99, you can pick your favourite and it’ll be delivered to your door in a bright blue box for you to read and review.
When books are selected by Book of the Month they become sought-after by thousands of readers across the world. This has led the club to also design a hub to make online book-clubbing easier. This means you can just create your club, invite your crew, and schedule the call on your club page. Then Book of the Month will make sure everyone has a copy of your chosen book and a reminder in their calendar. What an impressive way to encourage book-reading culture among book enthusiasts.
8. Rebel Book Club
Rebel Book Club encourages members to rekindle their passion for non-fiction books, leading to a richer and different perspective of the world. One interesting feature about this club is that after a vote, all members will read the same book with weekly nudges by email to keep you on track. You have to be a member (starting at £10 a month) to be able to vote on the group’s monthly picks and join regular meet-ups.
You can join the online community and make local and global connections where you join others to discuss the book, life and everything in between. There’s also two remote meetups a month, one focusing on the book and the other featuring special guests, breakout sessions, games and member chat roulette. Rebel Book Club will also match you with members who share your interests or location and coach you through each book to keep your reading on track and improve your habit.
9. Beth’s Book Club
Beth’s Book Club is a women-only book club where place where thousands of women from all over the world read together and share great books. The club engages members in discussions about best book of the month including Q&As with authors, workshops, online socials, yoga, and a chance to indulge in some self-care – all for £6.99 a month. This online book club provides an a platform of engaged community where you experience friendships, great chat, and plenty of book recommendations that will always excite you.
Online Book Clubs
10. Ladies’ Lit Squad
Ladies’ Lit Squad is an all-female collective of book lovers from the world of fashion, art and media which primary aim is to ignite the passion for reading among members. It was founded by writer and blogger Sheree Milli and has since grown with over 7,000 members worldwide.
One remarkable thing this book club did in 2021 was to invite readers to join their “21 books in ‘21 challenge”. This was a monthly challenge where Ladies Lit Squad provided reading prompts and suggestions to help you broaden people’s reading repertoire, and make it through 21 great books in 2021. The books on their reading list feature different genres, but are all written by women or authors of color. You can easily get a recommended title from their bookshop.org page. This book club will keep you motivated to read always.
11. Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club
This is one of the biggest virtual reading communities you can find today. This group is only for the reading of books that have won the Goodreads Choice Awards. Members read the Goodreads Choice Awards winning books throughout the year. If you just want really solid book recommendations, then check out the Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club. The club works its way through top-rated titles from the site’s readers’ choice awards and uses group discussion boards to chat about their thoughts. This is another amazing club to join.
12. New York Public Library & WNYC’s Virtual Book Club
The New York Public Library teamed up with US radio station WNYC to launch its online book club which has been growing since April 2020 when it the merger took place. You can read all the chosen books for this virtual book club for free through NYPL’s e-reader app, which makes it easy to read any eBook in your library’s collection.
13. Lez Book Club
Lez Book Club was established in 2017 by Eleanore Pratoussy and since then members have been meeting in London pubs to provide a space for queer women to come together and share LGBT books. But the pivot to virtual book clubs has given the founder the opportunity to remove all physical boundaries from the group and open up this community of book lovers to queer and trans women, and nonbinary people, all around the world. Members of Lez Book Club have virtual meetings every month. You can check the group’s Instagram for further information about this book club.
14. OKHA
OKHA, is a digital platform which was born from a desire to see more queer Black stories and stories by authors of Black ancestry. This is a queer + Black book club, is housed on PRIM (a space for Black existence, showcasing the varying mediums used for storytelling). The primary focus of the club is on making African, Caribbean, and Afro-Latinx writing readily available. You can checkout PRIM for every relevant information from an author’s catalogue and written stories to video readings, films, documentaries, narrative podcasts and more. If you wish to read along with the OKHA book club then head to the Instagram page, where you’ll find the monthly book pick and all the details for OKHA online. These events happen on the last Friday of every month. This is a space for people of Black ancestry to laugh, learn, and celebrate Black writing alongside incredible speakers, artists, and authors.
15. Our Shared Shelf
Our Shared Shelf is another vibrant book club which was founded in 2016 by actor Emma Watson as part of her work with UN women. Emma selected a book with feminist themes every two months for discussion. She ended the formal book club in January 2020 and requested its Facebook and GoodReads community members to continue to share recommendations with each other. Her book picks focus on books and essays about equality and her group is a place for education and empowerment as much as an overall love of reading. This community continues to thrive on Goodreads, as well as Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #oursharedshelf. On these platforms you will find book-lovers and feminists always discussing and recommending excellent titles. This is a lively community worth your membership.
