WSJ: The New Book Club: Meet Online, but Party in Person

[Anonymous]

Has anyone joined an online turned IRL book club? From the article it sounds like it skews millennial women, but I'm always looking to meet new people. It seems like this might be a different crowd than would try a random library or bookstore book club or wait for a neighbor to organize.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/book-clubs-social-media-community-c856ddfa?st=avd1973jhygj1tp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Women are finding a way to get social media to do what it’s supposed to do. Or at least what I’ve always hoped it would do: help us make new friends.

Like so many of us, my brain has felt increasingly taken over by screens. I’m constantly online for work, covering social-media companies for a living. The time I used to spend reading or meeting new people was too often spent scrolling feeds and streaming TV shows.

I was finally able to break the cycle by joining a book club online. Instead of shopping ads and fake news, many women are finding that online book clubs can be a way to connect to new people in communities they want to be part of in real life.

“We don’t go out as much anymore, I think, just in general as a society. Everything can be dropped off at our door,” says Katie Barney, a 38-year-old nurse practitioner who joined a Chicago-area offshoot for fans of the Instagram account Beach Reads & Bubbly. “This is so much different. We make an effort to meet up.”

While book communities have long been on the internet, they experienced a new surge in recent years, particularly around 2020 when many people were staying at home during pandemic lockdowns. #Bookstagram and its TikTok equivalent #BookTok have spread across the websites, with users posting over 29 million times mentioning #BookTok. Publishers say #BookTok can help launch bestsellers and give bloggers copies of books in exchange for reviews.

It isn’t just TikTok. Romance novelist Abby Jimenez created a Facebook group in 2019 that now has over 24,000 fans. “That has been instrumental in the success of my books,” she says. “These are the people that are the ride-or-dies.”

From online to IRL friends
Many people, especially women, who joined online book clubs are looking to turn those connections into real-life friendships.... (article continues)

[Anonymous]

I'm in an online book club and I'm also in some general FB groups for books. I haven't met anyone in person, but I've considered it. If anyone from the groups posted about visiting my town, I'd totally want to meet up.

I don't have many "IRL" friends who love reading as much as i do.

[Anonymous]

Mine sadly went the other direction. We were mostly neighbors and got together in person before covid. Now half the members moved so we went online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in an online book club and I'm also in some general FB groups for books. I haven't met anyone in person, but I've considered it. If anyone from the groups posted about visiting my town, I'd totally want to meet up.

I don't have many "IRL" friends who love reading as much as i do.

Is this a public club that anyone can join? Any recommendations for groups?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in an online book club and I'm also in some general FB groups for books. I haven't met anyone in person, but I've considered it. If anyone from the groups posted about visiting my town, I'd totally want to meet up.

I don't have many "IRL" friends who love reading as much as i do.

Is this a public club that anyone can join? Any recommendations for groups?

I follow some book accounts on bookstagram and I joined two online groups through that. One person organized a group read of one book that interested me and it became a book club. We read a book each month and have a group chat on a specified day. Another person created a discord for a group read and that became a book club.

There are some groups on goodreads that do a monthly group read. It's in the "community" section of the website. You can search for a genre or even one author and usually find a group for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in an online book club and I'm also in some general FB groups for books. I haven't met anyone in person, but I've considered it. If anyone from the groups posted about visiting my town, I'd totally want to meet up.

I don't have many "IRL" friends who love reading as much as i do.

Is this a public club that anyone can join? Any recommendations for groups?

I follow some book accounts on bookstagram and I joined two online groups through that. One person organized a group read of one book that interested me and it became a book club. We read a book each month and have a group chat on a specified day. Another person created a discord for a group read and that became a book club.

There are some groups on goodreads that do a monthly group read. It's in the "community" section of the website. You can search for a genre or even one author and usually find a group for it.

Thanks! This is all new to me. I will take a look!