One day at work, I sat with a couple of my coworkers in the breakroom on our lunch break. I’d never sat with them at lunch before, but we quickly found a common denominator topic to spend our whole lunch break talking about: books. We quickly began discussing our favorite books and recommending them to each over. It was quite the interesting exchange. I’ll trade you your sci-fi horror book for this dark mystery-thriller with a side of harrowing romance. And that’s when it hit me: the best way to stimulate reading in your community is to change the lives of people you already know. The people you see on a day-to-day basis.

A lot of the time for a lot of the activities we partake in to encourage reading in our community, we don’t really know if it’s paying off in the end. For example, libraries host many children’s storytime sessions, but once those kids leave the library will they pick up a book on their own? A couple weeks ago I dropped off some books at a Little Free Library. If they were taken, I won’t know what sort of impact those books will have on that person. Maybe they liked them and quote them constantly. Maybe they found those books so boring and didn’t finish reading them. Or maybe the books were never opened at all and are currently collecting dust in the back of the person’s bookshelf.

The best way to share books with your community is to share them with people you already know: friends, family, or loved ones. When you share reading with people you already know, you can get the gratification of knowing their reactions as well. Think about it. Every Sunday on Twitter for the past month, everyone was talking about the new Euphoria episode. It was fun to watch a show as a group and report to Twitter right after to hear everyone’s reactions and join in on the jokes and memes. Reading should be a shared experience too, one I think we often take for granted.

Share the Love

I think my reading peak was probably when I was in middle school. At that time, I was reading a book a day and was so obsessed with reading that I would read during classes too (sorry, Mrs. Hernandez). But what helped fuel my passion for reading was the group of friends I had who all liked reading the same kind of books that I did. I received so many recommendations from them and ultimately we all fueled each other’s reading tank by recommending book after book to each other. Of course, we could never read a book at the same time if there was only one copy of it in the library, so we oftentimes had to read a book one at a time. But once everyone had read a book we all liked, it was so much fun being able to talk about the book with each other and fangirl over the main love interest.

As we entered high school and our schedules got busier, our little book club naturally dissipated. I was still reading some, but I was reading on my own and mostly just fangirled by myself. Ultimately, I think this was the reason I fell out of love with reading for a while (along with the stress of life in general). When I started reading again years later and read a series that made me fall in love with reading all over again, I immediately texted my friend and said, You totally have to read this series!

We recommend things like shows and movies to each other all of the time. Why shouldn’t we do the same thing for books?

Catering to someone’s personal interests typically yields the best outcome. If you tell someone, I read this book and immediately thought of you. I think you’ll really like it, that will mean more to them than if you just said, I read this book so you should read it too. Connecting to them on a personal level will help you convince them to read a book, especially if they haven’t picked up a book in a while. If you know what kind of movies or shows they like, recommend them a book that fits their interests. If you know what kind of books they like, even better. Encouraging someone to read your favorite book is exciting, but make sure you’re recommending a book that they will enjoy too, otherwise it would be a waste of their time and they will probably never read a book you recommend ever again.

What if you want to take it a step forward? Not just share a book you love, but experience a book together? Well, there are actually a couple ways you can do that.

Book Clubs

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the concept of a book club. A book club is a group of people that read a book at the same time and have discussions about the book. But how do you find a book club or start one yourself?

Finding a book club you might enjoy involves a little research. First, you could try your closest public library. Many public libraries have their own book clubs that they house in the library or on their social media, so you can see what kinds of books they read and find out whether they interest you or not. If you’re in Texas, you can check out this list on the Lone Star Literary Life website that lists a bunch of book clubs in the different cities of Texas (there’s not one listed for Seguin, though), including a few online book clubs.

Online book clubs might be your best bet in this time, not only because of the pandemic, but also because it is easier to find your niche reading-family online than it is in person. Pick your favorite genre and look up book clubs for that genre online and choose the right one for you. It’s that easy! Or maybe you want to join a popular book club like Reese Witherspoon’s book club or Between Two Books, a book club made by Florence Welch fans that garnered the artist’s support as well. The thing about online book clubs is that it could be a really fun and interactive experience or it could still feel like a lonesome reading experience depending on the kind of book club you choose. If you want community engagement, make sure that your book club has a platform used for discussions like a social media page or forum. Some book clubs just pick a book to read every month and expect you to read it on your own (which is totally not fun).

Maybe you can’t find a good online book club that fits your tastes: so start your own!

It could be as simple as contacting a group of friends that enjoy reading and picking a book to read together every month. Or you can create your own online book club by using social media sites like Instagram and Facebook and attract readers like you. A popular site that people use for discussions these days is Discord, where you can have audio or chat discussions. The best part about starting your own book club is that you can mold it into your tastes and expectations to create the best reading experience for yourself and your club members. If you really want to start your own book club and need some tips, I recommend this article on Book Riot about How to Start a Book Club that Doesn’t Suck.

What if you don’t have any friends know enough people to start a full book club? Maybe you should start off by doing a buddy read instead!

Buddy Reads

A buddy read has the same format of a book club, but it’s typically only between two people. Because of this, buddy reads tend to be a lot more intimate than a full book club and you can control the discussion a lot more. I’ve seen buddy reads being used a lot on Bookstagram, a term used to describe the book community on Instagram. Finding a book buddy can be as easy as asking a friend if they want to read the same book together. From there, you can organize your buddy read as formal or informal as you want.

I am currently starting a buddy read with a friend and we decided to use the Trello app to organize our buddy read. Having a platform where we can visually track our progress and create lists of our favorite moments and quotes is what appeals to use because we both like organization and structure, and it’s also just fun to “work” on a mini project together by adding to the lists as we go. Some people may just like reading at their own pace and discussing the book once they’ve both finished it, and that’s fine too. The goal is to have fun reading what you enjoy and enjoy how you read with someone else.

The best part about reading buddies is that you can have multiple reading buddies at once (it’s not considered cheating, I promise). You can have one book buddy for romance books and another buddy for thriller novels. This way, you’re enjoying different genres you like with other readers of the genre instead of butting heads with someone who doesn’t want to read a book that you’re really looking forward to reading.

Where To Start

Where do we go from here?

Well, you can start by thinking about what book you really want to read right now. What genre is it? Are people talking about it on social media? Can you find a book club or discussion forum for that book? If not, maybe find a friend (online or IRL) to read it with you.

Reading as a community is the best way to share stories. Group discussions are also a great way to comprehend what you’ve read and gain insight from another reader’s point of view. No matter who you read with, you will always finish a book with a more profound experience than if you read it by yourself. So don’t hesitate to reach out to a friend today and ask them:

“”Do you want to read a book?”‘