Special Topics - This Is Not Your Grandma's Book Club - or Is It?

The Faces of Book Clubs Have Changed, 
But Their Purposes Remain the Same

Art by Julia Rathman - found in "I'd Rather be Reading - A Library of Art for Book Lovers" compiled by Guinevere de la Mare. Chronicle Books, August 2017.

It would be nearly impossible to define when the first book club took place and what it looked like, but according to Audra Otto (2009), the first loosely defined “book club” was the female discussion group organized by religious renegade, Anne Hutchinson, on a ship headed for Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. They did not read literature, but rather, they examined and discussed the weekly sermons held on the ship.

It was in the mid 1800s that book clubs began to take on the appearance that would become the standard for many years. In 1866, Sarah Atwater Denman started a women’s study group in Quincy, Illinois that came to be known as “Friends in Council” (Otto, 2009). The group met in Denman’s home where they read aloud and discussed literature.  Around the turn of the century, women’s literary societies were thriving. In Greensville, North Carolina, alone, more than a dozen women’s literary clubs were formed between 1899 and 1954 with some clubs still existing today (Thornton, 2017). The first of these groups, the “End of the Century” club, was formed by Sallie Southall Cotton, with the goal of improving the group’s “mental and social culture” (Thornton, 2017).

More than 150 years after the “Friends in Council” first met, book clubs consisting of a small group of women meeting at homes to discuss literature still exist. But they have expanded to much more than that, in volume, format, and demographics. A New York Post article titled “Buzz Words of 2017” indicates that there are now more than 5 million Americans belonging to book clubs that have evolved into dynamic groups that meet in person, in chat rooms, by video chat, or through social media. They consist of different ages, backgrounds, and genders. Some groups read non-fiction, others are fiction and literary-focused. The focus of this paper is to ascertain that while the “look” of the book club has changed; the goal of the book club remains largely the same.

Today's book clubs consist of women and men of all ages, members of the LGBTQ community, various ethnicities, teens, tweens, and children. They meet in person at bookstores, libraries, homes, and coffee shops. They meet online through forums such as GoodReads, or via video chat. Activities in book clubs include meeting for meals (often book theme-related), doing crafts while discussing books, and hosting an author. On occasion, book clubs have been known to travel to destinations that are mentioned in the book they have read. Clearly, contemporary book clubs aren't the tea and cookie book clubs from days of past. 

What hasn't changed much are the purposes for book clubs. Like book clubs from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, members meet for learning/self-improvement, to escape the day-to-day stress and responsibilities of work and family, and to share their love of books. While book clubs of the past felt more of a sense of obligation to their community, contemporary book club members gain more of a sense of community (social aspect) just by being in the book club. Overall, the purposes are very much the same. 

References 

Otto, A. (2009, September 15). The evolution of American book clubs: A timeline. Retrieved February 28, 2018, from https://www.minnpost.com/books/2009/09/evolution-american-book-clubs-timeline

Thornton, M. K. (2017). SECRETS OF Greenville's Book Club Culture: SERVING THE EAST. North Carolina Literary Review, (26), 152-172.