Book Club Day UK: Stories you love, people to meet, a day for book clubs.
What is Book Club Day UK?
Book Club Day UK (11 September) is a time to share the joy of being part of a book club, to encourage new clubs to form and to help support existing book clubs so that even more people will discover how book clubs build stronger, more connected communities. To help with the run up to the day, we are pleased to be shining a spotlight on some book clubs to share how they run their clubs.
Meet the club
Tell us a bit about your club
Harborne Book Club started in 2015 as a small group of locals looking for an excuse to read more and spend time together. Since then, it has grown into a welcoming community of readers. We’re united by our love of reading and the joy of discussing them over good company. I took over the running of the book club in 2023 when out previous owner moved on but was a member myself since 2018.
What’s the story behind your club’s name?
Our name isn’t very creative, unfortunately! It simply reflects the place where we meet: Harborne in Birmingham.
Where and how often do you meet?
We meet in person on a monthly basis. We have 10 book club meetings per year and take August and December ‘off’. We meet in our local Slug and Lettuce – a bar. We order drinks and food and so it’s a very relaxed environment.
Our experience
What do your members enjoy most about being in a book club?
Our members love the balance of being introduced to books they wouldn’t have chosen themselves, and the chance to connect with people they might not otherwise have met. Most new members speak of wanting to expand their reading repertoire so we tailor each month to explore a different genre or theme. This can range from something as simple as a ‘thriller’ or be more specific like ‘a book about food’. This means each month is different from the last which keeps our members on their toes! We also love the friendships we’ve made and members regularly meet outside of book club as these friendships have blossomed. We get a lot a new members who have moved to the local area and are looking to make friends.
What book discussions have stood out? Tell us about a book that sparked a heated debate, surprised everyone, or became a group favourite.
We’ve had many favourite over the years but in more recent months, I’d say that we absolutely adored 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak. It was just so poignant and everyone seemed to take a lot of what the book had to teach us about friendships and women in society to heart.
Has your group ever done anything outside of reading together?
Yes! During August and December, we run socials (such as paint and sip events, practical activities such as darts/bowling or visiting local restaurants). We’ve also ran a recent book club retreat where we spent a weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon doing lots of book related activities. We have also recently fundraised for the Edward’s Trust – a local charity, during their summer read-a-thon challenge. We also have a local author who comes to our meetings once per year to talk about her new books (as she’s currently writing a series). Her name is Jo Callaghan and she’s fabulous. Her talk is a highlight of our year!
Does your group use social media, a blog, or a newsletter? If so, how has it helped your club?
Yes, We use Facebook to recommend/vote on each month’s book club read. We also use Instagram as our main way of promoting the book club and sharing news/events.
We have a website too where we update our blog and send out the (occasional!) newsletter as well as some book club merch.
The website has been a great way of capturing new members who search for a book club in the area. We often get enquires directly from the website. The Instagram page is a great way of us interacting not only with members (both current and prospective), but also the local book clubs and groups which is great!
Our book club recommendations
What books would your club recommend to others?
📚 In The Blink of an Eye – Jo Callaghan: We love a local author and we’ve been proud to support Jo on her journey. This was her debut novel based in and around the local area. We loved the AI element to the plot and how it made this police procedural something special
📚 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot – we also love reading about hidden or forgotten histories, especially stories about women and so this book really hit home the injustices suffered by black women during the 1950’s
📚 Butter – Asako Yuzuki: This book was well received even if it was hard hitting at times (with its narrative around women). But also, we loved reading about food!
📚 Cleopatra and Frankenstein – Coco Mellors: We read this in February in lieu of a traditional love story. It was, again, hard hitting and emotive. We quite like reading books with characters that can be rather unlikeable but, if anything, simply demonstrate the human condition
📚 The Space Between Us – Doug Johnstone: A slightly different read for us but one that got us thinking about humanity and how this was interwoven with sci-fi. Just a really likeable book that we wouldn’t have necessarily chosen to read ordinarily
Are there any authors or genres your group keeps returning to?
Jo Callaghan! But otherwise, no. We try to read from a varied and wide range of authors so other than Jo’s books (as we’re reading her series year after year), we’ve never (to my knowledge!) re-read an author….but that’s not to say we won’t. It’s not a rule as such.
Tips & advice
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own book club?
Keep it simple. Don’t overthink the format at first, just gather a few people, pick a book, and go from there. Allow space for everyone to contribute (or just listen), and don’t worry if discussions go off-topic as that’s part of the fun! When I first took over the book club from it’s previous owner, I used to come up with lots of discussion questions as I was worried about lulls in conversation but, honestly, I’ve never really had to use them and so now I just go in with an open mind and let the conversation flow!
How do you choose your books?
We use a voting system via our Facebook group. We decide, as a group, on the genres/themes we want to read for the year ahead. Members then suggest titles for each month’s genre/theme and then we vote based on these suggestions. This keeps things democratic and ensures a wide variety of genres and voices are explored. We did have, this year, a month where we could re-vote for books that didn’t get chosen initially which was fun!
Become a Book Club Rep!
The Book Club Hub team will be creating a group of Book Club Hub Reps of leaders of book clubs across the UK. The Book Club Hub Reps will have the chance to:
• Join a WhatsApp Broadcast Group where we will be sharing opportunities from The Reading Agency and publishers for your book clubs
• Join a Book Club Hub Reps meeting in January 2026 where we will be sharing information about our plans for the Book Club Hub and will also give you the opportunity for you to have your say and help shape the offer
• Join a database of information about book clubs who connect with the website so that we can get in touch with you directly for exclusive offers from publishers (your contact information will never be shared with publishers for this, without your permission)
Sign up to be a Book Club Hub Rep here.
Find out more
Visit our page to hear more about Book Club Day UK and how you can get involved.
Let us know if you would like to have a book club spotlight by emailing Kimberley.Sheehan@readingagency.org.uk.
Share your thoughts with us on Facebook, X and Instagram using #BookClubDayUK.
Keep up with all the latest news by joining our Book Club Hub Bulletin.
