On Book Clubs

You ought to get involved in a book club or two along the way. Book clubs build two kinds of relationships. First, conversation about a book will help you to know other group members better through the intellectual interactions. Second, through that conversation with the other group members you will actually get to know the author and the author’s material better.

A book club will help you to read books properly. Mortimer Adler in his book, How to Read a Book, teaches that there is more to reading a book than reading it, much more. Reading, really reading a book, is a very intentional, multi-step process. It is the kind of process that book clubs generally follow.

Your participation in a book club will discipline you to READ books:

• Search out the general direction of the book, author, background, historical situation.
• Read the book. Mark it up liberally—if you own the copy.
• Skim back through it for points worthy of discussion, clarification or criticism.
• Discuss it with others. (This is the book club event.)
• Reflect on its salient points one more time.

There are different kinds of “book clubs.”

Eclectic: Choose friends from various walks of life. For two decades I have been the weaker partner in a group that includes a symphony conductor, a book publisher, a corporate attorney, a hospital president and a lead research scientist. (An architect had to leave the group for a job change. Zoom technology during COVID brought him back.) Together we have read through a shelf full of books—most of which I never would have chosen on my own. Reading books with people who think and believe differently than you do will challenge and enrich.

Collegial: Choose people from your general area of occupation. For even more years than the above group I have been meeting with a group of brother pastors with whom I attended college. Annually we select a book germane to our calling, read it in advance and then discuss it over a period of three days. There might be a little golf and goofing around in there.

Study: One of the Bible studies at church has really developed into a book club. Often we read a chapter a week in a book that intersects with the Christian faith and get together to discuss it. Appropriate Bible passages are always brought to bear. Discussion seems to flow freer than if we simply read chapters of the Bible. A neutral book frees participants to express divergent opinions. This promotes good discussion without creating heretics.

Ad Hoc: This kind of “club” is created by simply passing a good book on to someone else and saying, “You might like this. Let me know what you think.” Be careful with this kind of group. That knife can cut both ways and create a huge stack of unread books on your own desk.

Cliff Note: I have never been in this kind of a club, but I have often thought it would be a good group to start. Each participant would read a different book and write a one page “executive summary.” The group would then gather and discuss the various summaries. This way you would be exposed to more books without having to read them. Ecclesiastes 12:13 reminds us, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” A Cliff Note club would help to lighten the burden and still broaden the horizon.

Remember, readers are leaders and leaders are readers. Reading books in the context of community will amplify the benefit of your reading and help you on the path toward significance.