Stuck for an offering for your next book club? Here is a how-to guide

Book clubs ... so hot right now.

It’s my turn to choose the next read for book club and, as usual, I’m lost for inspiration. But this time, instead of dashing to the shops to scan bookshelves, or scrolling literary recommendations or, worse, choosing something I’ve already read so I can relax, I thought I’d draw up a guide for the job. Here’s my checklist for choosing the next book.

What is current? Obvious, right, if only because the book needs to be available in the shops. But choosing a hot new book also tells your friends that you are a literary habitue. You are the zeitgeist – you can even spell it.

Is a book challenging but not too difficult? This is a tough call for a club that baulks at weighty tomes. But even novelette lovers have to work a little to make the meet-up worth it. Jojo Moyes is too easy, Percival Everett is challenging enough but none of us ever wants to revisit something like A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (the only fully formed thought in the book is the title).

Is the subject engaging? Sure, a good writer can make the head of a pin sound interesting but we’re not tolerant readers. Pin heads are not interesting. Serial killing isn’t engaging. Child abuse is hard to stomach, harder to discuss. Racism is fraught although we liked Yellowface. War is problematic but we all loved Still Life, admittedly because it was more romantic than shoot-em-up.

Does it employ an interesting style? As readers we should be open to new styles and Sally Rooney doesn’t have that monopoly. A book that comes with instructions how to read it (Hopscotch) might challenge the synapses. A book that blends fantasy and history (Lincoln in the Bardo)? Maybe. That half-formed girl book? No way.

Does it change your world view or, at least, rattle your preconceptions? That’s what books are for – to open yourself to new worlds. That’s why you want to talk about a book with friends. A book that moves you, enlarges you, even enrages you makes you seek out friends to discover how the author did this and whether the book has the same impact on them? When I think of these things, I always come back to Flowers for Algernon.

Does it pop up on a book club book generator. Yes, there is such a thing but don’t be lazy. Besides, your friends won’t be impressed with your outsourcing your responsibility to an algorithm.

Does a book enable you to foist a political position on your friends? Hah, almost had you there. No. No. And no. Book clubs are not the place to campaign for political positions. That would be an abuse of your friends’ trust and a hijacking of their otherwise pleasant evening.

If it’s a political forum, put up a banner to declare it as such. If it’s a gathering of book lovers, respect the occasion.

Right. I’m pretty happy with that list even if I’m no closer to a decision. I’m tossing up between Stone Yard Devotional – local author, on lots of shortlists; Perfection – it’s short and full of Danish furniture, indoor plants and empty lives; or Playground – peak nature writing verging on polemic but, on the plus side, I have already read it.

It’s a weighty decision. It’s sort of like grabbing the restaurant menu and ordering on behalf of everyone. But the guidelines help. In fact, I’m going to share my literary laundry list with my friends. And, obviously, with readers. If I’m feeling cheeky, I might pass it on to a few writers’ festivals.

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