Why book clubs are all the rage right now

THERE’S a reason book clubs are popping up everywhere at the moment. There’s nothing like an intelligent conversation with your friends over a glass of wine.

There’s nothing better than getting together with friends to talk about something intelligent (like a book you’ve all read).

AUSTRALIA is in the middle of a reading resurgence and book clubs are booming. They’re everywhere. At your local library, on your fav celebrity’s social media feed, and if you Google ‘book clubs Australia’, seven million results pop up in a matter of seconds.

Even my seven-year-old daughter has started one with her little friends. My mother-in-law belongs to two, and a dear friend conveniently has one on her street.

Recent research from The Australian Research Council and Macquarie University shows that on average, we Aussies spend about five hours a week engrossed in three books a month — that’s more than we read five years ago.

And that’s more than I read — I must fall into the time-poor-and-too-tired booklover category.

So when a girlfriend recently told me that she too was jumping on the bandwagon and starting a book club of her own, I had mixed emotions.

My first thought was wow — aren’t we too young for that? Too fun?

I felt like it was something my mum would do: not 30-something Netflix junkies like us.

My second thought was — would I have time to read a WHOLE BOOK every month? Between three children, work and the exhaustion that normal, everyday life brings, I’d be lucky to read two pages a night before my heavy eyelids drift to a close. Then I realised what a gift this could be.

Imagine reading an entire book, cover to cover, every month. And then, getting to go to a friend’s house to take part in intelligent, adult conversation over a glass of wine and a cracker with cheese, not a child in sight. Could life get any better?

Lisa’s first book club read was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

So I said yes, and with resounding enthusiasm and a newfound hunger to devour books, I was in.

Our first host picked our first read — Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman — as suggested by Reese Witherspoon’s Instagram feed, naturally.

And read I did. The TV was left off and after dinner, when the kids were asleep, I would tuck myself into bed and binge read instead of binge watch — and gosh, it felt good.

I’ve loved to read ever since I was a little girl. You get to shut out the world and enter a new one. I can quickly and easily get lost in a story and when given the rare opportunity of time — on holidays, for example — I can get through a different book every few days.

But even after loving every minute of our first read (thank you, Reese) I was still a little sceptical about our first meeting. Would we even talk about the book? How would it work? It had been a long day, and I’ll admit that when I got in the car and Google Maps told me that with traffic I’d have a 41-minute journey ahead of me, I almost cried.

But I didn’t cry. And luckily, I didn’t cancel. Because my first ever Book Club was … well, it was glorious.

Our clever host, a primary school teacher, had set up a beautiful spread of food and wine, and on her iPad had a list of specific book-related questions for us to discuss. She’d Googled, “book club questions for Eleanor Oliphant”, apparently, as you do.

So after a quick chat and catch up, we got comfy on the couch and delved and dived into the characters, debated the message, questioned the tone, dissected the author’s intent, the book’s purpose — we agreed, we disagreed, we laughed.

What clever women. What smart conversation. What a great way to finish up a pretty monotonous week.

Most of us were in our mid 30s. Some are parents. All busy, hardworking professional women. And we’re not alone. Book clubs are on the rise, my friends.

University of Tasmania researchers Robert Clarke and Nicholas Hookway have been investigating book clubs in Tassie and found that members are typically middle-class women, well-educated, passionate readers who highly valued their time together.

In another study with Maggie Nolan, Dr Clarke investigated how works of fiction were received and what function they had in the public sphere. “What we discovered was the book club provided a space in which the members could raise political, ethical and moral issues around history and white privilege and power that they might feel uncomfortable raising elsewhere,” Dr Clarke said. “The book club seems to be a kind of safe space.

“Readers can express opinions that they may still be forming and testing out.

“We think that is a significant social function.”

I for one, couldn’t be happier that there is a book club resurgence. As one of my fellow members said, it was a bucket list moment for her — as it was for me, too. It brought us together, it rejuvenated us all. It will cement our friendships, and challenge our minds.

I get to read something new, share what I think and enjoy my friends’ company, along with a wine — and it’s fast becoming a favourite time of my month.

I only wish my dear friend — and Reese Witherspoon — had suggested it sooner.

Originally published as Why book clubs are all the rage right now