# Good book club books, and how to choose the next one

> Your club meets next month and nobody can agree on what to read. What makes a book good to talk about, four fair ways to choose, and where to find ideas and copies without everyone paying full price.

Updated 29 October 2026. Source: https://timetoread.now/book-club-books/

**The short answer.** A good book club book is **one people disagree about**: a character whose choices divide the room, an ending that can be read two ways, or a narrator you are not sure you trust. It is also one everyone can get hold of and finish, so aim for under four hundred pages and a paperback or a library set. Let members put forward a book with one sentence on why, then vote or take turns. Ideas come from publishers' book club pages, Book Club Hub, your library and your own members' shelves.

## What makes a book good to talk about

The best book club books are not always the best books. A novel everyone adored often makes for a short evening: you agree it was wonderful, and then the conversation turns to holidays. A book that splits the room keeps people talking for two hours. When you are choosing, look for at least one of these.

- **A choice you can argue about.** A character who does something half of you would never do, and the book does not tell you who is right.
- **A narrator you are not sure about.** Someone telling their own story who may be leaving things out.
- **An open question.** An ending that can be read two ways, or a mystery the book never quite solves.
- **A world some of you know and others do not.** A place, a job, a period of history. The member who grew up there will have things to say.

> A book everyone loved makes a short evening. A book that splits the room makes a long one.

## The practical test: can everyone get it, and will they finish?

A brilliant choice nobody finishes is a bad choice. Before the club commits, check three things.

1. **Length.** Under four hundred pages for a club that meets every four to six weeks. Longer books can work if everyone agrees in advance, or if you split them over two meetings.
2. **Availability.** Is it out in paperback? Can it be borrowed? A new hardback at full price is a lot to ask of every member every month. An e-book or audiobook should count as reading it, too.
3. **Content.** If the book deals with something some members may find hard (violence, abuse, the death of a child), say so when you suggest it. That is not spoiling anything; it is letting people decide.

## Four fair ways for a club to choose

How a club chooses matters as much as what it chooses. A club where the same person always picks tends to lose the others. Agree on one of these and stick to it.

- **Take turns.** Each member chooses once, in a fixed order. Simple, and everyone gets to share a book they love. The catch: you will read a few you would never have chosen, which is also the point.
- **Shortlist and vote.** Whoever's turn it is brings three books, and the club votes. Fairer, and the chooser does not carry the whole blame if it falls flat.
- **Themes.** The club agrees a theme for the season (books in translation, debut novels, one country) and members suggest titles within it.
- **The host decides.** Works for clubs run by a library, a bookshop or one keen organiser, as long as the host listens.

Whatever the method, ask everyone who suggests a book to say in one sentence why the club should read it. ‘It is everywhere at the moment’ is a weaker sentence than ‘I could not decide whether I liked the main character, and I want to hear what you think.’

## Where to find book club ideas in the UK

- **Publishers' book club pages.** [Penguin's book club page](https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/book-clubs) has reading lists and discussion questions, and [Pan Macmillan](https://www.panmacmillan.com/national-year-of-reading-monthly-book-picks) publishes monthly picks with downloadable reading group questions. They are publishers recommending their own books, which is worth remembering, but the questions save a lot of work.
- **Book Club Hub.** The Reading Agency's [resources page](https://bookclubhub.co.uk/resources) shares material on new releases, including book club questions.
- **Your library.** If your library lends reading group sets, its list of available sets is a ready-made menu, and every title on it is one you can get ten copies of.
- **Prize lists.** The Booker, the Women's Prize and the many genre prizes publish their shortlists every year. A shortlist is a good source because the books are new, discussed and argued over.
- **Your members' shelves.** Ask everyone to bring the last book they could not put down. You will have a year's worth of suggestions in one evening.

Penguin, Pan Macmillan and Book Club Hub were checked on their own websites on 29 October 2026.

## A few kinds of book that tend to work, with examples

These are our own general suggestions, the kind any bookseller might make. They are not a ranking and nobody voted on them. Each shows a type of book that tends to get a club talking.

- **A short book with a hard choice in it.** Claire Keegan's *Small Things Like These*, about a coal merchant in a small Irish town in 1985, is short enough for everyone to finish and asks what a decent person owes his neighbours.
- **A narrator who may not be telling you everything.** Kazuo Ishiguro's *The Remains of the Day*, in which an English butler looks back on his years of service, is the classic example.
- **A memoir that divides people.** Tara Westover's *Educated* tends to start arguments about family, loyalty and memory.
- **A crime novel with warmth.** Richard Osman's *The Thursday Murder Club*, set in a retirement village, is light enough for a summer meeting and has a cast everyone has an opinion on.
- **A book about readers.** *The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society* by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, a novel in letters set just after the Second World War, is about a book club of its own.

## Getting copies: library sets and second-hand

Buying a new book every month adds up. Many UK library services lend **reading group sets**, usually about ten copies of the same title, for a few weeks. Some lend them free, others charge: according to their own pages on 29 October 2026, [BCP Council](https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/libraries/join-or-start-a-library-reading-group) asks £4 for each set of ten, [East Sussex](https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/whats-on/reading-groups/faqs) £1.00 for each book borrowed, and [Staffordshire](https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/libraries/library-fees-and-charges/hire-charges-book-requests-and-subscriptions) £40 a year for twelve sets if the group meets in the library. Ask your own library service; sets are popular, so book early.

Clubs registered on [Book Club Hub](https://bookclubhub.co.uk/) can also apply for free book sets offered by publishers, in return for posting reviews. Charity shops and second-hand bookshops are worth a look for older titles.

## When the club has run out of ideas

Every club hits the month when nobody has a suggestion. That is a good moment to ask outside the group.

In Time to Read you can do that in [Ask](https://timetoread.now/#ask). Write one sentence (‘a novel under three hundred pages for a book club that likes an argument, nothing too bleak’) and readers whose shelves overlap with yours each answer with one book and a reason, usually within the hour. When too few readers are around, the Reading Desk, the app's own editors, answers under that name. In the app's [Clubs](https://timetoread.now/#clubs), the host sets the book and the date, and everyone's progress shows as a bar. For the evening itself, see [book club questions that work for any novel](https://timetoread.now/book-club-questions/).

## Frequently asked questions

### What makes a good book club book?

Something to disagree about. A character who makes a choice half the room would not, a question the book leaves open, a narrator who might not be telling the truth. A book everyone simply loved often makes for a short evening; one that splits the group makes a long one.

### How long should a book club book be?

Short enough that everyone finishes. For a club that meets every four to six weeks, under four hundred pages is a sensible limit. Go longer only if the club agrees in advance, and consider splitting a long book over two meetings.

### Should a book club read new books or classics?

Both work, for different reasons. A new book means nobody has read the critics first and everyone comes to it fresh, but it may only be in hardback. A classic is cheap, easy to borrow and has more written about it, which helps if you are leading the discussion.

### Where can a book club get copies cheaply?

From the library. Many UK library services lend reading group sets of about ten copies of one title, sometimes free and sometimes for a small charge: BCP Council asks £4 a set and East Sussex £1 a book, according to their own pages on 29 October 2026. Book Club Hub also lets registered clubs apply for free book sets in return for reviews.

### How do we choose a book without arguing?

Pick a method once and stick to it. Taking turns is simplest; a shortlist of three with a vote is fairest. Whatever you choose, ask everyone who suggests a book to say in one sentence why the club should read it.

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**Ask readers for your club's next book.** In Time to Read you can ask in one sentence for a book your club will argue about. Readers whose shelves overlap with yours each answer with one book and a reason, usually within the hour. Seven days free, then a subscription you can cancel any time; the price is shown in the app. App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/time-to-read-book-club/id6799412901. Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.timetoread.app