# How to find a book club near you

> You would like to talk about books with other people, in a room or on a screen, and you do not know where the clubs are. Five places to look in the UK, what to ask before you turn up, and what to do if there is nothing nearby.

Updated 29 October 2026. Source: https://timetoread.now/book-clubs-near-me/

**The short answer.** In the UK, start with [Book Club Hub](https://bookclubhub.co.uk/bookclubs), The Reading Agency's free directory, which lets you search by postcode and shows whether a club is looking for new members. Then ask your **local library**, since most run reading groups anyone can join, and look at [Silent Book Club](https://silentbook.club/pages/chapter-map), where everyone brings their own book. Bookshops and noticeboards do the rest. Online book clubs run on Goodreads groups and Silent Book Club's online gatherings. In the **Time to Read** app, clubs are listed by town, and starting one takes a name and a city.

## Five places to find a book club

Book clubs are easy to miss because most of them never advertise. They meet in someone's front room, the back of a café or the library on the second Tuesday of the month, and new members arrive by word of mouth. These five places get you past that.

1. **Book Club Hub.** The Reading Agency, a national charity, runs a free directory at [bookclubhub.co.uk](https://bookclubhub.co.uk/bookclubs). It used to be called Reading Groups for Everyone. You type in a postcode and see the clubs nearby, with a filter for adults, young people and children, and whether a club is looking for new members. Clubs that register there can also apply for free sets of books in return for writing reviews.
2. **Your local library.** Book Club Hub itself points out that most libraries have open clubs you may be able to join. Ask at the desk or look at your council's library pages. GOV.UK has a [find your local library](https://www.gov.uk/local-library-services) service for England and Wales.
3. **Silent Book Club.** A worldwide network of reading meet-ups with no assigned book: everyone brings their own, reads quietly for a while and talks if they like. It has chapters around the UK, London among them, on its [chapter map](https://silentbook.club/pages/chapter-map), and says its events are free.
4. **Bookshops.** Booksellers tend to know which groups meet nearby, because those groups buy their books there, and some shops run a book group of their own. Ask at the till; the noticeboard by the door is worth a look too.
5. **Friends of friends.** A message to your neighbourhood group or the WhatsApp you already have (‘does anyone here go to a book club?’) finds clubs that appear in no directory at all.

Book Club Hub, Silent Book Club and GOV.UK were checked on their own websites on 29 October 2026.

## Library reading groups and reading group sets

Libraries are the backbone of book clubs in the UK, in two ways. Many run their own groups, led by staff or volunteers and open to anyone with a library card. And many lend **reading group sets**: around ten copies of the same title, so a whole club can read one book without everyone buying it.

Whether that costs anything depends on the council. Three examples, from their own pages on 29 October 2026:

- [BCP Council](https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/libraries/join-or-start-a-library-reading-group) (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) says all its libraries have reading groups anyone can join, and charges £4 for each set of ten books, or £40 a year for up to one set a month.
- [Staffordshire](https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/libraries/library-fees-and-charges/hire-charges-book-requests-and-subscriptions) offers twelve sets over a year for £40 if the group meets in the library and £45 if it meets elsewhere.
- [East Sussex](https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/whats-on/reading-groups/faqs) has over a thousand book sets, at £1.00 for each book borrowed, on a ten-week loan.

Your own library service will have its own terms. Ask before your club picks a title, because the set you want may already be out.

## Online book clubs

An online book club is the answer when you cannot do a fixed evening, live somewhere quiet, or read in a genre nobody near you reads. There are two kinds.

**Live, on a video call.** One book a month and a set time to talk. It feels closest to a club in a room, and the same rules apply: six people can all have a say, fifteen mostly listen. Silent Book Club's map also lets you search for its online gatherings.

**In threads.** A discussion that runs over weeks, chapter by chapter. [Goodreads groups](https://www.goodreads.com/group) work like this, and so do the reading subreddits. You join in when you have read the part being discussed, which suits shift workers and parents. The catch is that threads are easy to drift away from.

Celebrity and television book clubs, such as Reese Witherspoon's, are something else again. They are a monthly pick that a lot of people read at the same time, with a community around it, rather than a group that knows your name.

## In person or online: which suits you?

Go in person if you want to know people in your town and like a fixed evening in the diary. The book is half of it; the other half is the room. Go online if your week is unpredictable, if there is no club for your kind of book nearby, or if you would rather write than speak. Plenty of readers do both: a local club for company, an online one for fantasy or crime.

> A good club is the one you still go to in March.

## What to ask before you turn up

Clubs differ more than their names suggest. A short message to the organiser saves an awkward evening.

- What do you read: literary fiction, crime, non-fiction, a bit of everything?
- Who chooses the book, and how?
- How often do you meet, and when: weekday evening, Saturday morning?
- How many of you are there?
- Do I have to have finished the book, or can I come if I am halfway?
- Does it cost anything, and where do the books come from?

The first answer matters most. A club that reads a five-hundred-page literary novel every six weeks is a different club from one that passes thrillers round, and neither is the wrong one. If you want ideas for what a club could read, see [how to choose book club books](https://timetoread.now/book-club-books/).

## No club near you? Start the first one

Sometimes all that searching turns up nothing, or only a waiting list. Starting your own is less work than it sounds: three people, one book and a date. How to find those people, which book to choose first and which questions get a conversation going is in [how to start a book club](https://timetoread.now/how-to-start-a-book-club/).

In Time to Read you start a club with a name, your city and up to three genres, and decide whether anyone can find it or people join by invitation only. A club shows only its city, never an address, until you are a member. The host chooses the book and the date, and under ‘Where everyone is’ each member's progress shows as a bar. In the club's chat, a message from someone further into the book stays hidden until you tap it, so nobody spoils the ending. If there is no club in your town yet, the app says so, and you can start the first.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I find a book club in my area?

Search by postcode on Book Club Hub, run by The Reading Agency, which also shows whether a club wants new members. Ask at your local library, look for a Silent Book Club chapter on its map, and check the noticeboard at your nearest bookshop. Directories and websites were checked on 29 October 2026.

### Do book clubs cost anything to join?

Most cost nothing beyond the book. Library reading groups are usually free to join; some councils charge the group for borrowing sets of copies, which varies by library service. Silent Book Club says its events are free. Some clubs in cafés expect you to buy a drink.

### Is there a book club where you do not have to read the same book?

Yes. At a Silent Book Club meeting there is no assigned reading: you bring whatever you are reading, read quietly together for an hour and chat if you want to. It suits people who like company but not homework.

### How do online book clubs work?

Usually one book a month and a set date for discussion, either live on a video call or in a forum thread that runs over several weeks. Goodreads groups work as threads. Video calls feel more like a real meeting; threads suit people who cannot do a fixed evening.

### What if there is no book club near me?

Start one. You need three people, one book and a date, and the rest can be sorted as you go. Ask the library whether you can meet there and whether it lends reading group sets, which saves everyone buying a copy.

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**A club in your own town.** In Time to Read, clubs are listed by town and read one book at a time. Everyone's progress shows as a bar, and in the chat a message from further into the book stays hidden until you tap it. 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