I often see articles about book clubs that are simply an excuse to eat snacks and talk to friends, and listen, you’re doing book clubs wrong. There is nothing more delightful than regularly meeting with friends to talk about a book that you all read, and actually talking about the book. I have been lucky enough to be a part of TWO book clubs, each of which has been running for over two years. I’ve hit peak nerd, and I love it.

The first book club was one that I started when I moved to Vancouver in 2018 as a way to make friends. I wrote a blog post about how to start a local book club, with another post listing the books we have read so far (it’s a great list if you want to prioritize non-white non-male authors). Originally we were about six people, but we quickly whittled down to three after some moved away. The three of us who remain have met every month for six years – that’s SEVENTY-TWO book club meetings. I’m so proud of this. I don’t see these women for anything other than book club, or the occasional book-related event in Vancouver.

Similarly, the second book club I’m in is only made up of people who I know by book club. I was invited to this online group, and I’m not even entirely sure of how it started! In my Roar Cat Reads persona, I became friends with a librarian in Toronto, and when her Jane Austen-based book club ended, she invited me to join the revamped version that would read through The Lymond Chronicles, a series that I fangirled about intensely in May 2018. After a year of reading through the series (we meet every two months), we branched out to other historical fiction with a preference for hefty books over 600 pages. This is a High Nerd space, where no joke, we spent the last meeting giggling over how various characters from the books we’ve read would have handled running into John Calvin in the 1500s. Every time we finish talking, I gleefully describe the conversation to Rachel, who blinks in confusion but says she is very happy for me.

Why am I writing about this? Mostly because I want it memorialized. But I guess also because I feel very aware of how nice it is to have social groups that are about one thing in particular. There is no mixing of friend groups, expectations, or loyalties. You’re in the group if you’re into the group’s particular kind of books. I think more things should be like this!