So…you are looking to start a book club or are interested in joining one. That’s great! It’s a great way to start hearing another’s opinions in stories, and introducing yourself to new genres! You will probably find some of your new favorite reads!
The Book Club Suggestion
However, you start your book club and someone says “This month’s book is going to be It by Stephen King”.
Uh oh. You have one month to read a 1000 page book or listen to a 45 hour audiobook. You are a full time employee, maybe you’re even in school, and now you’re thinking “my monthly TBR is now just It by Stephen King” because you won’t have any other time to read any other book.
This is not a rare experience in the book club world, this is actually something people forget to consider. Some of us are not able to read that big of a book within a month and get around to our other reads at the same time.
This is why it is important to consider this very important rule: “How long is too long?” Is there really a limit or a “rule” to implement? It is important to talk to members to agree on a certain cut off to length of books. However, does size really matter (I dont say so but that’s just me, teehee).
How long is too long?
Before we jump into a rule about book length, there is always an opportunity to ask the club if it would be appropriate to extend the reading time over the course of a second month or even just 2 weeks. There isn’t anything wrong with asking for more time.
However, if that is not an option, let’s look into two factors to consider when creating this rule: page count, and audiobook time.
Page count does not equal audiobook time!
You must consider different book printings because font size and page margins matter! *Insert image between two different books with comparison*. Book genres like young adult are more likely to have larger margins and larger fonts and spacing to be easier to read, while more adult books will likely have smaller margins and fonts to support book size, and you should not judge a book’s size based on its page count.
So how do I create a rule around this? The answer is audiobook length.
It is likely members of your book club will be audiobook listeners rather than physical copy readers, and audiobooks allow us to change the speed of reading to make a book shorter or longer. It will likely be more practical to pick a book based on audiobook time versus a physical page count with varying margins and font sizes.
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon has 848 pages and has a roughly 25 hour audiobook time. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson has 541 pages and also has an audiobook time of 25 hours. Both books are very different in size and page count.
My book club has been utilizing this rule for over a year now, and has proved to be successful in choosing books that are considered “long” or “time consuming” to read.
I would also like everyone to keep in mind it is plausible to recommend a book that is longer and ask for more provided time. A time that is actually great to do this is over the holidays. It can be hard to find time to meet up with a lot of people for a book club during the holiday season, so this would be a good time to recommend a longer book for members to pick at.
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