Games to Play at a Book Club Meeting

During book club meetings there is a fair amount of socializing and having a good time. Of course, you will also discuss the latest book you are reading, but if that is all you do your meetings will soon become boring.

Liven up your book club meetings by playing a quick game or two when your members first arrive.

Devise a fun pop quiz about the book the group is currently reading. Make a master list of 10 to 20 questions that pertain to the book or the chapter the club is reading. Ask off-the-wall questions, not the obvious, such as, “who wrote the book?” For instance, one of your questions could be: “On page 22, Sheila pours Tom a drink. What was Tom drinking?”

When your guests arrive, give them all a sheet of paper and a pencil. Begin your quiz and let them right down the answers. Make it a fun quiz, and joke as you ask the questions. When you have gone through all of the questions, you can either give them the proper answers or call on specific guests to see if they have the right answer.

Give a small gift to the person who gets the most correct answers. A small clip or book light would make a great gift. This game will be a fun way to find out who is really reading the book, or who is just skimming through it. It will also help your guests to learn to pay closer attention to what they are reading. While fun for adults, this game is a good reading comprehension exercise for children.

To play this game you will need to have several small wicker baskets, one for each book club member. You will also need a computer and printer to make your game playing pieces. Use a business card template. Put an author's name on one card, and the title of a book he or she wrote on another card. Make as many as you want.

Run copies so that every basket will have the same cards in it. Each author card placed in the basket should have a book title card to go with it. Be sure to also include some lesser-known authors and book titles. Now throw in some paper clips.

To start the game, you will give each club member a basket and explain that when the timer starts they will have a certain amount of time to match, and paper clip together, the author card and the book title card. When time is up they must stop and whoever has the most clipped together correctly wins the game.

If you have a sense of humor, put in some fake authors and book titles and see how they're matched up. This can be extremely entertaining on its own, especially if you have your members read them out loud.