Musicians, actors, and models all have something new in common: the itch to start a book club.

Thousands of clubs have popped up over the past 3 years, but why?

By Jayne Turner – Staff Writer

Passion project or market research?

The “book club model” has streamlined access to mass audience responses quickly and directly. If someone comes up with an idea for a show or movie inspired by a book, they can add it to their book club or find ways to have it included in someone else’s club to gauge audience reactions.

Creating a new TV show or movie involves significant risk since costs can be very high for everyone involved, including investors, producers, writers, crew, and talent. If audiences reject it, everyone loses and loses big! 

Is there evidence for this position? Absolutely! Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, and many more. All beloved titles adapted into highly grossing film series. When a book is popular, readers demand a screen adaptation. Pre-celebrity book club, this process took a little longer, but now it happens all the time, and you may not even notice!

Where the Crawdads Sing was first suggested by Reese Witherspoon in her club, and it was adapted into an equally successful movie. Big Little Lies was first suggested in the BELLETRIST book club and went on to become a successful TV series. Most recently, We Were Liars, also suggested by BELLETRIST, was turned into a heart-wrenching Hulu series. That is the Celebrity Book Club Effect.

Unrivaled influence

The power of celebrities is that they have a wide reach and incredible influence. 

People are more inclined to join a book club led by a celebrity rather than a local community group, as they tend to trust the celebrity’s recommendations more readily.

This seems odd, after all, these celebrities are just that – celebrities. They aren’t scholars or extensively educated, but they, just like you, love to read. In that way, it’s better than a sterile breakdown of the best books. The best celebrity book clubs feel like a friend giving you their favorite book.

Reese’s Book Club https://reesesbookclub.com/ by Reese Witherspoon focuses on titles with women at the center of the story.

BELLETRIST https://www.belletrist.com/ by Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss is a more classic form of book club, where every month a book is chosen and everyone reads it together, from wherever they are in the world.

Library Science https://libraryscience.net/ by Kaia Gerber and Alyssa Reeder aims to highlight releases that are not on the bestseller lists that debut new writers or amplify stories not often told. They recommend a wide variety of literature: fiction, essays, plays, and more.

Between Two Books https://www.betweentwobooks.co.uk/ by Florence and the Machine is an online community where Florence picks and shares her current favorites. They also have guest recommenders and author Q&As, introducing a wide variety of perspectives.

There are many, but the key features are that they are free to join, in an online format, and make you feel closer to your favorite celebrity.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Obviously, this answer varies from person-to-person, but overall, it’s just the way of the world at this point. There is nothing that cannot or will not be leveraged for marketing and sales. In the battle for hearts and minds, the marketers won. It’s incredibly difficult to find a truly negative outcome tied directly to a celebrity book club recommendation; however, finding positive outcomes is much easier and much more pervasive. 

Countless people have been given a lift or completely changed their lives from reading one singular book; odds are, some of these titles have in fact, come from a celebrity book club. So, we say, “cheers” to these clubs. We are all for reading – regardless of the paths taken to get there.

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Author: Jayne Turner is a freelance writer from Orange, California. She has a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience with an emphasis on language and cognition. She has ten years of musical theatre experience and a lifelong love of reading. Utterly excited by the brain, she brings a fresh Gen Z perspective to the topics that intrigue us most.