Axios: There’s a book club for that

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Axios Finish Line
By Mike Allen and Erica Pandey and Jim VandeHei · Sep 09, 2026
Welcome back! Smart Brevity™ count: 291 words … 1 min. Copy edited by Amy Stern.
 
 
1 big thing: There’s a book club for that
 
Animated illustration of a book that opens to a page about halfway through, where an event ticket is revealed.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
 
Americans may be reading lessbut bookstores are thriving and book clubs are bringing people together.

Book club events on Eventbrite jumped 33% during the first half of this year compared with the same time last year, Axios’ Sami Sparber reports.

👀 The intrigue: The book club boom has been largely driven by “hyper niche” meetups that bring together readers who love the same genres or have the same hobbies, Eventbrite says.

Readers are lacing up corsets and attaching prosthetic fairy ears to gather with fellow fans of the red-hot “romantasy” genre.

They’re reading together silently, sometimes not even the same book.

Indie bookstores are hosting clubs for people who want to craft while they discuss books.

👻 Case in point: At Atlanta bookstore Offbeat Books, each book club has its own vibe, owner Lindsi Bollinger tells Axios.

The horror club spills into movie talk, while the nonfiction club is run “pretty much like a classroom,” with PowerPoints, a projector and discussion questions.

There’s also a weird girl” reading group — part of a literary trend celebrating books with messy, strange, complicated female protagonists.

👥 Between the lines: Book clubs are also getting a lift as younger people get more into offline hobbies and in-person hangouts.

One of my favorite parts of book club is when we have ended the book club and people are just talking to each other … maybe making plans outside of the book club,” says Hannah Mathews, a bookseller at Offbeat Books who facilitates the “weird girl” club.

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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