Our book clubs are genuinely our thing about Storysmith. We’ve held book clubs in the shop since 2019, and now run a total of seven monthly book clubs for curious readers on regular Tuesdays and Wednesday evenings.
We like to read widely, so nothing is off limits – at the end of each meeting, we encourage attendees to pitch the next book the group will read, and then we take a vote to decide. We also provide a glass of wine, and 10% off the following month’s book.
We run five general book clubs, a queer book club and an eco book club.
Storysmith co-owners Emily & Dan started our first book club in February 2019, which was so popular it immediately splintered into two separate book clubs which have been going ever since.
Emily’s group are always on the hunt for a book to rival the greatness of Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls.
Dan’s group always encompasses a wide spread of opinions, but books that were unanimously loved or provoked the liveliest discussion include Walter Kempowski’s All For Nothing, and Selva Almada’s Not A River.
Friend of the shop Stuart runs a general book club which ranks all their reads on a somewhat scientific ten-point scale. The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore got a near perfect 10.
Bookseller Callum has run a general book club since March 2022. They’ve read many top tier books over the years, but one that got a rare unanimous endorsement from his group was Clear by Carys Davies.
Friend of the shop Cath runs a general book club, taking over from ex-Storysmith bookseller Myla who ran the group for several years. Cath’s group’s favourite read so far was Strong Female Character by Fern Brady (although they are always talking about Mrs Caliban as well).
Bookseller Holly runs an eco book club. Their collective favourite read so far was The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff.
Storysmith alumnus Siúbhan runs our queer book club which started in February 2023 and is a hybrid book club, meeting both in the shop and online. Their favourite book so far was Zami by Audre Lorde.
At the end of the year, we host a book club xmas party where all seven book clubs convene together for copious inter-book-club gossiping.
Joining a book club
NB: all our book clubs are fully subscribed but if you would like to be on the waiting list for any or all of our book clubs, please email us or pop in to the shop and specify whether you want to join a general club or a themed club and if you have a preference towards either Tuesday or Wednesday evenings.
Sadly the waiting list is currently very long, but we do occasionally have openings and hope to be able to host even more book clubs in the future.