The Really Popular Book Club is the University of Cambridge Libraries and Archives' online book club. The book club is completely FREE and open to EVERYONE. People attend from all over the world.
Hosted on Zoom, we discuss a really popular book with an expert on the novel, library staff, and people from the book club who would like to share their insights.
The Really Popular Book Club celebrates the huge range of books at Cambridge University Library. We have more than 8 million books and as a legal deposit library we keep a copy of every book published in the UK, and have done since 1710.
Coming up!
To register for an upcoming book club simply click on a link below. Please come to as many book clubs as you like.
Tuesday 28 April: The Duke & I by Julia Quinn
Tuesday 26 May: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Tuesday 30 June: Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Tuesday 28 July: Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer
The book club format
Each book club is hosted by a library staff member, and we are joined by an expert on the book (not the author) to help guide the chat.
Before each club we share three ‘thinking points’ to consider while you’re reading the book and we'll structure the book club chat around them. The book club is about you, and everyone is welcome and encouraged to contribute, but it's fine to listen in too.
If you want to make a point, give us a wave and we’ll come to you. Alternatively type it into Zoom’s chat function. If it’s your first time at the club don’t worry we’ll run through all this at the start. During each book club, there will also be the opportunity to vote via polls.
You don’t have to have read the book to come to the book club, but beware there will be spoilers!
Copies of all our book club reads are available to purchase from the Library Shop in our Entrance Hall.
How to join online
The Really Popular Book Club takes place on Zoom Meetings and there is no need to download any software.
Register for the book club you'd like to attend. Then to join each event simply click on the link we email you. You can ignore the prompt to download Zoom and instead click "If you cannot download or run the application, join from your browser” and select the hyperlinked text, "join from your browser". If you’ve already got the Zoom app downloaded, the link will open in that.
If you want to participate with subtitles, switch on the 'Live Transcript' button which can be found on Zoom's control panel at the bottom of the window. Please note we don’t record the book club.
Any questions?
If you have any other questions, please contact events@lib.cam.ac.uk.