Bookish Pen Pals: A Guide to Starting Your Own Travelling Book Club
Who says a book club needs four walls and a monthly meetup? Imagine your next literary journey arriving not by calendar invite—but by envelope. A traveling book club turns mailboxes into magic portals: a single book making its way from reader to reader, each one layering it with thoughts, sticky tabs, laughter, and love.
Every time I’ve sent or received a club book, it felt like receiving a time capsule of someone's emotional bookmarks. There were scribbled reactions in the margins, tiny envelopes tucked between chapters, playlists paper-clipped to the prologue. A novel transformed into a conversation between friends.
It’s not just about the story within the pages - it’s the story each reader adds. Somewhere in that rotating paperback was the soft scent of someone’s favorite tea, and a quote circled, underlined or highlighted, so fiercely it felt sacred. By the time the book came home to me again, it was no longer just mine-it was ours.
The Basics
A traveling book club typically follows this pattern:
One book travels between members via mail or hand delivery.
Each reader reads it, adds annotations, notes, or tabbed thoughts.
Some tuck in extras—bookmarks, stickers, recipes, playlists, personal letters.
After a set time, the book moves to the next reader on the route.
Once it’s made the full circuit, it returns to the original sender—now layered with insights, heart, and caffeine stains.
My very first time participating in a travelling book club, there were five of us, and we each picked one book off our shelves and rotated them until we got ours back.
What Goes Inside?
The book itself
A shared journal or comment insert for personal thoughts
Optional goodies: tea bags, bookmarks, dried flowers, stickers, annotation tabs etc.
Instructions and deadlines to keep things flowing
How to Structure It
Pick your members
Decide how long each member gets. We chose a month.
Use a hashtag or group chat to share photos and reactions
The Magic
A traveling book club isn’t just about reading—it’s about sharing space with someone else’s thoughts. You’ll see highlights in chapters you may have skimmed. You’ll read reflections that make you pause. You’ll laugh at sarcastic annotations in the margins. It’s a reminder that reading is both solitary and wildly communal.
