After a TikTok about her at-work book club went viral, content creator Elie Delaney founded a group for the book lovers of Boston. Common Reads, or the Boston Girls’ Book Club, usually meets monthly, with the next meeting Saturday at The Coop in Harvard Square.
“Common Reads has turned into so much more than a book club” since its first meeting in May, Delaney said. She has also started planning smaller social events, such as a paint-and-sip class, floral workshop and a book swap networking event.
The Common Reads community exists on an Instagram broadcast channel that gained 400 followers in its first day and has grown to 4,000 members today, Delaney said.
When the weather is right, Common Reads meets on Boston Common, where the group is “very laid back and always welcoming,” Delaney said. In the winter, meetings take place in various locations across Greater Boston, including at The Coop and Boston Figurative Art Center in Somerville.
For many members, the book club is about more than reading – it’s about finding a community of their own. Delaney said most clubbers are young women who attend the meetings alone, looking to meet new people.
“Putting yourself out there in your early to mid-20s is hard, and I think everyone in Common Reads recognizes that, so the group is always so warm and kind,” Delaney said.
To ensure everyone meets someone new, members are seated randomly in groups of eight to 10 for indoor meetings and grouped by the neighborhood they live in for outdoor meetings.
“It brings me joy to see members spark new friendships at our meetings,” Delaney said.
Delaney polls the Instagram Broadcast channel to decide what to read, looking at the groups’ most enjoyed genres to change themes monthly. To narrow it down, Delaney checks the book review site Goodreads to pull titles for the monthly poll.
At The Coop, Common Reads will discuss “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore. During the discussion, members can sip on probiotic sodas from the Cambridge-based brand Culture Pop and drinks from Boston’s Black Magic Coffee.
Delaney said the book club has become her “own sense of community and purpose.”
“More than anything, I’m looking forward to getting us back to meeting in Boston Common to see how much we’ve grown in the past year,” she said.
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