Freshman year of college, my friend started a book club.

We met up once, and Ive still never readUlysses.

Book clubs are hard!

Theyre so hard that blogs list things to talk about whenno one in the book club read the book.

(Read reviews of the book out loud, and talk about those.)

If your book club is really just an excuse to hang out, thats fine!

But if you actually want to read and discuss some literature, try a short story club.

Count on everyone to finish

Reading a typical book-club book takeshours.

For most people, that requires multiple reading sessions.

If a reader hasnt started reading by the morning of the clubs meetup, theyre screwed.

With a short story, they can read it in one lunch break.

Hell, they can read it twice.

Take bigger risks

Because it takes so long, reading a bad book is exhausting.

Reading a bad short story is like fine, who cares, next.

So your club can try more challenging, avant garde, or controversial stories.

you could try out a new author without making a commitment to a whole book.

Especially if you double up.

Or intentionally pick contrasting stories.

That also means you’re able to read them on your phone.

Sex Robotsby Lucie Britsch: Its actually about professional pizza eaters.

Britsch writes like James Thurber or Miranda July.

Most of Britschs stories center on loners and weirdo geniuses with variously supportive or unsupportive boyfriends.

Y/Nby Kendra Fortmeyer: A flower girl in a video game refuses to remain a non-player character.

This is like ifBlack Mirrorwere good.

Pick a curated collection

Short stories come in collections.

Several of the above are from ongoing online series.

You could follow one that your whole group likes.

Until you hit your paywall limit, you’ve got the option to get those stories free online.

(Youll also get one story by a teenager every three months.)

you’ve got the option to also spread out one published anthology across several discussions.

You could alsostart an article club, as writer Joanna Goddard did.

That can produce lively discussion, but it will lack some of the escapism of discussing fiction.