It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy. Maintaining your book club’s momentum, unfortunately, is hard. With kids’ activities, family vacations, and general malaise competing for your time, it’s tough getting together with fellow bookworms.

Still, your club is too important to be allowed to wither on the August vine! So preserve its vitality over the summer by:

• Meeting at least once. It’s fine to dial back, but don’t abandon get-togethers entirely. Find time to gather once.
• Choosing a collection of short stories. Not only will it seem less daunting than tackling an entire novel, but short stories have another advantage: Even if members don’t get through the whole collection, they can still share a bit about the stories (or story) they did read. (Click here, here, or here for some good titles to try.)
  
• Scrapping books entirely. If no one seems eager for a mid-July reading assignment, schedule a social event instead. Whether it’s dinner out, a concert in the park, or an evening hike, staying connected in some way — any way — over the summer will make September’s full-force dive back into books that much easier.

What does your club do to maintain its momentum during the summer? Tell us in the comments section below!