Plot Twist Telephone1. Telephone with a twist added at every ear. The first player whispers a one-sentence plot for a book that does not exist: who it follows, where, and what goes wrong.2. Each player whispers it on and changes exactly one of the three on purpose.3. The last player says the plot aloud, and the first says how it began.4. Go back down the line while each player owns up to their twist. The room names the version it would most like to read.Reading needed: none. Players: 5 to 12. You need: nothing.
Spine Poem From the Stack1. Send everyone to the host's shelves in pairs, with four minutes on a timer.2. Each pair pulls three to five books and stacks them so that the titles on the spines, read from the top down, make a poem.3. Pairs carry their stacks back and read them aloud, one spine a line.4. Vote by a show of hands, never for your own stack. Then every pair shelves its books where it found them.Reading needed: none. Players: 2 to 16. You need: bookshelves and a timer.
Title Fight: Rename This Month's Book1. Everyone writes a new title for this month's book on a slip: what it should have been called. A title may not give the ending away.2. The host reads the slips out, unsigned.3. Each player votes for one title that is not their own.4. The two titles with the most votes are defended by their writers, thirty seconds each, and the room votes again.Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 4 to 20. You need: slips of paper and pencils.
Casting Call With No Actors Named1. Each player picks one character from this month's book and keeps the choice secret.2. Write a casting notice of three lines for the film: the voice, the walk and one habit the actor must have. No actor's name goes in, and nothing that happens in the plot.3. Read the notices out in turn. The room guesses the character, then argues about whether the notice is right.4. Everyone votes for the notice a casting director could use as it stands.Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 3 to 15. You need: paper and pencils.
Book Charades: Act the Scene, Not the Title1. Charades with one change: nobody acts a title. Each player writes two scenes from this month's book on slips, such as the argument on the stairs.2. Mix the slips in a bowl and divide the club into two teams.3. One actor at a time takes a slip and plays the scene in silence. The actor's team has one minute to say what is happening and who is in it.4. A scene nobody gets goes back in the bowl. Play until the bowl is empty. The team holding more slips wins.Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 4 to 16. You need: slips of paper, a bowl and a timer.
Back Cover for the Wrong Shelf1. Write a shelf on each slip: western, ghost story, cookbook, self-help, romance, travel guide, picture book. Each player draws one and shows nobody.2. In three minutes, write two sentences of back cover that sell this month's book as that kind of book. Use the setting and the people, and leave out how it ends.3. Read each back cover aloud. The room guesses the shelf.4. After the last one, the room votes for the back cover that would sell the most copies.Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 3 to 10. You need: slips, paper, pencils and a timer.
Back Cover for the Wrong Shelf1. Write a shelf on each slip: western, ghost story, cookbook, self-help, romance, travel guide, picture book. Each player draws one and shows nobody. 2. In three minutes, write two sentences of back cover that sell this month's book as that kind of book. Use the setting and the people, and leave out how it ends. 3. Read each back cover aloud. The room guesses the shelf. 4. After the last one, the room votes for the back cover that would sell the most copies. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 3 to 10. You need: slips, paper, pencils and a timer.
Book Charades: Act the Scene, Not the Title1. Charades with one change: nobody acts a title. Each player writes two scenes from this month's book on slips, such as the argument on the stairs. 2. Mix the slips in a bowl and divide the club into two teams. 3. One actor at a time takes a slip and plays the scene in silence. The actor's team has one minute to say what is happening and who is in it. 4. A scene nobody gets goes back in the bowl. Play until the bowl is empty. The team holding more slips wins. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 4 to 16. You need: slips of paper, a bowl and a timer.
Casting Call With No Actors Named1. Each player picks one character from this month's book and keeps the choice secret. 2. Write a casting notice of three lines for the film: the voice, the walk and one habit the actor must have. No actor's name goes in, and nothing that happens in the plot. 3. Read the notices out in turn. The room guesses the character, then argues about whether the notice is right. 4. Everyone votes for the notice a casting director could use as it stands. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 3 to 15. You need: paper and pencils.
Show all 43 games (40 more)
Games for any book, continued
Discussion Bingo on a Nine-Square Card1. Before the discussion, each player draws a grid of three by three and fills the squares with things they predict someone will say tonight, such as "I liked the first half more" or "it would make a good film". 2. Keep the cards hidden and discuss the book as usual. 3. Cross off a square when another member says it. Your own words do not count, and steering someone into it is fair. 4. The first player with a line of three waits for the speaker to finish, calls bingo and reads the line out. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 4 to 20. You need: paper and pencils.
First Line Bluff on Next Month's Shortlist1. The first-sentence bluff from our party word games, played on the books proposed for next month. Each proposer brings their book and reads out its title and back cover. 2. Everyone else writes a first line the book could open with, and the proposer copies the real one onto a matching slip. 3. The proposer reads every line in one voice. Players vote for the line they believe is real: a point for a right vote, and a point for each vote your bluff takes. 4. When every proposed book has had its round, the club votes for the real first line it most wants to read on from. That book is next month's. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 12. You need: the proposed books, slips of paper and pencils.
One Sentence From the Middle: Name the Shelf1. Each player takes a book from the host's shelves and hides it in a tote bag or under a cloth. 2. In turn, open your book somewhere in the middle and read one sentence aloud. 3. The others call out the shelf it came from: crime, romance, history, cooking, travel, children's or poetry. The first right call scores a point. 4. With no right call, read another sentence. After three with no right call, the reader scores and shows the cover. Reading needed: none. Players: 3 to 10. You need: shelves with books of several kinds, and a bag or cloth for each player.
One Star, Five Stars: Whose Review?1. Before the discussion, each player writes two one-line reviews of this month's book on a card: a one-star line and a five-star line. One of the two is what they really think, and the plot stays out of both. 2. The host collects the cards and reads each pair aloud. 3. The room guesses who wrote the card, then which line is the true one. 4. The writer scores a point if the room names the wrong writer, and another if it picks the wrong line. Open the discussion with the card that split the room. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 4 to 15. You need: a card and a pencil for each player.
Plot Twist Telephone1. Telephone with a twist added at every ear. The first player whispers a one-sentence plot for a book that does not exist: who it follows, where, and what goes wrong. 2. Each player whispers it on and changes exactly one of the three on purpose. 3. The last player says the plot aloud, and the first says how it began. 4. Go back down the line while each player owns up to their twist. The room names the version it would most like to read. Reading needed: none. Players: 5 to 12. You need: nothing.
Press Conference With a Character1. Write the names of the book's characters on slips. One player draws a slip and takes a chair facing the room. 2. For two minutes the room asks questions as reporters: why they did it, and what they would do differently. 3. The player answers as the character, in the first person, and never says the name. 4. The room guesses who it was. An answer the book contradicts ends the turn, and whoever catches it draws next. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 3 to 20. You need: slips of paper, a pencil and a timer.
Sixty-Second Pitch for Next Month's Book1. Each player with a book to propose gets sixty seconds on a timer. 2. The pitch names no title and no author: only who the book follows, where, and why this club would argue about it. 3. After the last pitch, the titles are said. 4. Everyone writes two pitchers' names on a slip. The book named most often is next month's, and the runner-up pitches first next time. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 12. You need: a timer, slips of paper and pencils.
Spine Poem From the Stack1. Send everyone to the host's shelves in pairs, with four minutes on a timer. 2. Each pair pulls three to five books and stacks them so that the titles on the spines, read from the top down, make a poem. 3. Pairs carry their stacks back and read them aloud, one spine a line. 4. Vote by a show of hands, never for your own stack. Then every pair shelves its books where it found them. Reading needed: none. Players: 2 to 16. You need: bookshelves and a timer.
Title Fight: Rename This Month's Book1. Everyone writes a new title for this month's book on a slip: what it should have been called. A title may not give the ending away. 2. The host reads the slips out, unsigned. 3. Each player votes for one title that is not their own. 4. The two titles with the most votes are defended by their writers, thirty seconds each, and the room votes again. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 4 to 20. You need: slips of paper and pencils.
Twenty Questions Inside the Book1. Twenty questions, with every answer taken from this month's book: a person, a place or a thing in it. 2. One player thinks of one. The others take turns to ask questions that can be answered yes or no. 3. Any question is fair, so the ending may come out: "Is she still in the house on the last page?" 4. Whoever guesses it thinks of the next one. After twenty questions with no right guess, the same player goes again. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 2 to 20. You need: nothing.
Two Truths and a Lie About the Plot1. Two truths and a lie, about the book and not about the players. Each player writes three events from this month's book: two that happen and one made up. 2. Read your three aloud in an even voice. 3. On a count of three, everyone holds up one, two or three fingers for the line they think is the lie. 4. Score a point for each player you fool. A small invented detail fools more readers than a big one. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 3 to 15. You need: paper and pencils.
Icebreaker games for a first meeting 7
Genre Corners1. Name the four corners of the room: crime, romance, history and fantasy. 2. The host reads a choice, such as "the shelf you would take to a cabin for a week". Everyone walks to a corner. 3. Each corner has one minute to agree on a single book to recommend to the room, and one person says it. 4. Rename the corners for the next round: paper, screen, audio, library loan. Play four rounds, so that everyone has stood with most of the club. Reading needed: none. Players: 8 to 30. You need: nothing.
Life Story Name Tags1. At the door, each guest writes their first name on a sticker and, under it, the title their life story would have so far. The host copies the titles onto a list. 2. For ten minutes, guests walk about and ask each other for the first sentence of chapter one. 3. Sit down. The host reads the titles from the list, without names, and the room says whose each one is. 4. Leave the tags on for the meeting, so that new members have every name in front of them. Reading needed: none. Players: 6 to 20. You need: name stickers and pens.
Line Up by To-Read Pile, Without a Word1. Ask the room to stand in one line, from the shortest pile of books waiting to be read to the tallest. 2. Nobody may speak or write. Fingers, stacked fists and hands held apart are all allowed. 3. When the line settles, go along it, and each guest says their number and the book on top of the pile. 4. Line up again by the hour of the day each guest reads most, earliest first. Reading needed: none. Players: 6 to 30. You need: nothing.
Ninety-Second Recommendations in Two Rows1. Set two rows of chairs facing each other, with a guest on each. 2. One row has ninety seconds to ask what the person opposite likes to read, then recommends one book to fit. The other row does the same back. 3. One row moves a seat along, and the new pairs start again. 4. After four moves, each guest tells the room the one recommendation they will take up, and who gave it. Reading needed: none. Players: 6 to 20. You need: chairs, a timer and paper to note the titles.
Reader Bingo: Find a Member Who1. The host draws a grid of nine squares and copies it for each guest, with a reading habit in each square, such as reads the last page first, has a library card on them now, or keeps a list of every book finished. 2. Guests walk about and put one question to each person they meet. 3. A member who fits a square signs it. No name may fill two squares on one card. 4. The first line of three wins, and its holder introduces the three signers by name and habit. Reading needed: none. Players: 8 to 30. You need: a copied grid and a pen for each guest.
Three Books All Three of You Have Read1. Split into groups of three, with old and new members mixed. 2. Each group has four minutes to find three books that all three of them have read. 3. Groups report their three. A book nobody else in the room has read scores two points, and any other book scores one. 4. The group with the most points says which of its three the club should read, if any. Reading needed: none. Players: 6 to 18. You need: a timer, paper and pencils.
Whose Three Books?1. Give each guest a card. Unsigned, they write three books: the last one they finished, one they give as a present, and one they gave up on. 2. The host shuffles the cards and reads one aloud. 3. The room has three guesses at the writer, who then says a sentence about one of the three. 4. Keep the cards: the books given as presents make a ready list of titles to propose. Reading needed: none. Players: 5 to 15. You need: a card and a pen for each guest.
Games for book club parties 7
Cover Only: Tell the Plot1. The host gives each team of two or three a book that nobody on the team has read. 2. Teams study the front cover for one minute. Opening the book or turning it over is out. 3. Each team tells the room the plot in thirty seconds, with the hero's name and the ending. 4. The host reads the real back cover after each one. At the end, the room votes for the team that came closest. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 12. You need: a pile of books nobody has read, such as library loans, and a timer.
Dedication Page: Guess the Writer1. Each guest writes the dedication page of the book they will one day write: "To" someone, and a reason of one line. People are named by initials only. 2. Fold the slips into a hat. 3. The host reads one. The room guesses the writer, and then what the book is about. 4. The writer owns up and gives the title. Read on until the hat is empty. Reading needed: none. Players: 5 to 15. You need: slips of paper, pencils and a hat.
Draw the Title, Find It on the Shelf1. One player from each team goes to the shelf, chooses a book in secret and notes where it stands. 2. Back at the table, they draw the title on paper with no letters and no numbers. 3. Their team has ninety seconds to work out the title, walk to the shelf and pull the book out. 4. The right book scores a point. A wrong book goes back, and the turn passes. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 12. You need: a bookshelf, paper, pencils and a timer.
Radio Play of Page One1. Teams of three each take a novel from the shelf without looking. 2. They have five minutes to rehearse its first page as a radio play: one narrator, the voices, and every sound effect made by mouth or with things on the table. 3. Teams perform from the next room or behind a held-up bed sheet, so that the audience only listens. 4. After each play the room guesses the kind of book. At the end, vote for the best sound effect of the night. Reading needed: none. Players: 6 to 15. You need: novels, a bed sheet or a doorway, and a timer.
Shelf Mash-Up: Two Titles, One Plot1. Each team takes two books from the shelf without looking at them. 2. In three minutes, join the two titles into one and work out what that book is about. 3. Teams present the new title and a pitch of three sentences, holding up both books. 4. Vote by applause. The loudest wins, and every pitch gets some. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 16. You need: a bookshelf and a timer.
Spell BOOK CLUB From the Shelves1. Split into two teams and write BOOK CLUB down the side of a sheet for each. 2. On go, teams search the host's shelves for a title that starts with each of the eight letters. A and The at the start of a title are skipped. 3. Write each title beside its letter. Books stay on the shelf, and one book fills one letter. 4. The first full sheet wins. If five minutes pass, the fuller sheet wins. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 16. You need: bookshelves, two sheets, pencils and a timer.
Stock Characters All Evening1. As guests arrive, each draws a slip with a stock character: the detective, the unreliable narrator, the villain's assistant, the long-lost twin, the stranger with a secret, the comic servant. 2. For the first half hour, everyone drops their character into ordinary talk, a little at a time. 3. At the bell, each guest writes down who they think is which. 4. Reveal around the room and score a point for each right match. The character most guests spotted takes a bow. Reading needed: none. Players: 6 to 20. You need: character slips, paper, pencils and a bell.
Book club games on a video call 7
The Ending in One Word, All Sent at Once1. Everyone types one word for how the ending of this month's book left them, and keeps a finger off the send key. 2. On the host's count of three, all the words land in the chat together. 3. The host picks the two words furthest apart and gives their writers a minute each to explain. 4. After the two have spoken, everyone sends a second word. Anyone whose word changed says why. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 4 to 20. You need: the chat of the call.
New Cover in Three Minutes1. Everyone fetches a sheet of paper and one pen or marker. 2. In three minutes, draw a new front cover for this month's book: one picture and the title, with nothing that shows the ending. 3. On a count of three, all the covers go up to the cameras and stay up while everyone looks. 4. Each player sends one name to the chat: the cover they would pick up in a shop. The winner explains theirs. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 3 to 20. You need: paper, a pen and a camera each.
Shelf Scavenger Hunt, Held Up to the Camera1. The host calls out a kind of book: one with a blue spine, one never finished, the oldest in the house, a cookbook with stains, one that was a present. 2. Everyone leaves their chair to fetch one. The first book held up to a camera scores a point. 3. The holder says in one sentence how the book came to be theirs. 4. Play eight calls. The last is always the book you would lend to this club. Reading needed: none. Players: 3 to 20. You need: a camera each, in a home with books in it.
Side-Room Debate: Argue the Side You Are Given1. The host puts players into pairs, in side rooms where the call has them, and tells one of each pair "for" and the other "against", whatever they really thought. With an odd number, the host makes up a pair. 2. Pairs have four minutes to argue about this month's book from their given sides. 3. Back in the main call, each player reports the best point their partner made, in one sentence. 4. After the last report, the room guesses which side each player was truly on, and they say. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 4 to 16. You need: a call that can split into pairs, or a phone call for each pair.
Stars on Fingers: Guess the Club's Average1. Each player sends the host a private message with a guess at the club's average rating for this month's book, out of five, to one decimal place. 2. On a count of three, everyone holds one to five fingers up to the camera, and keeps them up while the host adds. 3. The host says the average. The closest guess wins. 4. The highest hand and the lowest hand get thirty seconds each, and the discussion starts from there. Reading needed: this month's book, no spoilers. Players: 4 to 15. You need: cameras and private messages.
Which Chapter? Typed in the Chat1. Before the call, the host marks six sentences in this month's book, spread from the first chapter to the last. 2. The host reads one aloud. Everyone types the number of the chapter it comes from, and waits. 3. On a count of three, all the answers are sent. The nearest chapter scores a point, and the exact one scores two. 4. Ask for chapters, not pages, because members hold different editions. Searching an e-book is out. Reading needed: this month's book, with spoilers. Players: 3 to 20. You need: the book and the chat of the call.
Whose Nightstand Stack?1. The week before, each member sends the host a photo of the books beside their bed or chair, with no people in it. 2. The host numbers the photos and shows them on the shared screen. 3. Everyone writes a name beside each number. Then the owners own up, in order. 4. The most right answers win. Each owner names the one book in their photo they will finish first. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 15. You need: a shared screen, photos sent ahead, paper and a pencil.
Christmas games to play with book clubs 8
A Present for a Character1. Every member writes one character from a book the club read this year on a slip. Mix the slips in a stocking. 2. A player draws a slip and has half a minute to decide what they would wrap for that character. 3. They say the present and the line they would write on the gift tag, and nothing else. 4. The room names the character and the book. Whoever gets it draws the next slip. Reading needed: the club's books of the year. Players: 4 to 15. You need: slips of paper, pencils and a stocking.
Book of the Year Knockout1. Write each book the club read this year on a card and deal the cards into pairs, face up. 2. Take one pair at a time. Two members speak for thirty seconds each, one for each book, and the room votes by a show of hands. 3. The winners are paired again, round after round. With an odd number of cards, the last one waits a round. 4. The final is a secret vote on slips. The winning card hangs on the tree or stands on the mantel for the rest of the party. Reading needed: the club's books of the year. Players: 4 to 20. You need: cards, slips of paper and pencils.
The Club's Year in Awards1. The host lists every book the club read this year on a ballot, under five awards: best ending, best first chapter, the character to invite for dinner, the longest argument, and the cover of the year. 2. Each member fills in a ballot without conferring. 3. The host counts the votes aloud, award by award, and settles a tie by a show of hands. 4. For each winner, the member who proposed the book stands for a round of applause. Reading needed: the club's books of the year. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a ballot and a pen for each member.
Find Snow, a Fire and a Feast in the Stack1. Give each pair a stack of five novels from the shelf and a list: snow, a lit fire, a meal for more than four, a wrapped present, a journey home. 2. On go, pairs hunt through their stacks for a sentence that holds each one. 3. Mark each find with a slip of paper. The first pair with all five calls out. 4. They read their five sentences aloud, and the room rules on each. A refused sentence sends every pair back to the hunt. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 12. You need: five novels for each pair and slips of paper.
Put the Year's Books in Order, January First1. The host writes each book the club read this year on a slip, makes a set for every pair and shuffles each set. 2. Pairs lay their slips in the order the club read them, January first. 3. They have two minutes and work from memory: no phones and no diaries. 4. The host reads the true order from the club's own records. Score a point for each book in its right place. Reading needed: the club's books of the year. Players: 4 to 16. You need: a set of slips for each pair, a timer and the true order.
Sealed Reading Resolutions1. Each member writes one reading resolution for next year on a card, unsigned, such as "finish a book of over six hundred pages". 2. The host reads the cards aloud, and the club guesses the writer of each. 3. Each writer signs their card. The cards go into an envelope, which the host seals. 4. Open the envelope at next December's meeting. Whoever kept their resolution chooses the first book of the new year. Reading needed: none. Players: 3 to 20. You need: cards, pens and an envelope.
Secret Reader: Find Your Book by Your Own Words1. A gift draw as only a book club can play it. At the November meeting, each member draws another member's name. 2. Each wraps a book chosen for that one reader, new or from their own shelf. On the paper goes no name: only something the reader said at a meeting this year, as near word for word as the giver remembers. 3. At the party, the parcels are laid out on a table. Members walk along it, and each picks up the parcel they think is quoting them. 4. If two members claim one parcel, its giver settles it. Each reader opens their book and has one guess at who was listening. Reading needed: none. Players: 4 to 20. You need: names in a hat in November, and a wrapped book from each member.
The Year's Quiz, Written by the Other Team1. Split the club into two teams and give each a sheet and ten minutes. 2. Each team writes eight questions with their answers about the books the club read this year, spread over as many of the books as it can. 3. Teams take turns to ask. A right answer scores a point. 4. If the room checks the book and the askers' own answer is wrong, the askers lose a point. Reading needed: the club's books of the year. Players: 4 to 20. You need: paper, pencils and the year's books to check against.
How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for a book club of adults, in our own words; the player counts are our estimates. No book, author or character is named, no game involves alcohol and nothing is staked. Five games build on a traditional game: the dictionary game, charades, telephone, twenty questions, and two truths and a lie. Those rules were read on 12 October 2026 at English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name): Fictionary, Charades, Telephone_game, Twenty_questions, Icebreaker_(facilitation). Licence: own work
How it works
These games to play at a book club meeting name no novel that anyone has to know. They run on this month's book, whatever it is, or on the host's shelves and the club's own year of reading.
Read the full guide
When half the club has not finished
Every game says what reading it needs. Twenty-nine ask nothing about this month's book. Seven use it without spoilers, so a member on chapter three can play. Seven more, Book Charades among them, wait for a night when everyone has reached the last page.
A running order for one meeting
1. While people arrive: Spine Poem From the Stack. 2. Before the discussion: One Star, Five Stars: Whose Review? 3. During it: Discussion Bingo on a Nine-Square Card. 4. Afterwards: Casting Call With No Actors Named. 5. To close: Sixty-Second Pitch for Next Month's Book.
On a call, have answers typed first and sent on a count of three, so no reply steers the rest.
Questions and answers
What are good book club games and icebreakers for a first meeting?
Life Story Name Tags keeps every name on show all evening, Whose Three Books? gets the room guessing, and Three Books All Three of You Have Read finds common ground in four minutes. For questions to read aloud, use the book club icebreaker questions.
What are fun book club games for adults?
For laughs, try Back Cover for the Wrong Shelf, Shelf Mash-Up: Two Titles, One Plot and Radio Play of Page One. Every game is written for an adult club and is clean: no alcohol, nothing staked, and nobody is asked whether they finished.
Which book club games work on a video call?
Seven were written for a screen. Answers are typed and sent together, books and drawings are held up to the camera, and Whose Nightstand Stack? runs on a shared screen. Twenty Questions Inside the Book needs only voices, so it suits a call too.
What do book clubs play at a Christmas party?
Games about the year's reading, so nobody needs a book finished for December: The Club's Year in Awards, Book of the Year Knockout and a quiz each team writes for the other. Secret Reader is the gift exchange; Christmas gift exchange ideas has more.