In an era before television or radio, it's hardly surprising that reading was a popular form of entertainment. In fact, many Victorians were concerned that all this "reading" -- particularly the reading of novels and fiction -- would be damaging to the hearts and minds of the young! Many articles (which we haven't bothered to reprint here) explained how to choose "good" reading material (which generally meant virtuous stories with a clear moral message) or even "how to read a novel." Though this was an era of reading, it was also an era of far fewer published novels - so pulling together a book club of people who had read the same works (e.g., Dickens) was probably a bit easier than it might be today.

How to Promote a Shakespeare Club (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1880)

How to Form a Small Library, by James Mason (Girl's Own Paper, 1881)

Besides suggestions on how to assemble a collection of books, this article explains how to make a bookcase for them.

Our Model Reading Club (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

The Chatauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, by Edward Everett Hale (Century Magazine, 1886A)

The Circle "is based on a plan of home-reading in regular system. At this moment it consists of about one hundred thousand readers, more or less, who are reading in the system proposed. Most of these are in America, some are in Japan, and the rest are elsewhere, in Europe, Asia, Africa, the islands of the ocean, or tossed upon the sea in ships."

A New Way of Entertaining Friends (Girl's Own Paper, 1892)

Entertainments and games based on English literature (e.g., a mock trial of an admirer of Dickens...)

Home Readers in Vacation (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1893)

The "National Home Reading Union" functioned as a giant book club with over 7000 members!

An Afternoon "Book Party" (Girl's Own Paper, 1899)

Each guest represents a book, and the other guests must attempt to guess the titles represented by their companions.

Our Travel Club, and How We Manage It (Girl's Own Paper, 1900)

"We are supposed to...try to imagine we are a party going to travel in some foreign country," whereupon the various "committees" research routes, sights, art, culture, etc. and present the information to the club as a whole.

• See also Views of Fiction & Literature