When you hear the term "book club" what image comes to mind? Many readers not in one see them as social groups more interested in gossiping than discussing the book at hand, an impression that is often perpetuated in the media at large.

BookBrowse has been researching readers and book clubs for more than 15 years, so we knew that this perception wasn't accurate, but we didn't have hard numbers to prove the case. So, over the past 18 months we set out to find out exactly what's going on in book clubs, gathering responses from over 5,000 people through two surveys. We've recently published the findings in a report which we've titled "The Inner Lives of Book Clubs" because it's the first report to really get to the heart of the book club experience. And what it shows is that the perception that many have of book clubs is vastly different to reality.

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This excerpt is from BookBrowse's July 2015 white paper on book clubs. You can download the full research report for free at bookbrowse.com/wp

National surveys confirm that men tend to read less than women. For example, a 2013 Pew Research Center survey of 1000 adults ("A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013") found that 69% of men read at least one book a year compared to 82% of women. This white paper focuses in on frequent readers, defined as those who read at least one book a month - that is to say, people who read sufficiently to belong to a book club, whether they choose to or not. Even among frequent readers, it will come as no surprise that far fewer men report being in a book club than women.

To explore the topic of men in book clubs in more detail, and to minimize the bias from our own members (who were a minority in the survey but represented a disproportionate percentage of those in book clubs), we conducted a follow up qualitative survey of 130 men to ask about their experience and opinions of book clubs. The great majority of these were not BookBrowse members and 50 had not visited BookBrowse at all, having been randomly selected from a national sample of men aged 35+ who read at least one book a month.

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Based on recent research, in-depth interviews and extensive experience, BookBrowse's just published white paper provides an intriguing and insightful look at Book Clubs.

Download it at bookbrowse.com/wp

Find out:

• The two life stages when book club participation increases
• How many belong to book clubs, both in-person and online
• The five key attributes book clubs look for when choosing books
• Which media channels are used most to discover books
• The importance of libraries
• What men in book clubs think

and more

The white paper also contains links to advice on how to start and run a book club, and interviews with a wide variety of book clubs, with a particular focus on clubs that meet in public places such as libraries and bookstores, and have a mix of men and women.

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Have you ever wondered how many women are in book clubs, how many books they read and what they read?

Here are answers to these and many other book club questions!

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At BookBrowse we get asked a lot of book-related questions. While we can provide our own answers we've found it's often much more useful to turn the question over to our Facebook followers to get a broad range of opinions. Here is their advice for addressing a common but knotty book club problem:

Q. Our Book Club started about 4 years ago. We have 15 members of whom 12 attend regularly. New people have shown an interest in joining and there have been discussions about closing our membership but not all agree. How do we politely turn new members away and is it necessary?

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Q: "We recently gained a new book club member who is causing problems. She's only been to three meetings so far but she talks about herself non-stop. Every time someone makes a point about the book, she somehow relates it back to her life and tells a 10+ minute story. I've tried everything I can think - redirecting her back to the book, interrupting her, ignoring her but it's not working. She also puts people down, probably without meaning to, but still she does it. I don't think she has much of a social life outside of the club so I don't want to just tell her she can't come but she's ruining book club for the rest of the group at the moment so I need to do something. What is your advice?"

As you all know, we get a lot of book-related questions at BookBrowse. While we certainly have our own answers to these fascinating and excellent dilemmas, we love turning to our Facebook followers who always have the perfect answer - or answers! Here is their advice for addressing this sticky, tricky problem:

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