MAINE, Maine — It's National Reading Month, making it the perfect time to highlight a website and mobile app a Mainer started called "Bookclubs" that has seen a lot of success.
The platform is a way for anyone in the world to join a book club of their choosing. Co-founder and CEO Anna Ford, who's from Camden, said this is an easy way to solve communication issues for many book clubs and a way to join a new club of your liking.
After more than 20 years of leading book clubs or being part of one, Ford kicked off bookclubs.com. She said the platform has seen huge response and growth.
"I interact with so many passionate readers in clubs. Some are just starting out; some have been meeting for 30-40 years and they are still together, which is just incredible," Ford said. "It's touching and inspiring to interact with so many clubs when I myself know the magic that can come from a book club experience."
She started it after hearing from so many people who were interested in joining a book club but didn't have anywhere to go or a book club that interested them in their area.
Ford said right now they are serving one million individual readers who are part of one or more of the 75,000 clubs they have on the platform, covering a wide variety of topics and genres. The platform is intended as a way to build community, introduce people to new perspectives, and help keep people on track with their reading goals.
"I think people that are members of a book club, and we have this from our data and survey data from our members, tend to read more," Ford explained. "There's that accountability factor. You want to go to the meeting, so you read the book. You learn more, so there is more opportunity for personal discovery. and learning through books that you may have not read on your own, because usually there is some sort of democratic process within a book club around what you are going to read next. So it exposes people to different books. I think the social connection and benefits of being in a book club are the most profound."
If you are interested in joining a book club, you can simply download the Bookclubs app or go its website.