Are there too many celebrity book clubs to go around? Short answer: No! When it comes to getting people psyched about reading, especially now, we say the more the merrier.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to hate on celebs jumping into the book-club fold, and occasionally our first response is an eye roll: We get it, you can read! Maybe it seems opportunistic, trying to grab a slice of that sweet #BookTok action<\/a>. (The hashtag has more than 100 billion hits on the app.) But right now, when the number of Americans who read for pleasure has dropped by 40 percent, according to a new study, we\u2019re slowing our (eye) rolls and instead saying bring them on! In fact, start even more book clubs!<\/p>\n Reese Witherspoon<\/strong><\/a> is the biggest success story in the most recent wave of club promoters. She launched the female-fiction-focused Reese\u2019s Book Club in 2017 with Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman<\/strong>, and she\u2019s had more than 110 picks since. The New York Times<\/a> dubbed her the Queen of the Book Club in May 2024, reporting that the previous year, her selections accounted for a staggering 2 million-plus in print sales. Witherspoon had two goals in starting the club, she said: to simplify choices for busy readers and \u201cbring the book club out of your grandma\u2019s living room.\u201d And she succeeded, big-time.<\/p>\n Jenna Bush Hager, Reese Witherspoon and More Celebrities Who Have Launched Their Own Book Clubs<\/a><\/p>\n Other famous folks, like Today\u2019s Jenna Bush Hager<\/strong> (Read With Jenna) and Emma Roberts<\/strong> (Belletrist), have followed in Witherspoon\u2019s footsteps. And all three have amplified the impact and reach of their clubs beyond the written page: Witherspoon and Roberts have adapted several of their picks for screen (like Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/strong>\u2019s Daisy Jones & the Six<\/a> and Delia Owens<\/strong>\u2019 Where the Crawdads Sing<\/a> for Witherspoon, Carola Lovering<\/strong>\u2019s Tell Me Lies<\/a> for Roberts). Bush Hager partnered with the Random House Publishing Group to launch the Thousand Voices Books media company, which aims to highlight emerging voices in the publishing industry.<\/p>\n Dua Lipa<\/span> ROGER WONG\/INSTARimages.com\/Cover Images<\/span><\/p>\n Things have gotten a tad more headscratchy with the addition of stars we don\u2019t immediately associate with \u201cbooks\u201d or \u201creading,\u201d like Dua Lipa<\/strong><\/a> (2023\u2019s Service95 Book Club), Kaia Gerber<\/strong><\/a> (2024\u2019s Library Science) and Dakota Johnson<\/strong><\/a> (2024\u2019s TeaTime Book Club). Each has its own aesthetic and vibe: Gerber\u2019s site, for example, is very French-girl-smoking by-the-Seine; Lipa\u2019s is a bit Sassy magazine updated for the new millennium. Johnson\u2019s site is all business in an intentional-seeming way, stripped down and bare bones with the feeling of a Substack bookshop. In short, there is a book club for every kind of reader around.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n