It’s a great day and age to be a booklover. Social media has made it a lot easier to find bookish communities. We see it all the time with BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTwit. All of these popular sites host accounts that share recommendations and reviews, and spreads the love of books.
One such similar place that has begun to gain the attention of bookish people is Discord. Originally a sight designed for people to connect over video games, Discord has quickly grown to be a popular chat room for all types of experiences and hobbies. You can join massive servers with strangers or just make a small one for you and your friends. Discord does it all.
It wasn’t long after Discord got big that people began using it for book clubs. Because you can have different channels in the chat and have the ability to voice and video call it seems the perfect place to host a book club.
Some groups even took it a step further and created an entire bookish community online. Now, there is no shortage to public book themed Discord servers. Some local libraries even run their own, so it’s worth checking your libraries website. This list is just the beginning, and more are started all the time!
The Best General Servers
When you join a new server always make sure to read and adhere to all the rules posted. And remember if a server isn’t right for you, you can always leave and find a better suited one.
booksandtea is all about encouraging others to read and getting that same encouragement yourself. This server hosts reading marathons and sprints so you can fit reading into your schedule no matter what it looks like. They also host tons of recommendations and reviews to help you find books you’re looking to read. This is a medium sized server with 2,500+ people in it.
Book Lovers Club With nearly 26,000 members, this is a giant server with absolutely everything a booklover could want. This server hosts monthly book clubs, and sometimes invites authors to join and talk about their work. There are dozens of dedicated channels for discussing the works of specific authors, and the moderators are always adding more.
BookTalk Book Club If you are just getting started in the bookish Discord community and want to start with a smaller book club this is the one for you. Run by a nonprofit who hosts bookish events throughout the year, this server of nearly 200 has monthly book clubs, and links to author panels and interviews. It’s a great little community.
The Library This server prides itself on having links to downloadable ebooks at the ready so you can not only discuss books, but get books from this server. On the smaller side with just over 1,000 people this is a lovely quiet server for anyone who is looking for books in the public domain to read.
Book and Series specific servers
Animorphs For those who loved the Animorph series growing up, there is a dedicated Discord server just for us! Of course, there’s also channels for non Animorph related books of course, but the purpose of the server is mostly to celebrate this and similar series.
The Crockery A space for all things high fantasy, but especially The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. This server hosts read alongs, and has places for fan theories and predictions. A great place for readers of high fantasy and beyond to hang out and chat.
Dune A place for fans of Frank Herbert’s Dune, this server is a science fiction lover haven. No matter if you know every word in the books, or just have a passing interest, this Discord server is happy to have you. There’s also always tons of discussion of other classic sci-fi, so don’t be afraid to jump right in.
Beyond this list there are probably a good 200 bookish Discord servers out there. If you’re looking for one for a specific series or book you can search for it using Discord.Me and find one that fits your needs.
Book Discord servers are gaining popularity, and there are some great ones out there. I hope this list gets you started and points you to some wonderful online spaces.