Book clubs are on the rise.

“We nearly had a fist fight in here over Pedro Pascal the other day.”

I was expecting many things from my conversation with Victoria Bonner, owner of Hold Fast, a quaint but cool canal barge turned independent bookshop in Leeds Dock, but this was not one of them.

Pascal, who has his own chapter in Gillian Anderson’s tome of sexual fantasies Want, was the subject of fierce debate among the barge’s shoppers, who had strongly held views on Chilean-American hunk’s appeal. The group only managed to find common ground in their mutual shock that one woman didn’t know who Pascal was.

“You don’t get that in Morrisons” Bonner chuckles.

We may think of bookshops and the people who visit them as quiet and considered, but lively debates like this are more common than you’d expect. Bookshops and book clubs are becoming social hubs, especially for young people, as they look for more meaningful, affordable, and accessible alternatives to boozy nights out.

Google searches for “book club” are at their highest in years, and Eventbrite say the number of book club events on the platform has increased by 350% since 2020. ‘Bookstagrammers’ and ‘booktokers’ are also flooding social media with recommendations, prompting discussions and rocketing unknown authors into the spotlight, sending their sales numbers skyward with them.

Celebrities are even jumping on the trend, with A listers including Dua Lipa, Dakota Johnson and Reese Witherspoon launching their own online groups.

Lipa’s Service 95 Book Club podcast has struck a particular chord, racking up over

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