3 Ways Book Clubs Can Help You Age Well and Stay Connected

When we think about book clubs, we may think of middle-aged suburban women gathering in someone’s living room, gossiping, drinking wine, and just having some “girl time.” That’s what the movies show us, right? And while this may be true for some book clubs, this isn’t the purpose, and it certainly isn’t a demonstration of the full range of benefits we can reap from joining a book club (although, an evening spent with your best girlfriends is a benefit).

Why Book Clubs Can Be Your Best Ally As You Age

There’s something extraordinary about a book club; a unique blend of experiences that nourish the mind, heart, and social spirit, a special combination of ingredients for aging well. From the joy of shared reading to meaningful conversations and a sense of belonging, these gatherings offer more than just books; they’re a recipe for staying sharp, connected, and fulfilled as we age.

Book Clubs Keep Your Brain Active and Engaged

The first ingredient we have in a book club is the most obvious: the book. Reading the book. Now I know that there is a stereotype in the “suburban mom book club” that they don’t even read the book, but let’s assume that we are in a book club to read the book, as most people are. This is important. Reading is fundamental (is that the old saying?), even for adults.

When we read, we engage so many different areas of our brain. Visual centers to see and process the words on the page (or the corresponding hearing centers if we are listening to an audiobook), language centers to help us access and understand the words that are used in the book, past knowledge of the topics covered in the book, memory centers that hold memory for earlier parts of the book, and even the brain’s motor cortex when we “mirror” what happens in the action in the book and imagine it happening in our mind’s eye.

When we use these areas (or any area for that matter), we are exercising it. And much like a muscle, the more we exercise our brain the stronger it gets. This is important for aging well because an unused brain is a weak brain, but a brain that stays sharp is one that’s been used and used often.

In using our brain, especially when reading on a new topic or reading about new characters, we make new connections between neurons. These connections are brain growth (yes, we can grow connections well into our older adult years). Researchers, like me, have demonstrated consistent comprehension of books across our lifespan, even if reading speed slows down. My research in particular has shown that healthy older adults who are regular library patrons may even understand and remember what they have read better than their young adult counterparts.

Which books help keep your brain sharp as you age?

We may even see that the different kinds of books we read can exercise different skillsets in our brain. For instance, our crystallized intelligence (that’s our knowledge base) grows all throughout our lives- like a never-ending bag of stuff (Mary Poppins, is that you?). All the weird trivia we know? That’s our crystallized intelligence too. By reading nonfiction books, we are working to grow our crystallized intelligence.

Emotional intelligence can grow as well through reading about social relationships, romantic relationships, emotions, and the like. What’s good for that? Romance novels! Mystery books (I love a cozy mystery!) can help build our fluid intelligence, which can wane in our older years if we aren’t working it. That’s our ability to think critically, solve problems, and think logically about a situation. And whenever we imagine what we read, we are building our skills of mental imagery, spatial memory, and our visual systems within the brain. In fact, brain scans show that our visual cortex works just as hard when we imagine something as when we are looking at it in real life- sometimes, even harder.

With that, said, I recommend to read what you like (and in whatever format you like- you’re still using your brain when you listen to an audiobook, as long as you’re paying attention… but that’s another discussion for another day), but also try something new and exercise your brain in a new way.

I used to think romance novels were not for me. But I also knew that I wasn’t a great “socializer.” So, I gave it a whirl. And what do you know? I found that these books are often great (if sometimes a bit spicy- this is not a requirement for a good romance novel by the way). They dive into human relationships, emotions, interpreting feelings, human communication, and more. And they exercised this part of my brain that my little hermit self didn’t exercise as much as I could/should.

Book Clubs Build Meaningful Connections

The other piece of book clubs that is essential for aging well is the social component. Getting together with your friends or making new ones is important for several aspects of aging.

Some research shows that we do have fewer friendships when we grow older, but in reality, we are going for quality over quantity. So, we should aim to have quality relationships in these book clubs for maximum benefit, and it’s my experience that the relationships that grow out of these gatherings are amazing.

Other research on social relationships shows that they can contribute to better cognition. Specifically, thinking about a book and discussing it may show you different perspectives, may remind you of pieces of the story you missed (thereby solidifying your memory for it), and may allow you to bond with another person by refreshing on your own memories from your own life and how they relate to the themes in the book. And, when we create and nourish relationships with individuals outside our family, we are working our brain even harder, making for stronger neural connections.

This makes sense in that we are not regularly experiencing life with these friends, so we must do more work to communicate with them. That makes us use our memory, our communication and language skills, and understand the other person and where they are coming from as well—particularly if they are of another generation, ethnic group, or religion.

Book Clubs Can Bridge Gaps and Foster Inclusion

Unlike many other things that we think can help us age well such as supplements, specific exercise programs, spa treatments, moves to a second home in Florida etc, book clubs are very low hanging fruit, so to speak. There are very few barriers to engage in this kind of multifaceted approach to aging well. And there’s plenty of scientific evidence to support its benefits.

If finances are a barrier, book clubs can be free. You do not need any money to participate. Most public libraries have book club programs or at least allow you to access the books you want to read for free. And when you do it that way, you can bring your friends, but you can also meet new ones from your community. This is what I did for many years, and it led to so many great relationships with people of different generations.

What about visual changes that can happen with age? There are a variety of supports for that. The most obvious are reading glasses, but also large print books and audiobooks all allow us to engage in these activities no matter our limitations. I once was in a book group at my public library with a woman who had macular degeneration. It didn’t stop her at all- she got the audiobook version of the book we read every month…well, until one month it wasn’t available, at which time her loving husband read her the entire historical romance novel (he was not impressed!), and even joined our discussion at the next meeting.

And if you don’t drive (or don’t like to drive at night like me), virtual options are available as well. Zoom is a great tool to meet with friends near or far to discuss books, build relationships, and have a good time all from the comfort of your home.

All this to say, if you haven’t tried a book club before, I HIGHLY recommend. The benefits far outweigh any barriers we may have to participation, and the prospect of aging well? That’s worth the work.

What do you think your book club should read next?

Like this post? Support Us or Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox!