The AI revolution is upon us. Soon, fusion-powered, self-duplicating, AI robots will be cranking out unlimited food, semaglutides, money, and trinkets. The only status symbol left will be your skill as a conversationalist. Now is the time to start reading interesting books and perfecting the timeless art of conversation! Alternatively, you may just like to talk with people, and book clubs provide a great excuse to talk with people. 

Our name and logo is a riff off of Ben Franklin’s “Junto” (AKA: The Leather Apron Society), a mutual improvement club where questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy were debated. Despite the Spanish definite article, we are an American company, so we pronounce our name with a hard “J”: el-jun-toh.

Club meetings take place via videoconference within the app. For the best experience, set your phone to portrait mode before starting. The "Join Now" button on the club page becomes active 30 minutes before the meeting begins. You can rejoin up to 2 hours after the scheduled end time. Discussion questions from the club leader will appear in a scrollable panel at the bottom of the screen.

An Impromptu Book Club is a one-off book club that discusses a particular book and disbands. An Impromptu club can meet over one or more sessions. Perhaps you want to start with a 15-minute happy hour meet & greet before you even discuss the book? Perhaps your book is 1,000 pages long, and you want to discuss it over the course of 3 meetings? Maybe you want to do the whole book at once? Join an Impromptu Book Club to meet random new people.

A Standing Book Club is a club that meets on a regular basis and discusses different books. Remember that person you vibed with in that Impromptu Book Club? Get into a Standing Book Club with them! 

Why not start up an Impromptu Book Club for whatever book you’re reading now? Why not start a Standing Book Club to discuss cooking recipe books? Or a Standing Book Club that only reads books made into movies? Craft your Club Charter and Member Request Prompts to start whatever kind of club you want.

Standing Club Charters often include:

• Genre/theme/author of books
• Typical meeting frequency, day of the week, and time
• Membership cap (ex: 7 members max)
• If the discussion leader rotates
• Who is responsible for book selection (ex: it rotates)

Impromptu Club Charters often include:

• How many sessions the book will be discussed over
• Membership cap (ex: 7 members max)

Heavy is the head that wears the Club Leader crown. We jest, we jest--it's actually pretty easy to establish a new club, but don't feel obligated to startup your own book club. If you see a club opening that looks interesting (read their Club Charter, see what books they've read, and see what their members have in their “Top Shelf”), request to join!

The simplest way is to use “Messages” to propose a few dates and times with your fellow club members. Alternatively, if you enjoy unnecessary complexity, you could use “Messages” to exchange emails with your fellow club members, and use a third-party poll service of your choosing, such as https://doodle.com/

We have found that any book worth the paper it’s printed on can inspire a 2-hour discussion, but you can schedule a meeting for as little as 15 minutes.

As you read a book, come up with the questions as you go. Also, do a search on the World Wide Web for questions. Or, maybe spread the work around and ask everyone in the club to contribute a few questions. Many hands make light work!

We have found that the ideal number of people for a virtual book club is 7, but your El Junto book club can have anywhere from 2-10 members. Don’t be deceived, the book clubs out there on the “other” apps with hundreds or thousands of members ain’t real book clubs.

First, take heart! Someone else in the world is reading the same book as you, and wants to discuss it with you, but this is a growing app, and they might not have found El Junto YET. Second, use the search feature to find others who are currently reading the same book as you, or who have enjoyed some of your favorite books. Send them an invitation! If that fails, request to join a club that has an opening, even if you need to step outside your interest or comfort zones. You might make some new friends!