Book Clubs

Status: Future Feature

Book clubs are a core differentiator for Logbook, enabling organized, engaging reading experiences with voting, discussions, and scheduling.

Overview

Book clubs allow groups of readers to:

• Read books together with shared deadlines
• Discuss books in threaded conversations (with prompts)
• Vote democratically on the next read
• Track group reading progress
• Book club specific achievements

Key Design Decisions

Public vs Private Clubs

• Public clubs - Discoverable, anyone can join or request to join
• Private clubs - Invite-only, hidden from search/browse

Membership & History

• Leaving a club is a soft delete - member is marked inactive but history is preserved
• Users can still see books they read with the club, their contributions to discussions, and votes cast
• Allows rejoining without losing context
• Club admins see departed members in a separate "Past Members" section

User Stories

• As a book club member, I want to see our current read and deadline prominently so I know what to prioritize
• As a book club member, I want to participate in discussions without spoiling the book for others
• As a book club member, I want to vote on our next book so I have a say in what we read
• As a book club admin, I want to manage deadlines and nominations so the club stays organized
• As a book club member, I want to see who's reading and who's finished so I know who I can discuss with

Book Club Page

Header

• Club name and avatar
• Member count
• Join/Leave button
• Settings (admin only)

Current Read Section

• Book cover and title
• Reading deadline (countdown)
• Progress bar (% of members finished)
• "Start Discussion" CTA
• Quick actions: Log pages, Mark finished

Discussion Board

• Threaded comments
• Spoiler tags/warnings
• Sort by: Recent, Popular, Oldest
• Like, reply, bookmark comments
• Notification settings per thread

Voting for Next Book

• Nominated books (cover, title, author)
• Vote button (one vote per user)
• Live vote counts
• Voting deadline
• Nominate new book button
• Winning book auto-scheduled

Schedule/Calendar

• Past reads (archive)
• Current read with deadline
• Next book with start date
• Meeting dates (if applicable)

Members List

• Avatar grid
• Reading status indicators (reading, finished, not started)
• Member roles (admin, moderator, member)
• Invite friends button

Feature Requirements

Must Have

• Create book club (subscription?)
• Join book club
• Leave book club
• View club members
• Current read with deadline
• Discussion board (threaded comments)
• Vote for next book
• View past reads
• Club invitations (link, email)
• Private clubs (only findable view invite)

Nice to Have

• Spoiler tags in discussions
• Custom club roles/permissions
• Club discovery/browse
• Webdash for live member meetings? (i.e. live time voting etc)

Notifications

Push notifications for:

• New discussions
• Voting opens/closes
• Reading deadlines approaching
• New book selected

Admin Controls

• Nominate books
• Set deadlines
• Manage members
• Pin discussions

Technical Notes

Entities

• BookClub - Club metadata
• ClubMember - User-club relationship with role
• ClubRead - Book assigned to club with deadline
• ClubVote - User vote for nominated book
• Discussion - Threaded discussion container
• Comment - Individual comment in discussion

It would be interesting (possibly) to surface any user recommendations of a book currently being read in a club from the individual members so they're shown on a user profile and within the bookclub feed.

API Endpoints

Following controller patterns:

# Clubs
POST   /v1/clubs/find                   # Paginated search
POST   /v1/clubs/list                   # Non-paginated list
POST   /v1/clubs                        # Create club
GET    /v1/clubs/{clubId}               # Get club details
PATCH  /v1/clubs/{clubId}               # Update club
DELETE /v1/clubs/{clubId}               # Delete club

# Membership
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/join          # Join club
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/leave         # Leave club (soft delete)
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/members/find  # List members

# Discussions
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/discussions/find    # List discussions
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/discussions         # Create discussion
GET    /v1/clubs/{clubId}/discussions/{id}    # Get discussion
PATCH  /v1/clubs/{clubId}/discussions/{id}    # Update discussion

# Voting
GET    /v1/clubs/{clubId}/votes               # Get current voting
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/votes               # Cast vote
POST   /v1/clubs/{clubId}/nominations         # Nominate book

Implementation Considerations

• Voting system with deadline enforcement
• Discussion board with nested comments
• Real-time updates (WebSockets or polling)
• Notification preferences per club
• Admin action audit log
• Calendar integration (export meetings)
• Discussion moderation tools