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The Broke Bibliophiles turns 10: Why a free, offline book club still works
Updated On: 14 December, 2025 11:28 AM IST | Mumbai | Tanisha Banerjee
The Broke Bibliophiles book club is set to turn 10 years old and has no plans of slowing down, stubbornly staying relevant in a world of AI and online forums
The gatherings of Broke Bibliophiles are dedicated to provide a space between authors and readers at no cost whatsoever
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For a book club known for being free to its members, a decade is a curious kind of endurance test. Trends shift, attention spans contract, algorithmic feeds gobble our hours, and yet, somewhere in Mumbai, a roomful of strangers continues to gather every month simply to talk about books. That stubborn insistence on reading together is what has kept the Broke Bibliophiles alive for 10 years with more than 1400 members active on its Whatsapp group. As it approaches its 10th anniversary in April 2026, its co-founder, Nirav Mehta, finds himself looking back with pride after spending a decade incorporating his blood and sweat into it.
Mehta remembers the beginning with a sort of affectionate irony. “I started it with a team of 11 people. We declared ourselves co-founders,” he says. “Soon I was the only one actually running the book club constantly.” The club’s original dream was delightfully analogue — meet in person, talk in person, and build a reading community in the real world.
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