Booking Clubs

Reading parties with phones put away at the entrance, books opened under candlelight, cocktails on the tables and everyone quietly doing their own thing for two hours before the conversations start. Events happen in different cafes and hidden spots around Dubai.

Less academic book discussion, more intimate night with strangers who all showed up carrying a book.

Made for people who keep saying they’ll start reading again “when life gets less busy.” Monthly book picks, slower-paced discussions and cafe meetups without pressure to sound overly intellectual.

The project is connected to Harriet’s personal page @literaturegrad with classics, thoughtful recommendations and slow living content.

First rule: you don’t talk about the club. Invite-only reading gatherings with cult fiction picks, intimate discussions and a page that stays intentionally low-key. Most people get invited through friends or mutuals, not public sign-ups.

The meetings are held in Russian and built around smaller discussion groups, private locations and carefully selected books instead of open-format public events.

One of those niche Dubai accounts you end up following even if you never planned to join a book club. Campy Chronicles mixes monthly reading meetups with cinema screenings, art-house references and very online curation that feels closer to a creative community than a formal club.

Their events range from contemporary fiction discussions to film nights inspired by cult classics like Paris, Texas, usually with small groups, aesthetic venues and people from Dubai’s art and fashion circles.

Dubai book club with monthly fiction picks, cinematic visuals and offline meetups around the city. In May they were reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke — a surreal novel about endless halls, statues and flooded rooms.  

Meetups usually happen in small creative spaces with group discussions focused on contemporary fiction, cult classics and niche releases.

A Russian-speaking club built around one monthly book pick and offline discussions in Dubai. No complicated format, just people reading the same book and meeting up to talk about it afterwards. The picks move between classics, modern fiction and popular contemporary books depending on the month.