I’ve finally found my perfect subscription book club. I’ve been searching for a great book club for years and everything fell flat. But the Next Big Idea Club is everything I wanted in a book club.
I can’t believe someone hasn’t already done a book club in this way before. I’d particularly love if someone can follow the same blueprint laid out in the Next Big Idea Club and do it for fiction. The idea, execution, production, book selection, and discussions in the Next Big Idea Club are fantastic.
The Next Big Idea Club review.
The Next Big Idea Club really is the thinking person’s book club. It’s still in its infancy though and there are areas where it can improve. I’m going to address everything in this Next Big Idea Club review.
What you get in the Next Big Idea Club:
You already know the curators of the Next Big Idea Club.
For me, their names were a big enough selling point alone:
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Susan Cain
- Adam Grant
- Daniel Pink
The thing that initially made me hold back on subscribing to the Next Big Idea Club was my worry that nepotism would play a heavy role in the book selection process.
It’s amazing that none of the curators are taking a profit from the Next Big Idea Club and proceeds go to supplying books to underfunded schools (2 books donated for every subscription).
This fact alone made me very happy to subscribe because my own future philanthropical goals include getting better libraries in public schools – so I’m very happy with where my money’s going.
But, even though they’re not taking a profit, you’ll see that some of the books curated come from the curators themselves.
One past selection, as an example, being When by Daniel Pink (which is a superb book nonetheless).
After a bit of reasoning, however, I came to the conclusion of, “So what if the curators put their own books into the selection?”
They’re writers themselves who want to put forth their own ideas as much as other great ideas by lesser known writers. And, to top it all off, you actually love each of these writers.
You love their books and you trust their recommendations of other books. So why not?
- The Next Big Idea Club has a 2-week free trial here
The Next Big Idea Club is a quarterly book club.
You get 2 new books every 3 months.
How you get these books depends on what country you’re from and your subscription level.
If you’re in the US, you can get the very exciting subscription level of having two hardback books sent to your door every three months. I would have loved to have been able to choose this option, but I’m currently living in the UK. So I opted for the Kindle ebook subscription. I’m sure when the Next Big Idea Club gets bigger they’ll be able to ship internationally. For now, I’m happy with the Kindle subscription version.
You also get a video ecourse learning area where you can dive even deeper into the book selections.
This is where the major value is in the Next Big Idea Club.
It’s this aspect that I’ve wanted from a book club for so long!
It’s this aspect that has me super excited about the Next Big Idea Club and willing to recommend it.
If this wasn’t a part of the Next Big Idea Club, this book club subscription wouldn’t be much different from other book box subscriptions (aside from the brand name acclaim of the curators) and I probably wouldn’t be recommending it as heavily.
So what’s so great about the e-learning area?
In my opinion, this is what REALLY makes this a book club.
Other book club subscription boxes will just send you a new book each month.
That’s great, but then what?
What I really want from these book club subscriptions is an experience. A deep learning experience. Not just “Here’s a book, enjoy!”
I want to know that some real thought has gone into the curation of the books and I’m holding it in my hands for a reason.
I want to get the most out of each book as I possibly can.
The way I read books is different from most people. I’ll read a chapter, then immediately re-read it with a pen in my hand and underline stuff. Later, once I’ve finished the book, I’ll type up my favourite parts, write reviews, and try to extrapolate lessons from different areas to apply to all areas of my life. And I’ll try to discuss that book as much as possible with likeminded people.
If you read books in the same way as me, you’ll instantly understand the value of an online course area set up around the book selections.
The online learning course really takes the books to the next level and cements the lessons you can take from the books.
For example, one of the current book club selections is a wonderful book called Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee.
It’s not the sort of book I would pick up on my own, but because it was included in the Next Big Idea Club I’ve given it a chance and it’s really swept me away.
It’s so exciting to have people you trust basically put a book in your hands and say, “Here, you might not normally choose this book but you’re really going to get something out of it”.
Anyway, this book is all about aesthetics. The opening chapter is all about how changing the colours of our surroundings (and doing nothing else) can have real and dramatic socioeconomic effects. It’s fascinating.
As you can imagine, it’s crammed with case studies. As I was reading these studies, I wanted to actually SEE what the author was discussing. Well with the online course, you get exactly that – and everything comes to life with way more vibrancy.
You get these wonderful video courses and you also get ways to apply what you’ve learnt, broken down into these “executive summaries” that you can apply to your own life.
There’s also a book club discussion area, not just under each video, summary, and applicable lesson, but also in the form of a dedicated Facebook community.
I haven’t checked out the FB community yet, but I have looked at the discussion sections for a few of the book choices. There is book club discussion and participation going on but I’d like to see a lot more.
Obviously the Next Big Idea Club is still new so I can’t be too harsh yet. Also, I can’t really judge that because I haven’t made any comments myself – but I’ll be kicking some discussion off after finished another of the book club’s current selections and see where that goes.
Even if it’s not too busy at the moment, I’m sure you can meet likeminded people through this club.
It might actually be a positive to get in on the discussion from the beginning before it gets super crowded (it will, I can see this club getting more popular very soon).
If I had to give a star rating to the Next Big Idea Club, I’d give it a five out of five.
Sure, there could be some improvements in the way of the community but that’s going to pick up soon as the club gains more traction.
And the club deserves full marks because it’s doing something that other book club subscription services should have started doing a long time ago.
If you’re someone who likes to read books that matter and likes to actually extract applicable advice from what you read, the Next Big Idea Club is the best book club subscription service on the market.
If you’re convinced and ready to dive in, you can check out the Next Big Idea Club here.
If you still need a little more convincing, why not subscribe to the 2-week free trial?
Then you can see everything for yourself and enjoy the video subscription area and then make a decision.
You can check out the free trial here.
