Book Club Madness tournament scores big with readers and library lovers
Charlotte’s book club scene was buzzing this spring as the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation hosted its third annual Book Club Madness — a spirited, community-wide competition that brings together book lovers from across Mecklenburg County to see which book club is the best in the region.
Inspired by the frenzy of March Madness, this event transformed reading into a team sport, complete with weekly challenges, creative prompts, and coveted prizes.
As Library Foundation director of marketing and communications Maggie Bean shared on WCNC Charlotte Today, “we can’t let the jocks have all the fun!”
Host of WCNC Charlotte Today Mia Atkins is a huge fan of books and book clubs and had Library Foundation director of marketing and communications Maggie Bean on the show to share the ins and outs of Book Club Madness.
What is Book Club Madness?
Book Club Madness is sponsored by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation and ran throughout March this year, engaging local book clubs through themed challenges where participants earn points for their book clubs. To learn the ins and outs about this literary-themed competition, visit foundation.cmlibrary.org/book-club-madness.
The Stats
This year 803 participants from 222 book clubs registered for the Madness. During the four-week competition the teams checked out 5,106 items and made 1,461 visits to the Library.
Community Read Challenge
The kickoff week aligned with the Library’s annual Community Read program, featuring Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. Participants earned points by reading the book, rating and reviewing it on the Library’s website, and attending related events. 258 participants read the signature title, and 187 participants make Portrait of a Thief their next book club selection including our top scoring book club Sardis Plantation Book Club.
Top scorer Sardis Plantation Book Club held their April book club meeting at Hands Create Fine Arts Studio at the Arboretum in South Charlotte, spending the first hour wining, snacking and discussing the book then were guided in a lesson on watercolor painting.
“Tailgating” Library-style
Week two focused on the cozy and culinary aspects of book clubs with challenges like sharing photos of reading mascots and favorite book club snacks. Teams showed off their creativity and camaraderie with reading companions of all shapes, sizes and species and bookishly-themed snack spreads.
Be sure to check out the word clouds and videos compiled from participants’ submissions — proof that Charlotte’s readers know how to throw a literary party!
As part of the Tailgate Challenge, participants filled out a survey telling us all about their favorite snacks and beverages. These were their answers.
Library staff gets mad, too!
Week three celebrated the Library’s very own MVPs — our library staff. These passionate professionals designed the third week’s creative challenges and helped inspire readers throughout the competition.
In addition to our new 2025 commissioner Meghan Anderson at South Boulevard Library, six Library staff joined as Madness Coaches, specially dedicated staff that helped with Book Club Madness challenges: Nancy Lingle at Davidson, Kristin Wilkins at Founders Hall, Joyce Ramos at Independence Regional, Justin Singh at Matthews, and Ashley Conte and Amy Hilton at Steele Creek.
Give it up
The last week of challenges was all about philanthropy (our favorite thing at the Foundation!) and boy, did our participants pay it forward. From writing thank-you notes to staff and stocking Little Free Libraries with over 1,000 books to reading local authors and making donations during Library Giving Day, teams were all-in on spreading kindness and growing Charlotte’s community of readers. The mix of small gestures and social media outreach made this week a heartwarming finale to a spirited competition.
And the Winners Are…
Top Scorer: Sardis Plantation Book Club racked up the most points across all five weeks accruing 2,925 points and demonstrated unstoppable enthusiasm, huge creativity, and deep community engagement.
SkillPop Prize Winner: The top ten scorers were entered into a drawing for a group SkillPop experience and fourth-place Brown Queens Book Club won a night of hands-on creativity to celebrate their efforts. Thank you to our sponsor SkillPop for providing a one-of-a-kind experience for our players.
Verse & Vino Drawing Winner: Junior League of Charlotte (JLC) Sassy Sustainers North Book Club took the table at the Library Foundation’s signature literary gala, winning the drawing out of the 59 book clubs who scored 100 or more points during the competition.
It Takes a Village
The competition fostered connections across Charlotte with support from local bookstores like Main Street Books, Park Road Books, and Troubadour Booksellers. These partners provided deluxe book club kits as prizes, underscoring the city’s big heart for our public libraries. We thank them for their commitment to their community as do our winners: Treat Yo’ Shelves, Read Between the Wines, and Black Girls with Bookmarks.
The Charlotte Center for Humanities and Civic Imagination sponsored the fourth Weekly Winner Challenge with 10 tickets for “Story in Time: Voices in Historical Fiction” featuring authors Susie Orman Schnall, Vanessa Miller, Joy Callaway, Adele Myers, and Camille di Maio at the Charlotte Ideas Festival. We ended up with multiple winners for this prize as Charlotte Center generously released more tickets to book clubs who scored 55 points or more that week.
Looking Ahead
With Book Club Madness 2025 in the books, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation is considering what a fourth year of the Madness might bring. Stay tuned!
