Online book club
An online book club needs no café and no city, only two people and a book. It is therefore the form that already works here in full.
How it works
One book, one group
A small group agrees on a book and on how far to read by when. The section is agreed by chapter, never by page.
Read, and note as you go
If you want to say something about a passage, you write it right there. Your note stays where it was written.
Arrive, and read what is waiting
Once you reach the same place, the notes of the others appear. Not before, however fast anyone else reads.
What is different without a meeting
A meeting sets a deadline: by then the section is read, or you sit there with nothing to say. That deadline is uncomfortable and it holds the group together. Without a meeting it is missing, which is why an online book club needs an explicit agreement that somebody actually says out loud.
From sixteen
Anyone aged sixteen or over can read online. For meetings in person the limit is eighteen, and the two are kept apart. The risk lies with meeting in person, not with reading together.