This chapter focuses on the Bad Bugs Book Club (BBBC), founded in 2009 to engage bioscientists and interested non-scientists in discussions about infectious disease represented in fiction. Designed as a mode of public engagement with science and enhancement of microbial science literacy, the Book Club came to operate in a fluid, cross-disciplinary and multi-dimensional way. Active fiction reading and readers’ shared responses worked as a grounding and connecting point of contact around which different perspectives, knowledge and experiences were exchanged. The chapter examines the range of novels discussed by the Book Club over its fifteen-year life. We consider the range of motives that brought readers to it, especially their enjoyment of learning. We outline how the Book Club was set up and the work involved in keeping it going. We also explore how the Club adapted to changing circumstances when the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. This chapter draws on the reflections and outputs of Joanna Verran, the Club’s founder and leader, as well as two surveys of members conducted in 2019 and 2023.