c/book-club-debates

14

gavinm89•1d ago

I was totally wrong about audiobooks counting as reading

I used to roll my eyes at people who said they 'read' a book via audiobook. Figured it was cheating, like skipping the actual work of reading. Then I started a 45-minute commute last month and gave it a shot with 'Project Hail Mary'. I finished it in 6 days and remembered every detail better than some paper books I've read. Has anyone else changed their mind on this after trying it for a specific reason?

29

leo_kelly•1d ago

The worst book club debate I ever sat through was about 'The Alchemist'

I was in a book club last spring that spent a whole two hours arguing over whether 'The Alchemist' is actually a deep book or just a bunch of fortune cookie sayings. One lady wouldn't let it go, kept saying Paulo Coelho changed her life because she read it during a bad divorce. Then some guy countered with actual stats, like how over 65 million copies sold doesn't make it literature. I just sat there eating chips and wondering why nobody ever debates something good like 'Blood Meridian' instead. Has anyone else had a book club debate that just went in circles for way too long?

12

mia_singh24•2d ago

Can we talk about that one guy at the library who argued 'Moby Dick' is a comedy?

Last Tuesday at a book club meetup in Denver, this older dude spent 20 minutes insisting Ahab's chase was a joke about obsession and laughed every time someone mentioned the whale. Has anyone else run into someone who totally misreads a classic and won't budge?

17

henry_palmer24•2d ago

That book club debate about 'The Great Gatsby' at a coffee shop in Austin last week got so heated the barista asked us to leave

I was just trying to say Nick is an unreliable narrator and this one lady kept cutting me off shouting 'you're missing the point' until the manager came over and told us to wrap it up, has anyone else had a book club debate turn into an actual fight?

21

taylor_fox•3d ago

PSA: I stopped forcing my book club to read classics and now we actually finish the books

For years I picked all the heavyweight classics for my group. Moby Dick, War and Peace, things like that. We all loved the idea of reading them, but by week 3 nobody had gotten past chapter 5 and the discussions were just people apologizing. Then last January I put a contemporary mystery on the list, and every single person finished it and showed up ready to talk. Now we mix in one classic every four months and fill the rest with modern stuff, and attendance is way up. Has anyone else had to shift their group's reading style to keep people coming back?

14

the_max•19d ago

My $80 Kindle purchase turned into a paperweight in three months

Bought a refurbished Kindle off a random site to save money for book club picks, and now the screen's frozen solid. Anyone else get burned buying cheap hardware for reading groups?

11

hannaho52•19d ago

Book club critique about pacing changed how I pick novels

My book club in Austin told me last month that I always pick slow burn literary fiction that drags in the middle. One member said "we need more plot hooks by chapter 3 or people stop reading." Did anyone else get feedback that made you rethink your book choices for the group?

11

ericfox•19d ago

Had a guy in my book club argue that To Kill a Mockingbird is overrated because 'nothing happens' for 200 pages

I mean, we were reading it for our March meeting and this dude kept saying the book was boring because Scout is just running around and Atticus is sitting on a porch. He said the trial part was the only good section. I tried to explain that the whole first half is about building this small town and showing how normal people act so when the trial hits you feel the weight of it. He wasn't buying it. It made me wonder if some people just want plot bombs every chapter and miss how setting up the quiet stuff makes the big moments hit harder. Has anyone else run into someone in their club who totally misses the point of setup in slower books?

3

spencer_moore39•21d ago

Critique from a book club member made me ditch my highlighters

I used to go wild with highlighters in my books. Every important passage got marked yellow, pink, or green. Then a lady named Carol in my club called me out. She said I was basically painting over the author's work. Made it impossible for her to borrow my copy. At first I got defensive. But then I thought about it. She was right. I was distracting myself from the actual reading. Now I just use sticky notes for key moments. Easy to remove and doesn't ruin the pages. Has anyone else gotten feedback that changed how they enjoy books?

24

beth_hart68•21d ago

Pro tip: stop calling every minor disagreement in a book a 'plot hole'

I was in a group last week where someone said the main character not locking her door was a plot hole. How do we even discuss themes or character choices if we're just screaming about logic gaps the whole time?

16

patricia_wells•22d ago

Bought a $60 electric wine opener and it died after opening one bottle

I thought I was being fancy for our book club meeting last week, but the thing just stopped working mid-cork, and now I'm back to using a $5 manual one that's never let me down-anyone else have a gadget that failed at the worst possible time?

16

martin.vera•23d ago

Book club went off the rails over a single comma in chapter 3

I was hosting at my place in Phoenix when Susan insisted the comma after 'he said' in chapter 3 completely changed the character's motivation. We argued for 45 minutes until Mike threw his book at the wall and stormed out. Has anyone else had a debate over punctuation that split your book club in half?

13

troy_wilson8•24d ago

Our book club argued for 2 hours over whether the main character was a hero or a villain in that mystery novel set in Detroit

I came into it thinking she was clearly the bad guy, but after hearing the other side's points about her abusive past and limited choices, I actually changed my vote by the end of the meeting - has anyone else had a debate flip their whole opinion on a character?

8

kevin_carr•24d ago

I finally read Cloud Atlas after hating the movie for years

I saw the movie in 2012 and thought it was a confusing mess, so I swore off the book forever. Then my book club picked it last fall and I was forced to give it a shot, and the way the stories loop into each other on the page actually made sense to me. Did anyone else have their mind changed by the book after writing off the film version?

17

morgan316•25d ago

Our book club in Chicago split apart last month over whether we should read books by canceled authors

The debate got heated. Half the group wanted to pick a novel by someone who said some sketchy stuff online a few years back. The other half said no way, we shouldn't support them. Three of our members straight up quit after the vote went 6-5 to include the book. Has your club dealt with this? How do you even decide where to draw the line?

12

iris_rivera44•28d ago

Took me 6 months to realize my book club was a debate club in disguise

I kept bringing up plot holes in our monthly reads and everyone would argue and I thought I was just in a really argumentative book club. Turns out the group was started by a former college debate captain and 80 percent of the meetings were just people fighting over themes and character choices.

24

allen.cole•28d ago

Found out my favorite book from 2015 was actually ghostwritten

I was scrolling through some old book club notes last night and decided to look up my favorite thriller from 2015, 'Dead End Road.' Turns out a different author wrote it under a pen name. The whole thing blew my mind because I remember us debating the writing style for two meetings straight. Makes me wonder how many other popular books are written by people we never hear about. Has anyone else ever had a book club pick that turned out to be ghostwritten?

24

lee733•29d ago

Went to a book club meetup at a library in Portland and found out half the group hadn't actually read the book

The debate turned into people guessing the plot from the movie trailer which was way funnier than the actual discussion, anyone else have a book club where nobody does the reading?

3

allen.cole•1mo ago

Appreciation post: The 2018 version of my book club spreadsheet vs what I use now

I used to track everything for our book club in a basic notebook. Names, dates, who picked what. Then I tried a shared Google Sheet my buddy recommended. Night and day difference. The old way had me flipping pages to remember who wanted to read what. Now I can sort by genre, vote on next picks, and see who's been skipping meetings. Last month we had 14 people vote on our next 3 books in 2 days. That never would have happened with paper. The automation saved us from spending 20 minutes every meeting just deciding what to read next. Has anyone else found a system that transformed how your group picks books?

22

miam11•1mo ago

Lost $120 on a book club pick that nobody actually read

I pitched a 900 page literary novel to my group last spring. Everyone agreed to try it. Three weeks later at the meeting, only two of us finished it and the rest admitted they gave up by page 50. The debate got heated when I argued we wasted $35 each for a book we just abandoned. Has anyone else had a pick flop this hard and lost money on it?

21

jake191•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: the discussion guide ruined our book club debate on the last novel

I spent 2 hours prepping for our monthly meeting based on the official questions, but nobody wanted to talk about them because we all had completely different interpretations of the ending, so now the club is split on whether to ditch guides entirely - has anyone else had a moderator push a book club debate off track with a bad discussion sheet?

23

white.alex•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: the first 50 pages of a book should be read twice

I used to just plow through the start of any novel and hope I caught everything. Then my Toronto book club had a debate about The Goldfinch where half of us missed a key detail about Theo's mom. So I started reading the first 50 pages twice before continuing, and my comprehension of characters and plot threads jumped way up. Has anyone else tried a different approach to the beginning of a book?

19

jaken23•1mo ago

I finally gave in and read a Colleen Hoover book after swearing them off for years

I've been in a book club for about 4 years now and we usually stick to literary fiction or classics. Last month, two members pushed hard for "Verity" by Colleen Hoover. I rolled my eyes because I always figured her books were just fluff for young readers. But after everyone in the group read it except me, I caved and picked it up. I finished it in two nights and honestly, the plot twists caught me off guard. I still think some of her other books might not be for me, but that one changed my mind a little. Has anyone else had a book they dismissed quickly and then ended up liking?

6

tara700•1mo ago

Just finished 'The Martian' and I liked the book way more than the movie

I finally read 'The Martian' after watching the movie a few years back. My book club mostly said the film did it better because of the visuals and Matt Damon's acting. But I read the book last month and the step-by-step problem solving on page 147 about the potato farm was way more gripping than the movie scene. The book makes you feel his isolation with all those log entries, while the movie rushes through the science to get to the action. Has anyone else here felt the book version beats out a popular adaptation for the same reasons?

7

skylercooper•1mo ago

My book club fought for 45 minutes over whether 'The Great Gatsby' is actually boring or if we're just reading it wrong

After 3 years in the same group I swear half the members just pretend to like it because the other half will lecture you about symbolism if you say it drags, anyone else's club get weirdly defensive over certain books?