Hot take: I stopped pre-reading books before book club meetings

I used to be that person who would read every book twice before our monthly meetup at The Cozy Bean downtown. Thought I was being thorough, you know? Last month I showed up for our discussion on some literary fiction novel and realized I had spent two hours analyzing the wrong character's motivation because I misread a chapter on my second pass. My friend Jen gently pointed out I kept referencing details that weren't actually in the text. Made me feel like an idiot honestly. Now I just read it once, maybe take a few notes on my phone, and go in cold. The conversations are way more natural and I don't stress about missing some hidden symbol. Has anyone else found that over-preparing actually hurts the discussion?

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roberts.troy6d ago

Read somewhere that actors stop rehearsing after a certain point so their performances feel fresh and I think book clubs work the same way.