Remember when book club fights were about the book?

Lately, I keep seeing people treat the monthly pick like a personal reading list. Last week, someone argued we should drop 'Klara and the Sun' because they 'don't like sci-fi.' That's not the point. We picked it to talk about it, not to only read our favorite genres. Ten years ago, the big debate was whether a character's choice was right or wrong. Now it feels like half the meeting is about whether we should have even read the book. How do you get a group back to discussing the story instead of the selection process?

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3 Comments

kai6026mo ago

Try making the person who complains lead the next discussion. Hand them a list of questions a week before and tell them it's their job to get us talking about the book itself. They either have to engage with the material to avoid looking bad, or they step down and stop complaining. Saw this work in a group where a guy kept hating on historical fiction. He had to run the talk on a book about the Civil War and actually came up with some decent points about the battle scenes. It forces investment.

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brookethomas5mo ago

That's actually genius, makes them put their money where their mouth is.

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alicea266mo ago

Wait, he actually came up with good points about battle scenes? That's wild, I would've bet money he'd just double down on hating the whole genre. Guess putting someone on the spot really works sometimes.

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