TIL I was reading book club books completely wrong for 6 months

I've been in my local book club for about half a year now, and every month I'd feel totally lost during the debates. Everyone else was talking about themes and symbolism while I was just recapping the plot. Last Tuesday, after our discussion of a mystery novel, I admitted I never read the author's note or the discussion questions at the back of the book. My friend Jane stared at me and said, 'Wait, you know those are for us, right?' Turns out the whole time I thought those pages were just bonus filler for people who wanted extra material. I'd been ignoring the main tool the club uses to spark conversations. Has anyone else realized they were missing something obvious about how book clubs actually work?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_mitchell8312d ago

Honestly "changes how you pay attention to the story"? It's a book club, not a college exam. I still skip those questions and just talk about what I liked or didn't like.

the_drew12d ago

I read an article recently about how different people approach reading groups and your story honestly matches what they found. A lot of folks just skip the stuff at the back because they think it's just extra material for die hard fans. Once you start looking at those questions before you read, it changes how you pay attention to the story.