Last book club pick totally bombed the discussion night

I chose 'The Overstory' for our August meeting thinking it would spark deep talks about nature and trees, but nobody had finished it because it's over 500 pages. We spent the whole hour just complaining about how hard it was to keep the characters straight. Has anyone else had a book pick that completely flopped for discussion?

3 comments

3 Comments

quinna891mo ago

Quoting "nobody had finished it" - yeah, that's the worst feeling when you put thought into a pick and nobody even got through it. Next time try a shorter book under 300 pages or offer to do a "halfway check-in" meeting halfway through the month so people feel accountable to keep reading. A book club is supposed to be fun, not homework.

stellaperry1mo ago

Oh man, @quinna89 that halfway check-in idea is Actually brilliant. My friend's book club did that once and it totally worked because people felt weird showing up having read zero pages when they knew someone was gonna ask. But then one member got SO competitive she finished the whole thing in three days just to prove a point, and nobody knew how to handle that energy.

mia7001mo ago

The Overstory at 500 pages is a tough sell for a casual book club, I get that. But honestly I think the real problem is less the page count and more that people treat book club like a chore instead of a fun challenge. My group picks longer books sometimes and we just agree to read the first 100 pages and talk about that part, not the whole thing.