Our book club spent 3 months arguing over whether a character's redemption arc was earned

Back in the 90s we would just say 'I liked it' or 'I hated it' and move on to dessert, but now everyone wants to debate narrative ethics for weeks on end and I honestly miss when we just read the book and talked about it for an hour.

2 comments

2 Comments

james6721mo ago

I heard a podcast once where a writer said book clubs started out as potluck dinners with a book nearby, and that stuck with me. Some of my best memories are from a group I was in back in 2005 where we spent half the time arguing over whose turn it was to bring the cheese plate. Now my neighbor is in a club that requires a formal thesis statement for each meeting and they track discussion points on a whiteboard. I read an article claiming the average modern book club spends 40% of its time debating morality and only 20% on the actual story. Makes me wonder if we overthink things to feel smart instead of just enjoying a good yarn with friends.

sanchez.mia1mo ago

Read somewhere that book clubs used to just gossip and drink wine before the internet made everything a debate.