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Rant: Our book club picked a 900 page history book and it turned out to be the best meeting we ever had
I have been in the same book club here in Columbus for about four years, and we always do the same routine: someone picks a 300 page novel, half the group doesn't finish it, and we spend 20 minutes talking about the book before drifting into what everyone did that weekend. Six weeks ago my turn came up and I decided to try something different. I picked a 900 page history of the Ohio River valley, fully expecting people to quit by chapter three. Only four of the eleven members finished it, which sounds like a failure, but something strange happened at the meeting. The people who did finish had so much to argue about, mostly the author's take on the canal boom, that we went two and a half hours without a single person checking their phone. The people who quit early had actually read the first 200 pages and had strong opinions about why they stopped, which kept them in the talk instead of sitting quiet. I walked out realizing that a book nobody finishes can still be a better meeting than a book everybody skims. Has anyone else had a pick that flopped on completion but somehow saved the discussion?
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danielw888d ago
You ever notice how the stuff that's supposed to be easy is what makes people check out? Same thing happens with potlucks. Everyone brings chips and dip, nobody talks about the food, and the party dies by 8pm. But the one guy who spends all day smoking a brisket gets everybody crowded in the kitchen arguing about rub recipes and wood chips. A book that's too easy gives you nothing to chew on, so you just chew on nothing. Your 900 page monster forced people to either pick a side or admit they bailed, and either way they showed up ready to talk.
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