I hit 50 pages of notes on a single book club pick and realized our group was missing the point

We spent so much time arguing about the main character's likability that we barely touched the author's actual themes about grief, which felt like a real waste of the book. Has your club ever gotten so stuck on one small thing that it derailed the whole discussion?

3 comments

3 Comments

david56222d ago

My old club spent three meetings on whether Gatsby's parties were cool or sad, never got to the whole American Dream thing. Finleym43 has a point about starting small, but sometimes you gotta steer the car back to the main road, you know?

finleym4322d ago

Missing the point? Maybe the point is just to talk about the book. Arguing about a character being likable is a real way people connect with stories (like, we all know a Holden Caulfield type). Those talks about themes you want? They can turn into boring lectures real fast. My club's best talks often start with some small, silly detail and spiral out from there.

mary_martin2222d ago

Yeah, we've been there. Someone just has to say "okay, but what's the book actually trying to say?" to snap everyone out of it.