Just realized our book club was arguing over the wrong thing for months

We read 'The Overstory' last year. Every meeting turned into a fight about whether the characters were realistic. My friend Lisa finally said, 'Guys, the book isn't about people, it's about trees.' We'd missed the whole point. Spent three meetings on the wrong debate. Now we start by asking what the book is actually about. Anyone else have a club that got stuck like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

sageadams9d ago

Wow, that hits home. My old group spent weeks on whether a detective in some crime novel was too grumpy. Someone finally pointed out the book was really about a corrupt town. Felt like we read a different story. Now I try to figure out the core idea first.

bennett.nora4d ago

Totally get that feeling of missing the point. My last club got stuck on a side character's job for ages. What finally helped was someone just asking, "What's the one thing the author keeps coming back to?" Suddenly we were talking about loneliness, not office politics. Now I scribble that core question in the front of the book before I even start.

the_hayden9d ago

My book club wasted three meetings debating a spaceship's color before someone mentioned the theme.