That stat about book club drop-off rates shocked me

I was reading a post on some book blog last night. They said 60% of book club members stop coming after the first 3 meetings. I thought that number had to be made up. But I checked my own club's history and yep. We started with 12 people in January. By April we had 5. The blog said people quit because the book picks are too long or too boring. That tracks with what I saw. Has anyone else noticed their group shrinking like that after a few months?

3 comments

3 Comments

susan13023d ago

Wow, 60%? That can't be right. Wait, actually I just counted in my head and yeah, my group went from 9 people in January to 4 by April. That's like 55% gone. I honestly thought it was just us or maybe we were picking bad books. But now I'm sitting here looking at our old sign in sheet and realizing we lost Sarah after we slogged through that 500 page fantasy novel, and Mike vanished when we did the history nonfiction pick nobody finished. It's kind of depressing when you actually do the math.

grace_gonzalez4623d ago

Yeah when you said "kind of depressing when you actually do the math" that hit me hard. I had a group three years ago that went from 12 to 3 in about six months and I never really looked at the numbers that way until now. It's like watching a slow leak in a tire you keep airing up but it just keeps going flat. People don't even say goodbye half the time, they just stop showing up and you're left wondering if it was the book or something you said. That 500 page fantasy novel thing is a killer too - I've seen groups crash and burn on one heavy pick because nobody wants to be the one to admit they couldn't finish it. It makes you question if you're doing something wrong or if people just lose interest in reading altogether.

eva_adams6819d ago

Susan, you just had to go and do the math on us, didn't you? Now I'm depressed too. I had a group lose three people after we tried reading a "light" biography of a 19th century inventor that turned out to be 600 pages of boilerplate specs. Nobody even pretended to finish it. It's like book clubs are just socially acceptable ways to watch friends ghost you in slow motion.