Picked a book about a guy building a boat for our club and it split us down the middle

Our group in Austin voted on 'The River Why' for this month. I thought a fishing story would be a nice change. Half of us loved the quiet, thoughtful parts about nature. The other half got bored and called it slow. One member, Jen, flat out said 'I kept waiting for something to happen.' It made me wonder if a book needs a clear plot to work for everyone. How do you pick something that keeps a whole club hooked?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles_barnes1mo ago

Picking a book for a group is basically impossible. Someone always hates it. The quiet books split people every time. Maybe the goal isn't to hook everyone, but to pick something that starts a good fight. Those slow books give you way more to talk about than a fast plot. Our best meetings came from books half of us couldn't stand.

tyler_white421mo ago

My old book club tried that once with a 400 page novel about a guy watching paint dry, basically. Charles Barnes is right about the fighting part, we yelled for two hours. But man, life's too short to force yourself through a boring book just to have something to argue about. I'd rather read something decent and have a calm talk, even if it's shorter. The whole point is supposed to be fun, not a chore you have to recover from.