Pro tip: I just realized our book club was arguing about the wrong thing for months.

We spent 3 meetings debating if a character's actions were 'realistic' until my friend in Boston pointed out the author was using magical realism the whole time. Anyone else get stuck on a surface-level debate and miss the actual point of a book?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbyg141d ago

Oh man that happens way more than people admit. We did the same thing with a book last year where everyone kept calling a character stupid for their choices, but the whole thing was satire about social media. Felt like we read two different books. Sometimes you need that one person who steps back and sees what the author is actually doing. Makes me want to re-read stuff with new eyes now.

wyatt_green311d ago

Man, how many times have we all done this? I used to get so stuck on whether a plot was "believable" until a teacher pointed out that stories don't always have to be real, they just have to be true to their own world. Totally changed how I read. @abbyg14 is right about needing that one person to step back, it's like you're looking at a magic eye poster and someone finally tells you to relax your eyes. Now I try to ask myself what the book is trying to do first before I get lost in the details.