That 'literary fiction only' rule in my book club nearly killed it

I joined a local book club over on the east side about a year ago, and the first three months were all heavy literary novels. Things like dense family sagas and slow moving historical stuff. I kept hearing how those books were 'real literature' and everything else was just fluff. But honestly, I was bored out of my mind and almost quit after the third meeting. Then a new member suggested we try a genre fiction pick, a fairly popular fantasy novel that had been getting buzz. The room went quiet at first, but the organizer finally agreed to give it a shot just once. That month, more people showed up than ever before and the discussion was actually lively and fun for the first time. Has anyone else seen a book club crash because people got too snobby about what counts as 'good' reading?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_thompson531mo ago

The third meeting you mention is exactly where I was at too with a club I tried last year. We had three months of stuff like "The Goldfinch" and "A Little Life" and everyone was just zoning out by page 200. Then someone brought in a translated sci-fi novella, "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin, and the room actually argued about capitalism vs. utopia for an hour straight. That night made me realize the snobbery is usually just a few loud voices who confuse "hard to finish" with "meaningful". The best discussions happen when the book makes people feel something, not when it checks some invisible box of being literary enough.

ross.kevin1mo ago

Friend of mine had a very similar @adam_thompson53 moment after a sloggy book club pick.