Tried skipping the last 50 pages of a book club pick and nobody noticed

I was three days late on finishing The Maid for our group. Got to page 250 and just read the final chapter online. Showed up and acted like I read the whole thing. Two people argued about the maid's motives and I nodded along. Nobody caught on. Now I'm wondering how many people in book clubs actually finish the books. Has anyone else faked it successfully?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_schmidt601mo ago

oh man my friend sarah totally pulled this off. she had a book club that met every month at a wine bar and she straight up lied about finishing The Nightingale for like 3 months straight. she'd skim a few key pages while waiting for her glass of merlot and then just agree with whoever talked the loudest lmao. one time someone asked her about the ending and she said "well it really makes you think about war trauma" and totally got away with it. honestly i bet half those clubs are just people nodding and pretending they're paying attention.

the_john1mo ago

Has your friend ever considered that she might actually enjoy a book club more if she just owned up to not finishing the book? I speak from experience here. I used to do the same thing with my group until I finally admitted I hadn't read "Gone Girl" all the way through, and you know what happened? The host said she hadn't either, and it turned into a much better conversation about what makes a good thriller even if you miss the plot points. The trick is to be honest but specific. You can say "I only got through the first three chapters because the pacing lost me" and people will usually chime in with their own opinions on that part.