Our book club started reading new books vs classics and the difference was huge

My book club spent 6 months only reading classics like Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter. The meetings were so boring, half the group stopped showing up. Last month we switched to newer books like Project Hail Mary and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. The discussions got way more lively and 8 people came to the last meeting instead of 3. Has anyone else noticed that newer books just spark better conversations in your club?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler3684d ago

Wait, do you think the difference is more about the books themselves or about how your group talks about them? Like, with older classics there's all this pressure to have the "right" take and it just kills the vibe.

richard_roberts803d ago

The whole group dynamic is probably 80% of it honestly. Like last month my D&D group tried reading Dune and it was just a nightmare with everyone trying to sound smart about the themes. But when we read Project Hail Mary last week nobody gave a crap about being "deep" we just talked about how cool the alien designs were. So do you think it's the specific people in your group or the unwritten rules you all follow about what counts as a valid take?