Showerthought: Picked a non-fiction book over fiction for our club vote and it backfired hard

I pushed for 'The Power Broker' over a buzzy novel last month because I wanted something meaty to debate, but 4 out of 8 members said it was too dense and stopped reading halfway. We spent the whole meeting rehashing chapter 1 instead of getting into the real arguments about city planning. Has anyone else forced a heavier read on a book club only to watch it flop?

3 comments

3 Comments

john_singh2mo ago

Oh man, same thing happened when I picked a history book for my group!

gavin_reed2mo ago

Yeah, I get what you're saying but I'm not sure a history book is the best pick for a group read. Most people zone out with dates and names real quick. A good thriller or mystery keeps everyone turning pages instead of checking their watches.

the_jessica6d ago

Wait, wait - you picked THE POWER BROKER? Not even like a shorter non-fiction pick like 'Stiff' or 'The Orchid Thief'? I mean, Robert Caro's bio of Robert Moses is like 1,300 pages of New York city zoning laws and toll road politics. In my experience, most book clubs want something they can actually finish between meetings, not something that requires its own reading schedule and a city planning degree. Your poor group members probably felt like they signed up for a fun book club and ended up in a graduate seminar.