Our book club picked the wrong novel and the debate lasted 4 hours

Back in 2019, our Portland group had to choose between a dense literary classic and a breezy page turner. I pushed for the classic because I thought we needed something challenging, but the vote went the other way. We spent the whole meeting arguing about whether the page turner actually had depth, and nobody agreed by the end. Have you ever had a pick that split your group so bad you nearly lost members?

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hannahcraig1mo ago

Picking the easy read was the right call honestly. You don't need every book to be a workout, sometimes you just want to enjoy the story and talk about the characters that actually stuck with you. Arguing about "depth" is just a way to sound smart when the book was never meant to be that deep.

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jordan_henderson131mo ago

Nah man, hard disagree. Depth is exactly why I pick books in the first place. If I wanted mindless fun I'd watch a Marvel movie. A book that doesn't push you or make you think is just wasted paper. I get wanting to chill, but we chose this specific book for a reason. I remember last month's pick, everyone loved it because it was "fun", but nobody could remember a single theme or point a week later. That just feels empty. Light reads are fine for the beach, but for a club where we're supposed to dig into something, picking the easy option is a cop out.

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