Our club picked a book nobody read past chapter 3 and I'm the bad guy for saying it out loud
I counted nine people at the meeting in Denver and only two of us made it past page 80, yet everyone still had opinions on the ending. Why do we keep letting people vote on the next pick if half the group is just reading the back cover in the parking lot?
Man, come on. If people only read the first 80 pages then that's on the book for not hooking them, not on the readers. Nobody owes a book their time just because some list said it was good. Half the fun of a book club is hearing what people got out of it even if they bailed early, and honestly the parking lot back cover readers might be picking up on something the rest of you missed. Shutting out the folks who didn't finish means your club slowly shrinks to like 4 people who all agree with each other, which sounds boring as hell. You want a group where people feel free to say a book sucked and they stopped, not one where everyone fakes it to chapter 30. Let the non finishers vote, worst case you end up with a bad pick and a funny meeting about it.