Wait, so the guy said the mayor died on live TV and nobody blinked? That's wild and honestly kind of scary that it just slid past everyone at normal speed. I'd say 0.25x is usually enough but some mics pick up weird stuff, so dropping to 0.1x on that one clip wouldn't hurt just to hear the breath cleaner.

Disagree that asking about book length is too much control. That's just basic respect for people's time. A 400 page book is a big ask when you've got a job and kids and whatever else going on, and pretending that's not true is how clubs fall apart. The real problem in your story isn't you asking questions, it's the guy who called everyone lazy instead of just saying "hey, this one was a lot, maybe we pick something shorter next time." Plenty of clubs do it fine by letting the picker choose but keeping it under 300 pages, or giving people six weeks instead of four. If a group can't handle a simple "how long is it," that group has bigger issues than page count.