Monday, December 7, 2009

Book Club Crime: Failure to Read. Discuss.

The other day I overheard someone complain that two members of her book club habitually don't read the agreed-upon book -- and bluff their way through the club's discussions. It made me remember this funny Shouts & Murmurs piece in The New Yorker several months back, as much for its non-reader angle as those dreaded reader discussion questions so frequently found in the back of current books. Enjoy.

3 comments:

fullsoulahead.com said...

Now that is funny! My book group people always just fessed up, which was still annoying. Why come?

Still have not found a good group here in Cleveland.

: (

Elizabeth Searle said...

LOL on that New Yorker piece. And I agree with Fullsoulahead: if you didn't read the darn book, why show up at the discussion? (Could it be just to get at those little sandwiches mentioned in the NYer...?)

In our group, sometimes folks do openly say they only got part-way through, and then we make them figure out 'why'-- so it can be made an interesting part of the discussion. And full disclosure is way better than bluffing...

Mummy mania said...

Loved this so much I've just had to send it to my bookclub - we've all agreed on one book in 3 years!