Our book club picked 'The Overstory' over 'Project Hail Mary' and it almost broke us

We had to choose between two books for our spring read. It was a big fight. Half the group wanted the sci-fi adventure, the other half wanted the literary tree epic. I pushed hard for 'The Overstory', thinking we needed something deep. It went badly. The book is over 500 pages and moves slow. After three meetings, only two of us had finished it. People kept saying they felt guilty for not reading it. The talk was flat. We should have gone with the fun space book. Has your club ever picked a book that just killed the mood for months?

3 comments

3 Comments

webb.tessa1mo ago

Oh man, I feel this. My group tried to get through 'Moby Dick' last year because someone said it was a classic we had to do. I mean, it was a total brick. Meetings just turned into people apologizing for being on page 50, like, three weeks in. We dropped it after two months and the vibe was off until we read a thriller.

faithm711mo ago

My old office had a "classics" book club that died out in six months for the same reason. People just want to read something they actually enjoy.

leep3316d ago

Classics can be such a trap for book clubs lol. Picking something just because it's famous kills the fun, and then everyone feels guilty for not liking it. My group almost fell apart over some dense Russian novel before we made a rule to vote on fun reads only. Life's too short to force yourself through a brick when there are so many good stories out there.