The second book club meeting that killed our poetry month experiment

We tried alternating between audiobooks and print for our June picks, and the print copies won by a landslide. The audiobook discussion in May had three members who forgot their earbuds and another who skipped the middle chapters entirely. With the physical books, everyone showed up with dog-eared pages and scribbled margins, and our conversation ran almost 40 minutes longer. I think the format just forces people to slow down and actually sit with the text. Has anyone else tried mixed formats and found that one just tanks the group's focus?

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1 Comment

john_murphy13h ago

Is this really worth all that hand wringing though? I mean, you ran one poetry month and one audiobook meeting, that's not exactly a scientific study or anything. Sometimes people just have off nights, maybe the May pick was boring or the earbuds thing was a one time deal. I've been in book clubs where everyone loved one format one month and hated it the next, it just depends on the book and the mood of the group. Honestly, if your biggest problem is that people show up with dog ears and talk longer, that sounds like a win, not a crisis. Maybe just skip the mixed format rule and let folks pick their own poison, if they want to listen they'll listen, if they want to read they'll read.