Fixed my book club's debate over pacing with a simple timer trick

We've been stuck for months arguing about whether to read 50 pages a week or 100. People either felt rushed or bored. Last week I tried setting a 20 minute timer for discussion before anyone could complain about pace. It actually worked. Now we actually talk about the book instead of the schedule. Has anyone else tried a weird rule that broke a deadlock?

3 comments

3 Comments

owens.laura2d ago

Used to think stuff like timers was too rigid or whatever for book clubs. But honestly this makes total sense, kinda changed my mind about having a hard rule for discussions.

andrew_baker91d ago

Have you guys ever had one person just totally take over the whole hour though @owens.laura? That's the only thing that makes me nervous about this setup... once spent like 20 minutes on a single chapter because someone kept finding "hidden meanings" in every other sentence.

sean481d ago

That "hidden meanings" guy sounds exhausting, I had someone like that in my old group who swore every broken lamp was symbolism. We just started giving him the first 5 minutes to rant and then politely cut him off.