Went to a book club meetup at a local indie shop and nobody had read the book

I showed up to the discussion on 'Project Hail Mary' at Books & Brews in Portland last Tuesday and out of 12 people, only 3 had finished it. The host spent 20 minutes summarizing the plot for everyone else while the rest of us just sat there. By the time we actually talked about the science and characters, our hour was almost up. Does your club have a rule about finishing the book, or do people just wing it?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelamurphy1mo ago

I mean honestly I kinda like it when people haven't read it yet, the discussion is more about what you expected vs what you got instead of just rehashing the same points.

lilyt231mo ago

Honestly I used to hate when people showed up without reading anything, I thought it was just lazy and a waste of time. But @angelamurphy's point about expectations vs reality actually clicked for me. I went to a book club last month where only half the people finished the book and the convo ended up way more interesting because we were comparing what we thought it was about to what it actually turned out to be. Got me thinking maybe the raw first impressions are worth more than I gave them credit for.

tarar381mo ago

Angelamurphy said it's about what you expected vs what you got and honestly that's such a good point lol. I feel like half the time in real life people just show up to stuff without doing the homework and then the whole convo turns into catching everyone up instead of actually digging into anything. It's like a group project where nobody reads the instructions until the last second.