The 15-Minute Discussion
Why your book club may be struggling to reach the next level
I visited a lot of book clubs after my novel came out in 2012. I really enjoyed meeting them all, and it was fascinating to see all of the different ways they ran their meetings and chose their books. Many of them also had something in common—a complaint that many of them articulated: We can’t sustain a discussion for more than 15 minutes.
Turns out, sustaining a book discussion is hard—as any high school English teacher will tell you. (I used to be one of them.) There’s a lot to say about running a good discussion, but solving the problem begins with understanding why it’s happening in the first place. Following are four possible reasons why the engrossing discussions your group desires may be hard for you to reach, and solutions for each. If you belong to a book club that’s struggling to sustain good discussions, read on and see whether any of these situations applies to you.
1. We keep slipping into gossip and personal conversation. Someone makes a comment about the book, and that reminds someone else of a story, and pretty soon your book club discussion has morphed into a gossip fest—or even just a friendly conversation about shared interests that have nothing to do with what you just read. One way to counteract this common problem is to set aside however much time you need—15 minutes? 30?—to catch up with each other first. Presumably, you have a book club together because you like each other, so of course you’re going to want to say hi and share your latest news. Have some snacks up front, gather at a loose time so it’s OK for someone to be a little bit late, and eventually you’ll settle in and be ready to talk about the book.
Conversation still may veer toward the personal if everyone in the group has something in common: you work at the same office, live in the same neighborhood, go to the same synagogue, have kids at the same school. If this is the case, consider diversifying your group. What if everyone invited one friend who didn’t have that connection? Suddenly, only half of you would share that boss you all love to hate on at book club, and the conversation would be more likely to stay on track. This doesn’t work so well if your intent was to be the synagogue book club, but if your shared interest isn’t the point of the book club, diversifying may be the answer.
2. We just don’t have that much to say about the book. This may be happening because you’re picking the “wrong” books. Often, people suggest books to their book club that they’ve loved themselves—a perfectly reasonable thing to do. But sometimes the books we love aren’t the books that will elicit the best conversations. Books that are challenging in some way—their form, their ideas, their dilemmas—make for much better discussion than books that follow a traditional form of storytelling or have a clear moral compass, much as we may love reading them.
3. No one takes the lead, so we all hold back. Many book clubs take a democratic approach to discussion, eschewing the idea of a leader. But sometimes it’s helpful to have a guide. This doesn’t have to be the same person every time, but chances are just a fraction of your book club will enjoy and be good at leading discussions. Why not rely on those members to do the job? Leading the discussion does require some preparation. Don’t come into the meeting cold; give some thought in advance to questions you think will elicit a variety of opinions and responses and, therefore, the liveliest conversation. Bring in a review to share or a biography of the author. Make sure everyone gets an opportunity to speak.
4. People aren’t really invested in talking about the books—or even reading them! In that case, you might belong to a social club in which books are the excuse for getting together. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if what you really want is a book group, you might have to find it elsewhere—or create it yourself. That doesn’t mean you have to stop getting together with your social club. But accepting that that’s what it is will free you from any obligation to read with them. Then you can focus your reading energy elsewhere and just enjoy their company.
There’s more to say on each of these four topics, and I’ll circle back to them again in some future posts. But for now, understanding what’s causing the drag on your book club’s discussions is the first step to figuring out how to fix it.
Is your book club struggling with discussion for another reason I haven’t listed here? Let us know, and we’ll see if we can come up with a strategy for addressing it!
[Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash]