Can we talk about how I was skimming book club picks all wrong for 2 years
I joined this local group in Portland back in 2022 and every month I'd go in hot, ready to argue about the ending or the characters, but I kept realizing my points were barely holding up. Turns out I was treating every book like a race, reading just to get the plot beats so I could have an opinion, not actually sitting with the themes or the author's choices. What tipped me off was last month when someone asked what I thought about the unreliable narrator in the middle section and I froze because I literally skimmed half of it to catch up after a busy week. I had to admit I didn't even remember the key scene they were referencing, and the silence after that was brutal. Now I'm forcing myself to read slower, like 30 pages a night max, and actually highlight stuff that confuses me instead of zooming past it. Has anyone else had that moment where they realized they were just flipping pages to be done, and how did you force yourself to slow down without losing interest? My next meeting is on a 400 page doorstopper and I'm nervous I'll slip back into old habits.