Had a librarian in Denver challenge my book club format last Tuesday

She said we spend too much time debating the author's intent and not enough on how the book actually made us feel. I brushed it off at first but then I tried her approach with my group last week on a mystery novel. We ended up talking for two hours about which characters felt real instead of arguing over plot holes. Has anyone else tried shifting the focus away from the author and more on personal reactions?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.linda1mo ago

Well, I mean, is this really that big of a deal? You brushed her off at first and then tried it once and now you're ready to change everything. In my experience, librarians have strong opinions about everything from Dewey decimals to how you hold your coffee cup. Your mileage may vary but a mystery novel is pretty light stuff. Try that feel-good approach with something like "War and Peace" and see if your group doesn't end up arguing about who's the real villain anyway. Take this with a grain of salt but sometimes a little structure keeps things from turning into a therapy session.

jamie_white1mo ago

Oh sure, Linda's not wrong about librarians having strong opinions, but I think she's overselling how much a little looseness changes things. You can still have structure and let people laugh about annoying neighbors like @kelly_west74 mentioned, those aren't opposites. A mystery novel works fine either way as long as nobody's treating it like a sacred text.

kelly_west741mo ago

Has that librarian ever met a mystery fan who's okay with plot holes though... @murphy.linda I actually did kinda the same thing with a thriller last month and we ended up laughing about how one character reminded us of our own annoying neighbors. It was way more fun than just picking apart the twists.