Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
...I think the weight of the selection process ended up crushing all the clubs. Or to put it another way, the action was too weighted at the front end. And a book club where people don’t participate in the discussion is an exercise in futility, it seems to me.
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I completely understand where you're coming from. It's a solid point and a good discussion is such an important part of a book club.
My own perspective after being a part of ones here is that the feeling of camaraderie and enjoyment of socialising about the shared interest in books and the shared goal of reading a particular selection, even in the tiny way an online book club offers, is not something to be totally dismissed, even if these things can be done without a book club too.
And there's the enjoyment of finding nominations and perusing others' nominations. I've found so many books that never won that I wanted to read that way, from the general club as well as the lit club. In fact I greatly enjoy this aspect and it's probably part of what's helped to keep me here ten years, though I know mileages vary and some are less interested in this discovery aspect.
The front-loading is a curious dilemma though.