Comment by kickscondor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kickscondor | Hacker News Reader

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Did you finish the post?

> Book club, for us, isn’t about reading the same book; it’s about reading a book together.

> The idea is to make book club less an obligation than a sort of pleasant presence in our lives, this thing that’s always there.

> That’s another reason to break a book into pieces: better to have too little to fit into a session than too much; god forbid you read something complex and demanding — do you really want to spend three hours in the unpacking, or to have the session break down before the unpacking’s done?

I agree with the author's conclusions - and have a book club that operates the same way. And I agree with him because it's a better social experience. (A chance to catch up with others with happen to share book reading as a hobby without needing to do homework.)

I must admit I skimmed the post the first time :). I too have run a book group for the last few years, and we've toyed with this idea several times. The advantages are clear in terms of not having to hit a tough deadline, and being able to tackle longer books. I think it can work with anthologies of short stories and essays, but for longer narrative works I wonder about the following (perhaps you can provide some insight):

- Will new people be willing to join in the middle of a book?

- If people don't like the book, do they just have to stick around for the next N meetings? If not, does it lose its place in their routine causing them to forget about it?

I think these concerns may be specific to more "open-access" book groups that anyone can join, rather than long-running groups of existing friends.

One way my group has done this is to tackle an author or a series together - that way we have some common ground in our reading.

However, if you’re doing it long-term, I much prefer just talking about what you’re reading right now. Over time, you will start to read each other’s recommendations and the discussion will catch up.

I’m sure there are a lot of ways to do this. (OH and it’s awesome that you fessed up about skimming the article - I am there with you the rest of the time. :D)

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