Debate: Should book clubs finish a book everyone hates or just bail at page 100?

My book club spent like 6 weeks dragging through a novel nobody liked. We kept thinking 'maybe chapter 8 will fix it' and it just got worse. It took us 3 extra meetings to finish because nobody wanted to read it and we kept rescheduling. I think we should have quit after 100 pages and picked something else. But some people in my group say it's disrespectful to the author to not finish. What do you guys do when a book tanks your whole club's momentum?

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_stone9d ago

Oh is this even a debate? Because my book club had the exact same thing happen with this super hyped literary fiction that was just... nothing happening for like 200 pages. We kept saying "it has to get better, the reviews were so good" and it just got worse. We spent two months on a book where nobody could even remember the main character's name by the end. I'm team bail at page 100 now for sure. Life is too short to slog through something that makes you dread reading. The author already got paid, they don't know or care if some random book club in Ohio didn't finish their book.

lee_ward549d ago

My friend's book club tried to power through a famous award winner and after month two somebody finally snapped and said "who cares if the author gets a royalty check?" They bailed and picked a trashy thriller and @beth_stone is totally right, life IS too short to hate your reading time like that.