That stat about 80% of book club members faking the read made me rethink my own group

I read this article on BookRiot last week that said 8 out of 10 people in book clubs haven't actually finished the book they're discussing. I always assumed I was the only one skimming the last few chapters before meetings. That number made me realize half my group is probably in the same boat and maybe we should just be honest about it. Has anyone else's club tried doing a no-shame half-read meeting where people can just talk about what they did get through?

2 comments

2 Comments

rileyb611mo ago

My own book club hit six people last month and I noticed the pattern right away. Three of us admitted we only read the first half of The Poisonwood Bible before our meeting last week. It made me think about how this happens everywhere, like at work when people nod along in meetings about reports they barely looked at or at family dinners where everyone pretends they watched the same Netflix show. People just don't want to be the one who breaks the illusion of being on top of things. That 80% number honestly feels low to me, I bet it's closer to 90% in most groups. We're all just out here trying to look like we've got it together when half the time we don't.

riley_miller2527d ago

Oh man, your book club story hits way too close to home. I once faked my way through a whole meeting about "The Goldfinch" (that thing is like a thousand pages, right?) after skimming the Wikipedia summary on the drive over. It's honestly amazing how good we get at nodding and throwing out vague compliments like "the pacing was really interesting" when we have no clue what happened in the last 300 pages.