As folks who know me know I read a lot of books. To give you an idea of what I mean by that, I read 209 books in 2023 and my goal is to read 365 books in a year. In 2024 I have read 99 books so far. (I am way behind in my reading this year due to various reasons)
A little while ago folks in my apartment complex started a book club and I was invited to join since I read a lot. Book clubs are interesting but I never saw the appeal because of multiple reasons. First, I read fast enough that by the time others in the club would finish a book I would be in my 4th or 5th one. The second issue is that I don’t particularly like dissecting a book and look for hidden meanings or life lessons etc in it. Lastly, in a lot of these clubs they seem to be more interested in hanging out/gossiping rather than book readings.
I have no issues discussing books but doing it in a structured way takes the fun out of it. Also not a lot of folks read the kind of books I do so that’s another issue I face. In the next meeting over here someone is actually preparing a presentation on the 3 Body problem and that just sounds like work to me. Personally when I meet with like minded folks I exchange book recommendations rather than the content of the books. That could also be because I mostly read fiction whereas a large majority of folks who are part of these clubs seem to prefer non-fiction books that can actually be dissected and have a lot of data to discuss.
As I mentioned in a previous post I have never been a part of any of the fandoms and I am glad that I didn’t. The issue with discussing books is that folks get too invested in it and that just takes the fun out of it.
However, all that being said I am glad book clubs exist as they give a way for people to connect and learn about books they might find interesting. Anything that gets people more interested in reading is great in my mind.
– Suramya