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I voted against picking books over 400 pages, until our club read one and 6 people actually finished it
Last month in our Austin club I pushed hard for a 300 page limit. Everyone agreed, short books only, no more half finished picks. Then we tried East of Eden at 600 pages and I expected a disaster. 6 of our 8 members actually finished it, more than any pick in the past 5 months. Turns out a big book gives us more to argue about at the meetings. Anyone else notice longer books get better turnouts?
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king.eric29d ago
Do you think the size of the book matters less than having a story people actually want to talk about? East of Eden is long but it is packed with stuff to fight over, family drama, jealousy, good and evil, all that heavy stuff. A 250 page book can be great but if there is not much to dig into, people finish it fast and then we sit there with nothing to say. We had one short pick where the whole meeting lasted 15 minutes because nobody had a strong feeling either way, and I bet that is the real reason folks bail. So maybe the rule should not be a page count, maybe it should be picking books with enough meat on the bone to fill an hour of arguing. A long book forces people to show up because they do not want to be the one who quit, and it gives the quiet folks time to find something they care about.
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