Our book club spent two meetings arguing about the ending of 'Klara and the Sun'

I mean, we were going in circles until I suggested we all write down one question the book left us with and vote on which to discuss first. It totally focused the debate and stopped people from talking over each other. Has anyone else tried a structured question method for heated book talks?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew_hart44d ago

Actually, the quiet folks in our group liked the voting part. It gave their question a fair shot without them having to fight to be heard. The real trick was making sure the person who wrote the chosen question got to speak first. That built-in invitation made all the difference. It wasn't about the tool itself, but how you use it.

smith.nancy4d ago

That's a solid method, but we actually found voting on questions made our quieter members less likely to speak up.

the_terry4d ago

I mean, is that really the voting's fault though? If someone is already quiet, they might not speak up anyway. The voting just shows what the group wants to talk about. It feels like we're blaming a tool for a bigger group culture problem. Maybe the quieter folks just need a different way in, like a chat box or something, not getting rid of a useful method. Seems like an overreaction to scrap the whole idea.