The big shift I saw in my book club after we banned spoilers for 6 months

My book club used to be a mess. People would show up having read the whole thing or nothing. The debates were flat, just people agreeing or one guy dominating. About six months ago, we made a rule. No spoilers allowed in the discussion for the first 30 minutes. The change was huge. Now people actually argue about character motives instead of plot points. We get into real disagreements about what the author meant. Has anyone else tried a structure change like this and seen a before and after in how your group talks?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancyg141mo ago

Is it okay if I pile on here @aaronsullivan, because my knitting circle had the exact same problem before we stopped letting people peek at the pattern?

blairc901mo ago

Stop letting people peek at the pattern? That's interesting, but didn't that just make the ones who prepped beforehand even more annoying since they'd memorized it all? Seems like you traded one type of showoff for another. What stopped people from just studying the pattern at home and coming in with the same canned answers?

aaronsullivan1mo ago

The debates were flat" - yeah, that's putting it mildly at my old book club too. We had this one guy who'd show up having only read the first three chapters (and the last page, for some reason) and he'd just guess the whole plot out loud for 45 minutes. It was like a really bad mystery theater. I did something similar with my D&D group actually (I know, not a book club but hear me out). We made a rule that you can't plan your combat moves while other people are taking their turns. Suddenly everyone was way more into the story and less worried about their "optimal dice roll" nonsense. It's wild how taking one thing away can make people actually talk to each other instead of just speedrunning the experience.