To not want to read pretentious books in book club

[bookswinebookswine]

I have joined many book clubs over the years and each time we read something super pretentious that I would never choose to read but want to be in a book club so go with it. I'm moving to Bristol and want to find/create a book club that reads GOOD books! I want the read the latest crime thriller/Sophie kinsella/ who dun it book and talk over wine! I adore books but I cannot join another book club that reads a super old "classic"! join my book club and talk about good current books! Or tell me about yours and I'll join!

@LangCleg that’s a useful tip. Thank you. :)

Has anyone used a book club to get themselves physically reading again? I’ve been listening to audiobooks this past year as a way to ease myself back into reading long form. I am yet to physically pick up a book though. I am rather happy about how much fiction and nonfiction I’ve been absorbing nonetheless.

I was in 2 book clubs at one point - great books read in both but different vibes.

Club 1 - mums, quite sensible, nicely social,
Club 2 - mixed (men at book club !!!), lively discussion, big hangovers

In both we took it in turns to choose and really enjoyed reading things I might not have picked out.

Recommendation- a spooky Christmas / winter read got December - we did the woman in black :)

OP I think your problem will be that not nobody self identifies as pretentious or worthy. You may also need to weed out wine snobs. A screening process will be needed.

Tbh what is there to even discuss about a Sophie Kinsella

I was in a book club once and it was very annoying, because we took it in turns to choose the books and people chose their favourites, so everyone was blandly nice or gushing about them so as not to upset the chooser, and no interesting discussions at all happened. Then we had to praise the home baked cake or similar that someone had provided for longer than we'd spent talking about the book, then it's be general chit chat.

I'd like to go to a pretentious book club I think, as ling as it was only undergraduate level pretentious as my brain has decayed a bit in the last decade or two I suspect...

Apologies...it was the woman in white! Wilkie Collins

Plot, characterisation, language, themes - much the same as other works of fiction

(that was tonblanche)

(To blanche)

I know what you mean, OP. The book club I was in at work was quite a good mix, with light reading mixed with more demanding literature on the list. We gave each book a number, then used a randomiser to select the number each month, and then every member had the chance to choose a new book to go on the list (We went in order of where our birthdays fell in the year).

Membership dwindled though as people left the organisation, so we disbanded the club when it was down to three people. A real shame, because I've never found another one quite as eclectic.

I'm in London and I would LOVE a book club - pretentious or not! But all the ones I find are full grrrr!

I find the whole idea of book clubs kind of horrifying and hilarious at the same time. And I love books, and really like getting into an animated discussion with someone who has read a book I also like. But I have, from time to time, found that the last few pages of a book I was reading would be dedicated to 'Here's how to discuss this book at your book club'. And it would be like bad O' level notes, and it is nearly always in the sort of book that's been almost too annoying to finish - because there is a whole genre, now, of shitty books designed to be discussed at book clubs. And these books are all the fucking same, like a join-the-dots version of a Fairly Good Book.
I hate creative writing classes too, for similar reasons.

I would totally join your book club, OP! My reading time is commute time, so light and easy.

I miss book club. I used to go to one after work. A wide range of stuff I wouldn’t usually read but thoroughly enjoyed. The only book I didn’t like? The one I chose! The lit festival had it as it’s read along book and I HATED it.

Sorry but the books you describe sound terrible and Salam Rushdie is a brilliant writer. YABVU. If you want book club to read low quality fiction create one. Although I’m not sure you’d be able to find many members.

www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/are-you-reading-a-proper-book-20181110179278

I'd love to join a book club. What's the best way people have found to find and join a good book club?

I belong to a book club that has a choice of three books to read every month. One is nominated by a member (we take it in turns), one is drawn from a pot that we all put some suggestions in at the start of the year, and one is of a genre different to whatever has come out, so if something light and easy like Kinsella comes out, the third choice might be a classic, or a crime thriller.

It's a good way of doing it. It means that everyone has something they might read, plus if you're an avid reader, you have the option of reading all three.

I'm at the stage where everything I'm reading is academic, so I love a bit of fluff to read when I get the chance to relax. Anything with tea shop, vintage campervan, little shop of chocolate etc in the title and I'm sold

Also, who cares what people read as long as they enjoy it. I hate the snobbery about "chick lit". Yes, they're predictable, yes they're "easy" to read and yes, they're fluffy, but if someone is reading and enjoying, great!! Nothing worse than a book snob.

OP, you might like The Girly Book Club, which has a chapter in Bristol. I went to a few meetings of my local chapter, and while the books chosen ultimately weren't for me, I had fun.

I’m in between Bristol and Gloucester if anyone knows any groups.
I miss the challenge of reading completely new things and to a deadline.
I meant to read Vanity Fair before watching it on TV. Well I am trying. Tried and failed to join a couple of readalongs on here.

Well the point of book clubs surely is that you have interesting discussions about the books you read. That you get to hear different opinions and perspectives on the text. It then makes sense that the books you are reading must be multi-faceted, open to different interpretations and withstand a certain amount of deconstruction. People may also use a book club to challenge themselves or learn. more about literature. I'm guessing that's why 'literary' type books are often chosen.

If you were all reading something straight forward and enjoyable like Sophie Kinsella or the latest crime-fic and just meeting up to discuss your enjoyment of those books / give recommendations, then that's more of a fanclub really.