Do I have poor taste in literature? Book club members always seem to hate my books

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

I have suggested so far waterland by graham swift, Rebecca and extremely fast and incredibly close. I loved all 3 for obviously very different reasons. All 3 were either hated or not finished by almost everyone in our book group. So do I have rubbish taste or shall I make myself better by deciding they are philistines?

I like your 3 choices but I wouldn't pick them for book club - I think you're better picking very modern novels.

One I suggested went down incredibly well was 'Little Bird' by Camilla Way - universally liked.

I also think Du Maurier is a bit of an acquired taste and I rather oddly think that the film is even better than the book - I never say that usually.

They're philistines :o You can't please everyone, can you?

Do they like more modern reads? If so, you could possibly try selecting something from the TV Book club list (or Richard & Judy's list for WH Smith) - not always great literature, but they are crowd-pleasers :o

I've had some good reads this year from both those lists - can I recommend Rules of Civility by Amor Towles?

I love Rebecca, I think it's a great book.

But different people do have different tastes.

I loved the rules of civility! You can be in my book group
We all enjoyed the help and I capture the castle. I think I've chosen books with less straightforward narratives. Everyone is super busy and tired so I think they have less patience with a more complex narrative.

Someone left my book group because we hated her book...

I'm not leaving, I enjoy the wine and nibbles too much

I really like the idea of belonging to a book club - just the idea though. Scared the reality would be a disaster. Shame though - wine and nibbles are always welcome. (Love Rebecca so will check out the other two.)

I always seem to disagree with the majority opinion in my book group, but that's OK - I just assume the others all have bad taste!

I love Rebecca (haven't read your other two choices). My choice for our bookclub was This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson - which I thought was brilliant and almost everyone else thought was 'far too many pages'

We've got Extremely Fast etc., next on our list. Some of the ones we've done so far have hardly been mindblowing, I'll be honest. It's starting to make me think I must be a bit of a thicko who can only cope with very populist stuff.

We've just finished (or not as the case may be) A night in Twisted River by John Irving. I was slipping into a coma towards the last quarter of the book.

I think you need a nice mix HerMajestyQ of worthy and popular - I like both kinds, I tend to think if a book is too much like hard work and reading it becomes a chore, - then it's not a very good book!

I would dump anyone immediately as a friend if they dissed Rebecca

I agree about a good mix. I always thought I preferred more literary stuff but I am starting to question myself as I am proving to have the attention span of a gnat with some of them.

My book group reads a very wide variety of stuff. Our current choice is Cider with Rosie. My last one was Dracula and that went down like a lead balloon!

We have had someone who left as we didn't like her choices but she did alwasy pick 'chick lit' whereas your choices seem varied. Our universally liked books have been Soldier's Return by Melvyn Bragg, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and a book called Dark Shadows Falling which was about climbing Everest, I was amazed that I liked that one.

How do other people's choices go down?

It's one of the reasons I have never joined a book club. I like to range freeee with my choices - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Bu Nicknametaken, thats the best reason for joining one, you read stuff that you would never normally pick up and it widens your tastes. Or at least it has with me.

I agree.

Another thought. Just because your books aren't liked doesn't mean that it isn't a good meeting. Last month we read Pure by Andrew Miller, opinion was quite divided on it with one person giving up they disliked it that much, I was unimpressed with it but we had a brilliant talk about it. Mainly about the prostitute that was our favourite character which lead onto different classes of hooker, the film Pretty Woman and what you would and wouldn't do for money!!