we have a problem in our book club

[hermykne]

to kinda sum up, one member is not as literary as the rest of us, i am trying to explain this without sounding snobby but certain words are needed to explain this proble,

she always arrives late and so misses the "book" review.
she has read maybe 2/3 books out of the 16/18 we have done. she hasnt even read the awful ones she picks.

she is very confrontational, when points are raised or opinions about the "book" or general chit chat.

its really annoying, it changes the whole ambiance to the evening, last one 3 of us went home furious with her.

i would say she is naive and this doesnt help and shes protecting her ability to be considered a book reader by being so defensive.

anyway one member W sent a txt to another (Z) asking if the problem re her (U) attendance had been solved - text to all nxt event is on X and one must have read the book to attend-

receiver of txt (Z) replied and sent it to our problem member instead (U), stating yes and maybe she'll read the book.

so Z and U had a talk and she was defensive as usual

what to do
we are having a summer recess as some of the other memebrs just cant listen to her silliness for much longer, and these are older members, she is our youngest.
so

Oh well they were quite personal some of them.

And there was a section on 'reading preferences' and another on 'most hated authors' and then some personal stuff.

She was looking for 'cohesion and fluency' within the group.

loo confederate that is scary

did you have a panel interview as well?

my most hated authors are jane austen emily bronte v hislop
kiran desai
anne enright

stephen fry

and especially ian mcewan

Well, kind of, we did yes morningpaper! She interviewed us in her kitchen first, and then asked us to come back the next week to meet the rest of the group.

I didn't even like the group very much. They were all quite quiet and nervous.

v hislop was the worst book I read last year

painfully bad

but Stephen Fry is a god, you can't not like him

favourite book

how late it was how late james kelman

I'm not surprised they were quiet and nervous!

Yeah. And then she asked us to bring our partners if we had one, for a social evening once a month.

confederate what are u talking about - i never used those phrases

Oh my god! Didn't you. I really apologize if that is the case, and I have got this wrong.

That is so embarrassing.

zippi what an underhand suggestion

margaret you didnt read another bit re drink either , naughty you..tut tut

Anyway, why haven't you spoken to this lady about your worries? I think having things out in the open during a nice, easy chat is usually for the best.

what about my idea of meeting earlier

i'm in 2 book groups, they're very different. one is much more rule-centred and tbh i get teh most out of that one. the other one tends to be books which i don't find v challenging and tbh i sometimes need that.

well if you all dont want her ethen how to get rid doesnt matter if its underhand or not really the result its the same

MP - we meet at 8 once we've kids to bed.

oh you should let someone else do the kids

anyway if i want my own book club with more than just me as a member do i put it in the post office or what?

I've been thinking.

You should ditch her.

The lady who ran my old book club would have asked her to leave, not that's for sure.

i love the title of this thread by the way

plain and simple and just slightly enigmatic

look its upsetting for me not to be relaxed in my own book club, we are a nice mix of people , 40's and 30's diff age kids so we get a nice balance of things.
all i wondered was how to deal with a radical in the camp, lets use that euphenism.

and because we are nice we are not confrontational and are waiting for an explosion before dealing with the pet annoyances.

the op is a bit long tho

fair enough,I missed the bit about drink

We had a similar situation in our book group - we tried various things - saying that if you hadn't read the book not to come to the meeting - having alternate months -one month book discussion one month social. Usually the lady in question ha not read the book so would steer the converation away from any discussion to do with the book. It was a really difficult situation as we all got on really well. In the end most people in the group got fed up with the situation and stopped coming. Eventually we decided to make it in to a social club and not even pretend to have a book. Unfortunately what happened then was that people stopped making the effort to come.

The rest of us have now joined other book groups but it's a shame about the original. However I think that sometimes these sort of groups have a natural life which eventually comes to an end and I think this is what happened to us.

Sorry to hijack but just wanted you to know that it's not just you. It's very difficult when 6 out of 7 people have made the effort to read the book, want to talk about it but are continually undermined/interrupted by the one person who hasn't read it (this was our situation - not saying it is yours)

Good luck