Why do book groups all read the same books?

[BoccaDellaVerita]

This was inspired by the current thread about The Book Thief.

I've noticed that some books - The Book Thief, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Time Traveller's Wife, We Need To Talk About Kevin, to pick just four - are on so many book groups' lists they seem to all intents and purposes to be compulsory. Yet they often turn out to be disappointing or even mediocre. So how do these books attain the status of book group mainstays? And can anyone suggest something better?

There are seven in our book group and only two of us knew each other beforehand so we are a very mixed group in terms of age and background ( although four of us are or were teachers ). We meet every 6 weeks and agree the book choice between us. Some have been suggested by one person, some are current best sellers. We never have anthing to do with R & J.

We have so far read;

On Chesil Beach
The Catcher in the Rye
A Gathering Light
The Accidental Tourist
Fortunes Rocks
The Suspicions of Mr Witcher
The Secret life of Bees
The Outcast

and our next read is Barrack Obama's Dreams from my Father.

Quite a diverse collection!

Piscesmoon, are you in my bookgroup? We've read loads from your list!

Our library runs three book groups, so they have a long list of very mixed books that they have multiple copies of. We mostly choose from the list unless anyone is desperate to recommend something else.

Next week, I'll be recommending Richard Yates Revolutionary Road. It's one of my favourite books, and it would be good to re-read before the film comes out.

Sleepycat, Mrs Dalloway and the Book Thief have both gone down like a cup of cold sick at our group.

Ohhh, dispossessed - Ursulla LeGuin (is that right) Enjoyed that a loonnnng time ago. Must put Women on the edge onto our book club recommendations

We have done 3/4 of your list, but we manage to get away from standard book group reads by having themed suggestions - eg for valentines eveyone has to come up with a romance (granted, our choice last Feb was 1984 perhaps not one of the great Romances of all time) Thinking up themes challenges up to read outside of the 'reading group contemporary literature' box that I would personally slide dangerous into on too many occasions. So, themes have been the obvious genres (horror, sci-fi, biography, play, poetry) but also slightly more random (eg husbands choices, graphic novels, kids book, book that you have always meant to read but never have, something feminist)

We also try to do a 'genuine' classic every 3/4 months.

Since two people have asked me if it is the same book group I think it goes to prove that OP is right!
I liked Tenderness of Wolves, Nancysgarden, especially the descriptions of Canada, all the more remarkable since the author hasn't been. It was an interesting book-not for anyone who likes the endings all tied up.

Would you recommend 'The Outcast', newpup? I have picked it up twice and put it down again.

OP is right. Unfortunately.

We are in France so have no idea what goes on with Richard & Judy. It's not that. It is that wretched "Bestsellers" list that dooms us to reading the same mediocre books written by nameless novice authors for the least common denominator and marketed mercilessly by publishing houses. (It's a pet hatred of mine, can you tell?)

Our book club read:

Secret Life Of Bees
1000 Splendid Suns
The Book Thief
Memory Keeper's Daughter

All "Bestsellers". All written to pull at heartstrings, no brain required. All toe-curlingly dull.

Those of us who have chosen these books for the Book Club actually said that they were the recommendations of their friends in other Book Clubs, so yes, there is definitely a "let's read the same books" thing.

piscesmoon. I really enjoyed The Outcast. Although it had a very mixed reaction in the book group. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye.

It is set in a small English village immediately after the war. I really enjoyed how the author captured the post war gloom. The characters are 'flaky' and some of the group found the main character hard to emphathise with. I really enjoyed it and would definately recommend it.

Takver just googled the dispossessed, it's going on my list.

I felt cold just reading Tenderness, admit I was expecting something more gory. (Recently went to see Far North, VERY gory, but then I am a delicate flower).

Our book group has tried to get books from the library and we are stuck because they can never get enough of the ones we want to read and are rather stuck with the list of the usual books available... we do buy our books generally but it gets expensive. We'd love to do A Town Like Alice but can't get it...

I also wanted The Outsider by Albert Camus

I would just love to do a book group reading of French and English children's classics from a comparable era and contrast what they tell us about the cultures and the nature of childhood.

I am fascinated by Babar (the original Jean de Brunhoff ones)...

I'd love to join that Book Club.

I think it sounds a great idea.

Am in two book groups (old town and new). Between the two have read:

Drowning Ruth
Farewell to Arms
The Boy in Striped Pyjamas
Blood River
Madame Bovary
Cannery Row
By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept
The Gathering
The Damned United
The Two of US: My life with John Thaw
Saturday
Naming the Dead
No Time for Goodbye
Carter Beats the Devil
Year of Wonders
When we were Orphans
Tender is the Night
I'm Not scared
An Equal Music
Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance

and lots of others i can't remember at the moment.

Cote - did you read the recent excellent article about Tintin in the Economist? Christmas edition or the one after.

No I didn't. DH quite likes Tintin

Just found it online, and at this:

"IT IS one of Europe?s more startling laws. In 1949 France banned children?s books and comic strips from presenting cowardice in a ?favourable? light, on pain of up to a year in prison for errant publishers."

Read on. IIRC the law is still in force.

My DH is Tintin fan too. That article shed light on why all my continental European boyfriends always loved Tintin but British men don't (I don't think Tintin is particularly a girl thing).