Took me 3 months to figure out my own book club's debate format...
I run a small book club in Portland, about 8 of us. We kept having these debates that would just go in circles, nobody agreeing on anything, just talking over each other. I thought it was the books we were picking, but honestly it was how we were running the debate itself. Finally after three months of this nonsense I sat down and wrote out a simple rule: first round is just impressions and feelings, second round is evidence from the text, third round is open debate. First meeting we tried it last week? Best debate we ever had. Has anyone else come up with a format that actually works for keeping book club debates on track?