Serious question, has anyone else seen book clubs turn into therapy sessions?

I was at a local coffee shop in Portland last week, sitting near a book club meeting. They were supposed to be talking about 'The Midnight Library'. Instead, for over an hour, every single person just shared their own biggest life regret. It was like a group confession! The book was just a springboard for really personal stuff. I'm all for books making you feel things, but it felt like the story got totally lost. The moderator tried twice to bring it back to the plot, but it didn't work. It makes me wonder if this is a new trend, where the book itself isn't the main point anymore. Has your club ever had a meeting that went totally off the rails like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

skylerr232mo ago

Honestly, maybe the plot just wasn't that good? The whole point of that book IS regret, so they probably just latched onto the only interesting part.

riley5958d ago

Book club moderator of five years here, and yeah, this is basically a monthly occurrence if you pick a book with any emotional weight. The trick is to set a loose timer for personal sharing right at the start. Something like "okay, first 15 minutes we air out how the book made us feel, then we hit the plot points." If someone really goes deep, just gently say "sounds like that's worth its own coffee meetup later, but let's table it for now and get back to page 47." The moderator probably just froze up when everyone started crying. Next meeting, they should print out 3 discussion questions on an index card to keep things on track.

michaelcoleman2mo ago

Ask if the moderator gave up because they were into it too. Sounds like the book just became an excuse for a group therapy session nobody signed up for. Did anyone even finish reading the book?