In real life book clubs - when you hate the book...

[Nonny]

If you are in a real life book club, how passionate are you during your discussion when you hate the book?

This is brought to you by the book English Creek, which for some inexplicable reason has >4 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and reviews calling it "magical," and "witty," and people seem to love the realism of the characters.  I, however, found it dull and boring, and thought the characters were completely one-dimensional; if I didn't know better I'd swear I'd read something completely different than those reviewers. 

[snshne322]

My experience is somewhat irrelevant since I'm not in an IRL book club, but I find when discussing books with others that have read it as well that I tend to be pretty harsh when I don't like it. Probably harsher than I should be because I sometimes get this look and I know I might have taken it too far. I've been trying to work on it.

[booknerd]

I'm not in an IRL book club, but whenever I'm discussing books I didn't like I have to remind myself, like a child, that people like different things. Because I am very passionate about books that I really did and really didn't enjoy.

[Nonny]

See, this is all helpful, because I'll probably need to reign in my passion on this on. LOL! I don't want to hurt the feelings of the persons who picked it, but gawd, it was so boring.

[booknerd]

Jun 22, 2016 15:59:34 GMT -5 Nonny said:

See, this is all helpful, because I'll probably need to reign in my passion on this on. LOL! I don't want to hurt the feelings of the persons who picked it, but gawd, it was so boring.

I know! As much as I want to trash a book sometimes I really don't want to make anyone feel bad. I rant in my head while they praise the book usually.

Unless it's my cousin, then I don't hold back because neither does she lol.

[skeezon]

I go crazy in my head and try to keep my words to a sane level. But when I don't like a book, I really don't like a book. It's hard to find a balance where you don't sound like a raving lunatic. Or is that just me? Of course, there are MANY books that I've read that the majority LOVE and I just don't get it.

[mrspez07]

I've been lucky, we all seem to provide our thoughts and it is what it is. We often discuss issues or scenarios that the book provokes in our minds (race, class, weird scenarios) maybe you could open it up that way?

[dorothyinAus]

Not in an IRL book club, but I rarely censor myself when discussing books I did not enjoy. I know people disagree with me, but that does not make my opinion any less valid. People who liked the book are passionate about it, people who dislike it can be equally passionate about their dislike. I think as long as you can quantify what it is you did not like about he book, it's fair -- don't simply state the book was crap without further explanation. Did you not like the writing? Were the characters hard to get to know/like? Was the subject matter the problem? Did the author not do her research? Was the book edited badly? I think as long as you can explain what it was you didn't like it's perfectly fine to be passionate about your dislike.

[jojoandleo]

My book club is with three of my best friends. We have no problem trashing books someone in the group loved. Although, we ALL hated Life of Pi, so, we may be broken people...

We also have a tendency to keep picking books where someone is raped/molested. It's become a challenge to be the first person to pick a book without it. My last pick was 

SPOILER: Click to show

The Nightengale. DAMN YOU NIGHTENGALE!

[ally]

I try to be nice enough, but I will say I do not like it.  One of our book club members has an English degree and I am in awe of his ability to focus on grammar/word usage/some other small element, instead of his dislike for the book, to save the choosers feelings.

I think disagreement leads to a good conversation and can be enlightening. 

[Nonny]

I can definitely quantify why I didn't like the book, and why I found it boring, it just seems like from the reviews my "boring" is their "magical." LOL! It should be interesting to see what happens this weekend when we meet.

At least with this book I can kind of see why people would like it, if they are into folksy patois and ranching. Mostly I was just, "OMG why is this book so f'ing boring. How much time can they spend slicing bread (like, literally, talking about how many loaves they need to make sandwiches and milk toast)." It's not like the visceral hatred I had when I read The Circle.

[Nonny]

I got lucky, the book club was kind of split, and a lot of people didn't like the book for the same reasons I didn't like it - the pacing was too slow and it was kind of boring.

Everyone laughed and agreed with my assessment that Bubbles the pack horse was one of the more interesting characters because he actually had a personality. LOL!

Overall it was a good, civil discussion.  We also talked a lot about Montana, and people's various experiences with farming and sheep. 

[farfalla2011]

Ha! I guess I'll find out. I meet for an IRL bookclub tomorrow to discuss We Were the Mulvaneys which I really didn't like. It was fine I guess, but so incredibly slow, boring and I don't know if there was truly a point? You can pull all sorts of life lessons from it, but I like for there to be a little more action or something.

[GilliC]

Our IRL book club had some of our best discussions when it turned out that no one liked the book!

Otherwise, we tended to stick to clear things that we did or didn't like. It was interesting to see different opinions, since there are some characteristics of certain books we read that I realize I really don't care for. By thinking more about why I didn't like some things, it's helped me better understand what I do like so that I can seek it out!