Our club used to pick books by voting on a list. Now we draw a genre from a hat each month.

The change came last fall after three months of picking similar literary fiction books. Someone said, 'We're in a rut.' Now, if we draw 'mystery' or 'sci-fi,' we have to find one. It forces us to read things we would skip. Has your group ever switched how you pick what to read?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.cameron18h ago

What happens if you draw a genre that's a real dud for everyone? We had that with romance. The compromise was letting the person who drew it pick any book that just had a strong romantic subplot, not a straight romance novel. It kept the spirit of the rule but saved us from a month of book club misery. We ended up with a historical fiction book that had a love story in it, and it was actually pretty good. That little bit of flexibility stopped a mutiny.

nora_webb5122h ago

My old book club was so predictable we could have just re-read the same sad novel every month. What does your group do if you draw a genre nobody likes?

joseph_bailey18h ago

We hit a western phase last year that had half the group groaning. Our rule is you can pick any book in the genre, so someone found a sci-fi western mashup. It was weird but got us talking more than our usual picks.