That library in Portland split our book club in half over a simple rule change

I visited the Multnomah County Library last month for our monthly meetup. The debate got heated when half of us wanted to limit picks to books under 400 pages for faster turnover, and the other half swore it kills depth. We were literally shouting over the stacks near the fiction aisle on the 2nd floor. Which side would you take on page limits for book club reads?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlesschmidt15d ago

Wait hold on, I gotta push back on something. You said "2nd floor" but the Multnomah County Library main branch doesn't have a second floor like that. The Central Library has a huge mezzanine level and then the main floor, so if you were by the fiction stacks it was probably the main floor or the mezzanine. Anyway, I'm 100% on the side of NO page limits for book club reads. You want "faster turnover" but that's just rushing through good books like fast food. Some of the BEST discussions I've had came from those 500+ page novels where you really sit with the characters and themes. A 400 page cap would kill stuff like The Stand or Lonesome Dove which are PERFECT for group talks.

taylor_wells15d ago

You ever have a friend who just commits to stuff without thinking? My buddy Dave signed up for a book club that was doing The Goldfinch, which is like 800 pages. He showed up to the first meeting having only read like 150 pages and spent the whole time nodding along pretending he knew what was going on. The club actually loved the book and wanted to keep discussing it for another month, but Dave was so lost he just quit. Moral of the story is, long books can work if the group is patient, but page limits wont fix people who cant keep up anyway.

the_rose14d ago

Oh man, the "faster turnover" thing really gets me. @taylor_wells, that Dave story is hilarious but also kind of sad. My old book club had the opposite problem actually. We picked The Art of Racing in the Rain which is like 300 pages or something, short and sweet right? But then one woman spent the whole meeting arguing about whether the dog was really narrating or if it was a metaphor for something else. We never even got to the plot because she kept circling back to dog metaphors. So page limits dont fix people who overthink things either. I guess both sides are right in a way. Short books can spark just as much debate as long ones if the group is a certain way. And honestly, the whole floor layout thing charlessschmidt mentioned is a good point but I never even noticed where the stacks were, I was too busy trying not to drop my coffee on a copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane.