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The night I had to choose between finishing the book or attending book club without reading it
Last month my club was debating 'Project Hail Mary' and I was only halfway through the day of the meeting. I sat there for 20 minutes trying to decide if I should skim the last 200 pages or just show up and wing it. I chose to skim and ended up missing a big plot twist that everyone else spent an hour discussing. The whole thing made me wonder if there's a right way to handle being behind on the reading. How do you all deal with the pressure when you haven't finished the book?
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verar212mo ago
People treat being behind on a book club read the same way they treat being late to anything else. They panic, rush, and end up missing the whole point anyway. Skimming is like speed walking through a museum you'll never remember what you actually saw. Honestly I think if you're not going to finish, just show up and be honest about where you are. Most people are too busy defending their own opinions to notice you haven't read the whole thing. The real trick is just admitting you don't know instead of pretending you do.
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xena3732mo ago
Respectfully, skimming works fine if you already know the author's style or the subject well. I've shown up to book club having only read half a book more than once, and the discussion usually circles around the same three or four chapters anyway. Nobody actually cares about the minor characters or the subplot about the neighbor's dog. The real trick is figuring out which parts will come up in conversation and reading those a little closer. Being honest about not finishing just makes people feel sorry for you or judge your time management.
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paulw871mo ago
@verar21 that museum comparison is a good point, but here's something nobody's bringing up. If you skimmed half the book and then show up to book club, you're basically admitting you didn't care enough to read the rest. That says more about your priorities than your reading skills. I've seen people try to bluff their way through discussions about the neighbor's dog subplot and the author threw that in as a red herring to trick people who weren't paying attention. The minor characters matter when the whole theme hinges on them.
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