Why does nobody talk about page count in book club picks?

I went to my local book club meetup last night at the downtown library, and we argued for 45 minutes about whether a book needs to be under 300 pages to be fair. One side says shorter books keep people from dropping out mid-month, but the other side claims you miss all the good stuff if you rush through something thin. My copy of the pick was 480 pages and three people admitted they only read the first 8 chapters. Has anyone else seen this split in your group over length versus depth?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnflores20d ago

...and that's exactly what I saw happen at my neighborhood group last month. I read somewhere that the sweet spot for book club picks is around 320 pages, because anything longer and you lose the people who only read during their commute or right before bed. We picked a 450 page thriller and half the group showed up with that "I skimmed the last 100 pages" look on their faces. But then the other half said the slow build was what made the ending hit so hard. It's a split that never seems to go away, and I think it comes down to how much time people actually have versus what they think they should be reading.

davis.noah20d ago

Saw a piece in the Atlantic saying 300 pages is the max for most people to finish a book in a month, and that tracks with your group's experience. The slow build crew probably reads faster or has more time, but the skimmers are just being honest about their reality.