I finally stopped fighting the pace of my fantasy book club

For 2 years I was the person finishing every book 3 days early and getting annoyed when others lagged behind. Last month in Tacoma, our group spent the whole meeting arguing about one side character's motive instead of the plot, and it hit me that the slow parts are the best part. Now I read along with the schedule instead of sprinting ahead, and I actually enjoy the discussions way more. Has anyone else found that matching everyone else's pace beats being book-ahead?

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the_david17d ago

Book club in Tacoma, huh? I went to one in Portland where we waited six weeks to finish a 300 page fantasy novel someone picked because it had a dragon on the cover. That's where I learned to keep sprinting. When I read ahead, I can catch the stuff the group misses, like the fact that the side character we argued about actually lied in chapter 4 and it mattered later. Matching the slow pace just means I sit there bored while people rehash what I already absorbed weeks ago. You're trading your own reading rhythm for group comfort, and that feels like a bad deal to me. But hey, if the chatter beats the book for you, fair enough.