Can we talk about the time our club tried to read 'Infinite Jest' in a month

That was a bad week. We all agreed on it, but nobody actually read past page 200. Our meeting was just five people staring at each other, each holding a different copy of the book. Someone said, 'I think the footnotes are a metaphor,' and we all just nodded. The problem was we picked it because it sounded smart, not because anyone wanted to read it. We spent the whole hour talking about the cover art instead of the plot. It made me realize you need to know your group before you pick a giant book. Has your club ever picked a book that just killed the mood for everyone?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew_sanchez941mo ago

My old office book club tried to tackle "War and Peace" once. It's the same thing where picking a big, impressive title becomes more about the idea of reading it than the actual reading. I've seen it happen with workout plans and meal prep too, where the goal gets lost in the gesture.

caseyfox1mo ago

Honestly, my friend did this with a huge home garden plan last spring. He bought all these fancy tools and like ten different seed packets, @andrew_sanchez94. Tbh, he spent a whole weekend building raised beds and then just... never planted anything. The goal totally vanished once he'd made the big, perfect plan.