Tried assigning roles to our book club members and it stopped the chaos

Our group of 8 people was always talking over each other during debates, especially on complex books like 'Kindred'. I split up roles: one person does historical context, another does character motivation, and someone handles themes. We tried it last month for our discussion on 'The Color Purple' and it actually kept things focused. Has anyone else used a structured approach like this for their club?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_roberts1mo ago

Wait, you're telling me there are other book clubs that actually have the same problem of people just steamrolling each other? We tried something almost identical for our "Beloved" discussion and it was like night and day difference, nobody got to just dominate the whole conversation anymore.

sageallen1mo ago

Wait, you're telling me someone actually beat me to this idea? I've been wanting to do this for our group but nobody ever wants to change things up, they just want to keep shouting at each other over who's right about the symbolism.