Good for What? Non-appeal, Discussibility, and Book Groups (Part 2)

Barry Trott, Editor
Joan Bessman Taylor, Guest Columnist

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Since the publication of Joyce Saricks’s Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library (ALA, 1989, 1997, 2005), readers’ advisors have used the concept of appeal as a way to connect readers with books. Looking at the elements of a piece of writing–character, language, mood, setting, and story–and what the reader preferred in each area helps the readers’ advisor to make connections between works that the reader may not have considered and thus expands the possible choices for that reader. What has been less explored, however, is the concept of working with those elements of a book that the reader did not enjoy. In her two-part column, Joan Bessman Taylor explores the role of these nonappealing elements in the practice of readers’ advisory. In part one (RUSQ 46, no. 4), Taylor examined how readers’ advisors can best work with books that do not appeal to them personally. She suggested that understanding nonappeal can expand the possibilities for making thoughtful suggestions. Here, in part two, Taylor applies the concept of nonappeal to working with reading groups in selecting titles that will generate lively and thoughtful discussion.

Joan Bessman Taylor is afaculty member in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. This column is based on her six years of participant observation in six book groups of varying focus and membership. Her dissertation, “When Adults Talk in Circles: Book Groups and Contemporary Reading Practices,” was conducted in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.–Editor

The notion of discussibility pervades popular guides for reading groups and the common discourse surrounding them as well as the published research on book group practices. Though it is “something intuitively appreciated by certain booksellers,” it has not been explicitly defined beyond its being that quality that makes a book well-suited for fostering group discussion.¹ When I spoke with a representative from HarperCollins regarding how they made decisions about which books would be published with a reading group discussion guide included in them, I was told that the direct marketing manager would make recommendations to a publicity committee about those books deemed to have reading group appeal. When I asked her if she could explain this quality further, she admitted that the deliberations were vague and included much guesswork, but that books selected were usually ones addressing “life issues, emotions, relationship stuff and are ones that a reader can relate to one’s own life.”²

Though she does not use the term “discussibility”‘ in her book Circles of Sisterhood: A Book Discussion Guide for Women of Color, Pat Neblett, president of a book discussion group and a cultural enrichment travel group, approaches a definition of discussibility when she provides six points to consider when selecting books for discussion.³ These can be summarized as follows:

1. Best sellers are not always the best choices for discussion, so don’t decide to select a book just because it is on the that list.
2. Each book selection will not appeal to every member. However, when it has to be read for discussion, some of the naysayers will become the best particpants.
3. By mixing up selections, you are bound to make each member happy over the course of the year.
4. Books that weren’t enjoyable often lead to the most stimulating discussion.
5. The value of being a part of a discussion group is best demonstrated when everyone respects opposing views and different interpretations.
6. Deciding when to assign a particular book can be tricky.

Beyond Neblett’s statement to look further than the bestseller list for title suggestions, her recommendations do not relate directly to books but to the disposition of readers who interact with them. She says in several different ways that it is not important for every member to like the book in order to have an enjoyable conversation about it. She highlights the fact that readers may have opposing views on a book or topic, and acknowledges that the successfulness of a pick may be influenced by the timing of when it is selected. The ability of a book to enable varying perspectives or positions is an often-remarked-upon element contributing to the successfulness and enjoyment of a discussion.

In The Book Group Book: A Thoughtful Guide to Forming and Enjoying a Stimulating Book Discussion Group, several of the essays submitted by group members from book groups across the United States include comments that support Neblett’s assertions.⁴ Barbara Berstein from Bowie, Maryland, states: “Good discussions tend to arise either when there is a difference in our perceptions of the book and characters or when the book touches on topics related to our own lives.”⁵ Similarly, David Wellenbrock from Stockton, California, elaborates on this idea, writing, “In selecting a book, it is not necessary that everyone falls in love with it. Indeed, some of our best discussions have been about books with which everyone, or nearly everyone, had serious disagreements.”⁶ Long’s readers also made a similar statement when she asked them what makes a book discussible: “A member of Belles Lettres said, ‘It’s a book people can take different opinions on and find evidence in the text to support.’”⁷

In Good Books Lately: The One-Stop Resource for Book Groups and Other Greedy Readers, Ellen Moore and Kira Stevens, doctoral students at the University of Denver who have established what they call “the country’s first book group consulting company,” suggest in their recommendations for starting a book group that a group must decide what makes a good book group book.⁸ Theirs is the most explicit attempt made thus far to describe the discussibility of a book, and it ventures away from the need to recommend titles that are good based entirely on literary merit or the other aspects that have traditionally been used to assess the quality of a written work. These authors cite seven points that constitute their “demands for a fantastic book group book”:

1. An extraordinary book group book is both a fascinating, compelling read and a provocative source for energetic, animated discussion.
2. A truly interesting book should be about something interesting. It should feature interesting characters who are individuals, not types.
3. The books that belong to the very top tiers of the book group greats category are ones that feature a distinctive, commanding, and appealing writing style.
4. Complexity is a good thing. In real life you may prefer to skip surprises, but a great book group book should surprise you in some manner, inspiring different members to find very different ways of making sense of its contents.
5. The best book group books are ambiguous enough to encourage a variety of different interpretations, but not so ambiguous that they frustrate every attempt to make sense or meaning of what they describe.
6. Nothing spoils a good book like a rotten ending. A truly amazing book group book doesn’t trip you up like this–instead, the last page is as good as the first, and perhaps even makes you sad only for the fact that you’ve come to the end of the book and can never read it again for the very first time.
7. A great book group book is neither too long for what it has to say, nor so short that you get teased but not satisfied.

These criteria for selection were written from the perspective of leaders of a company serving book groups by helping make their reading selections for them. Only two of the aspects described could really be ascertained before having read a book unless groups consider reviews or recommendations of people outside the group (enter the readers’ advisor), or unless a member is required to have read a book before recommending it to the larger group. None of the groups in my study have such a requirement; in fact, they voice a preference for having no one read the book prior to reading it with the group.

It is perhaps possible to determine that a book “is about something interesting,” as stated in point two above, by reading the blurb on the back of its cover, by descriptions of it on bookseller and publisher Web sites, or by other published reviews. Long illuminates this importance for a book to be interesting: “To be ‘discussible’ a book must be interesting as well as good; otherwise, reading and talking about it will fall into the category of the onerous and unpleasurable ‘shoulds’ that reading groups … are anxious to avoid because they bury members’ own desires under the pressure of an obligation to legitimate culture.”⁹ Reviewing sources, as well as browsing excerpts of the book itself, may provide insights into the “writing style” described in point three above. However, determinations about whether a book’s ending or length is appropriate to one’s enjoyment of its content are decisions made by a reader after having experienced the work. While these aspects may serve to explain the emphasis groups place on word-of-mouth recommendations and the assistance they receive from librarians and booksellers, they do not assist the groups in independently selecting titles that will promote discussion for them.

As mentioned in my discussion of Neblett’s criteria for selection, it is important to reiterate that even though some groups base their choices on ideas of literary merit, it is not always the “best” books that promote the best discussions. Nor is it the best-liked books. Books that are agreed upon as being well-written often leave little to discuss:

As one member of the Traditional Women’s Group said, “It isn’t always the best books that give rise to the best discussions. Sometimes we just sit nodding at each other and saying ‘Isn’t this great?’ It’s like you don’t want to muddy the water by sticking your finger in.”¹⁰

In her twenty-five-question survey of 350 reading groups in the United Kingdom and America, Jenny Hartley asked readers to answer the following two questions: “Could you name one book which went well and explain why? Could you name one book which went badly and explain why?”¹¹1 In many instances, readers reported times when a well-liked book fell flat in discussion. For example: “Strangely enough, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin went badly. Those of us who’d finished it liked it so much that there was too much agreement,” and “We all enjoyed Pride and Prejudice so it didn’t provoke a lot of discussion.”¹² Hartley also quotes times when a disliked book provided much to discuss: “We had a good discussion on A Confederacy of Dunces, which we disliked with a passion,” and “The characters of Joanna Trollope’s A Village Affair were felt to be stereotypical, the story novelettish, and the background hackneyed. Interestingly, though, a vigorous discussion was provoked–most highly critical!”¹³ An interesting outcome of Hartley’s investigation is that “quite a few books, and most of the top ten, distinguished themselves as crossovers, i.e., going well in some groups and badly in others.”¹⁴ This leads one to conclude that discussibility may be more than just a feature of books, but a precipitate of the mixing of particular books and particular readers.

The responses from the readers represented in these studies regarding the elements that make for a satisfying book discussion echo the sentiments of the readers I have observed over time. The most explicit statement regarding the element of discussibility made by readers participating in my study arose during my conversation with the Normal Person’s Book Discussion Group when I asked for their input on book suggestions for the “One Book, One Campus” initiative taking place on the nearby university’s campus. We scaled down a list of books suggested for the program and suggested others we would like to see added to it. The conversation articulated more clearly what book group members want from discussion and what they mean when they call a book “discussible”:

JF: I guess we’ve both[referring to his wife] read Walk in the Woods. Walk in the Woods is the strange kind … if he [Bill Bryson] came to speak, utterly fantastic. He’s a gifted, gifted humorist. Just in so far as what he can do. … The book is utterly fantastic. But it … I think … wasn’t it the old book club that had trouble discussing it?

KW: I’m not sure any of his books are discussible. They’re wonderful reads, and fun, but …

JF: It’s hilarious, it’s insightful. I think everyone should read it. But it might be hard to discuss just because it’s so … it’s good but it’s kind of complete. It’s …

JBT: So what makes a book discussible?

JF: I think somewhat, to be a little bit provocative you have to at least put out something that people can in a tiny way disagree with. Like if you’re too succinct and too funny and too clear about what you are trying to say and everyone will agree with it, you can’t quite get even, you know, somehow if everyone likes something it is almost a bit of a problem.¹⁵

This exchange represents a key point that has emerged from my observations over the years with the six reading groups in my sample. One of the main factors dictating the type of book discussion that occurs is not just whether or not a book is regarded as “good,” but also whether it is deemed “complete.”

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