Had a chat with my neighbor about book club voting and it changed my mind

My neighbor across the street came over last Saturday while I was gardening and we got talking about how our book clubs pick books. She told me her club uses a ranked choice voting system instead of just throwing out titles and arguing till someone gives up. I always thought our way of just having whoever shouts loudest pick the next book was fine, but she showed me a spreadsheet of their picks over 2 years. They had way more variety than us - we just keep picking the same types of thrillers over and over. Her club even picks non-fiction sometimes which mine would never do. It hit me that our process is broken and makes the same people happy every time. Has anyone else tried changing up how your club votes on books?

2 comments

2 Comments

jasonallen1mo ago

Yeah I used to be one of those people who thought ranked choice was just a bunch of unnecessary math for a book club. Like we're not electing a president here, we're picking a book to drink wine and complain about. But after reading this I'm kind of reconsidering. My club has the same problem where we keep circling back to the same three genres because the loudest voices just steamroll everyone else and nobody wants to start a fight over it. Maybe having some actual structure would help break us out of that rut without making it feel like a big deal. I'm actually gonna bring this up at our next meeting and see what people think even if it makes me sound like a nerd.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Look at you guys with your fancy spreadsheets and actual data. My club's voting process is basically "Janet brings wine so Janet gets to pick" and we've read nothing but historical fiction about plucky Victorian women for three years straight. Your neighbor's system sounds like something from a different planet where people actually compromise and don't just passive-aggressively veto every suggestion that isn't their own. I bet her club also doesn't have that one guy who shows up 45 minutes late and then argues the book was actually about capitalism when everyone else clearly read a romance novel. Maybe we should all just let a random number generator choose our books and save ourselves the drama.