…and much more nicely than I would have,
“Name Withheld” says that a member of her book club typically regurgitates online reviews of the assigned books that she seldom reads, aggressively presents them as her own, and is begging for a slapdown. “In the days before a meeting, she will casually share with me that she ‘couldn’t get into it,’ but she never says so to the other members. I sit there steaming but don’t reveal her duplicity. What would you do?,” she asks Prof. Appiah, the Times Magazine ethics advice columnist in lat week’s column, “A Woman in My Book Club Never Reads the Books. Can I Expose Her?”
“I get why you’re peeved,” the professor says. So do I: she thinks a social book club is a seminar for credit. “Still, the first rule of book clubs is that someone will always show up having read only the first chapter and the last page, armed with three profound observations from Goodreads.” No, that’s the second rule of book clubs. The first rule is to provide a regular opportunity for people to get together and socialize in the context of a structure more potentially engaging than arguing about Donald Trump. “Your job, in any case, isn’t to police her page turns. Cast yourself as the enforcer, and you betray the spirit of a group dedicated to forging connections through stories.”
Bingo.
“But the goal isn’t to humiliate her…maintain your small, imperfect community. One thing you’ll have learned from your books, after all, is that the flawed characters are always the most human.” Yadayadayada. Maybe she’s having cognitive issues. Maybe she’s dyslexic. Maybe she’s lonely and just wants company. Maybe she’s insecure about her analytical ability. The woman’s cheating in her book club exploits literally hurts nobody but herself at worst, and possibly allows her some human contact that she desperately needs at small cost to the other members.
Sure, the inquirer can expose her. To me, however, the fact that she’d even consider it means I’d rather have the book faker in my club than her.
Ethics Alarms 
That’s a funny one. It’s summer and many having fled to cooler environs, Mrs. OB’s book club is officially in its “No Book Club” configuration. Remaining members still meet regularly but only to drink wine and chat.
kind of odd.
Next week, my book club is reading Kant’s Essay, What is Enlightenment? Alongside Michel Foucault’s essay, What is Enlightenment?
I don’t know if I could have found any reviews.
the good thing: it was my idea! I have read them both several times. We just needed a light reading for our Wednesday night taco seminar.
then, we are on to Aeschylus before we delve into David Copperfield (may have to consult the Cliff Notes)
-Jut
D’oh!
Euripides!!!
-Jut
I like your yardstick for light reading. ☺️
Tailor: Euripides?
Customer: Eumenedes?
Jack will be here all week, folks.
Is that a Marx Brothers gag?
I think it’s even older than that: Burlesque or earlier.
“David Copperfield” Dickens’s best, in my book. Best read in no more than one chapter in a sitting. Was serialized, of course, so was read aloud to groups upon purchase. Best way to digest it and enjoy it. If you read Dickens as if it’s normal fiction, it can cause overload and annoyance. I read it at a low point in my life, and it helped get me through. “Great Expectations” right up there with “Copperfield.”
I read Great Expectations at a point in my life where – well, it hit me hard. I gifted it to my ex-girlfriend a few years later. Best and worst gift she ever received. We agreed to read it back when we are fifty. Still unsure we’ll be ready for a second pass at it in a few years.
I am a big Dickens fan, but always found David Copperfield well down my list. “Great Expectations” is at the top, tied with “A Tale of Two Cities.” Then “Bleak House.”
I have a friend who writes book reviews of library books for a local newspaper. When I read his reviews and the covers at the library ,they sound similar. Is it plagerism when you consult Roget for synonamous adjectives?
The letter writer should feel flattered that the woman stays in the book club. She probably likes the people there, the letter writer in particular, since she’s the one the woman confides in. Maybe they should ask the woman to pick the next book. It could be her taste in books is vastly different from the others.
I thought the first rule of book club was that you don’t talk about book club.
If every member of a book club faked their reviews, you’d still have a group of people that like each other’s company hanging out with each other. If everyone exposed people who phoned in their reviews, your group would collapse and nobody would be happy. I figure the best option would be to find a book that the woman enjoys, if she can’t get into the current selection. If it’s reading itself that the woman can’t get into for whatever reason, maybe expand the book club into other media.