Debate: Should book clubs force themselves through 200 pages of a slog or skip ahead to the good parts?

I was in a book club last month where we picked a novel that had a great premise but the first 150 pages were a total drag. One member said we should stick it out because the payoff came around page 200, but another argued we should just skip to the climax and discuss that. It took our group 3 weeks of debating before we finally agreed to read the whole thing, and honestly, the ending wasn't even that great. So here's my question: have you ever stuck with a book that bored you to death for the sake of finishing it, and did it ever actually pay off? I'm starting to think we wasted 20 hours of collective reading time. What do you all do when a book starts slow?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy9771mo ago

Man, exactly - we stuck through a 400 page snoozefest and the ending just fizzled out completely.

the_barbara1mo ago

Ever try skimming the last 50 pages first to see if it's worth finishing?