Rereading the same book as a group vs. everyone picks their own

Our club spent six months doing the free-for-all thing where everyone brings a book they liked and we just talk over each other about different plots. It was chaos. Last month we actually voted on one book, The Vegetarian, and did a proper deep dive over two meetings. The difference was night and day. We could argue about specific scenes, like the moment she refuses the meat, and someone could point back to page 47 to prove their take. Nobody could derail with a random spoiler from their own pick. The quieter members actually spoke up because we were all on the same page, literally. Has anyone else found that shared source material makes the debate better, or does your group thrive on the chaos of unrelated picks?

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daniel5111mo ago

You said the free-for-all was chaos, and the group book made quiet members speak up. That part got me thinking. Were the quiet people holding back because they felt like they didn't know enough about the other books, or was it more that they had a good take but no shared ground to prove it on? Because a vote on one book just moves the problem, it doesn't kill it. The loud people still pick the book, and the quiet ones still might not like it. Did you notice any shift when everyone actually hated the choice, or was that just another kind of silence?