One member's one-star take on my book pick actually fixed the whole meeting

I run a small club in Austin, about 8 of us, and I picked a literary novel I loved. Three people bounced off it hard, but one person said the pacing felt like homework, not a story. At first I got defensive, but then I asked what they wanted from a pick and they said more action or shorter chapters. Next month I chose a thriller with 2 page chapters and the same person read it in 3 days. The debate that night was way more alive, everyone had a hot take. So do you take harsh feedback as a gut punch or as a tuning tool for the next round? Has anyone else had a criticism totally reshape how you pick books?

1 comments

1 Comment

the_william27d ago

Same thing happens with restaurants, one bad dish teaches you what the whole table actually wants.