Good Questions to Ask About a Book
Good questions to ask about a book, for a book club, a classroom, or a conversation with whoever else has read it. The 32 questions start with first reactions and the characters people argue about, move on to how the book is written and whether the ending earns itself, then go deeper: what the book is really about, where you wanted to argue with it, and which character you recognised yourself in.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
First reactions
Before we get into detail, what did you make of it in one sentence?
Why ask it
Going round the room for one sentence each stops the first confident speaker setting the verdict for everyone. It also surfaces the quiet dissenter who would otherwise agree with whatever the group settles on.
Was there a point where you nearly gave up, or a point where you could not put it down?
Why ask it
People remember where their attention broke even when they cannot say why, and comparing those places usually locates a real structural problem or a real hinge in the book.
Which scene are you still thinking about?
Why ask it
The scene that persists is rarely the most dramatic one, and asking why it stuck often reveals something the reader brought to it rather than something the author put there.
Was there a line you read twice or went back to?
Why ask it
Gets people to open the book, which changes the whole quality of a discussion. Reading a sentence aloud also settles arguments about tone faster than describing it.
Did anything make you laugh, and do you think it was meant to?
Why ask it
The gap between intended and accidental comedy tells you a lot about whether an author had control of the tone, and it gives readers permission to say a serious book was sometimes silly.
Characters
Which character would you least like to spend a weekend with?
Why ask it
A lighter route into character than asking who your favourite was, and it separates a well-written character from a likeable one. Groups often discover they admire someone they would not tolerate.
Was there anyone you found yourself defending, even though they behaved badly?
Why ask it
This is where readers disagree most sharply, because it exposes what each person is willing to forgive. Watch for someone defending a character on grounds the book never actually supplies.
Whose story is this, really?
Why ask it
Often contested, especially in books with a narrator who is not the main subject. Disagreement here usually explains other disagreements about whether the ending worked.
Did you trust the narrator?
Why ask it
Ask for the moment the doubt started. Readers who noticed at different points effectively read different books, and comparing those moments is more productive than debating whether the narrator was reliable in the abstract.
Did it get anything wrong about how people behave?
Why ask it
Invites the objection people usually keep to themselves. A character doing something implausible to serve the plot is the most common complaint readers feel unqualified to raise.
How it is written
Did the setting matter, or could this have happened anywhere?
Why ask it
A concrete test that avoids a vague conversation about atmosphere. If the group can relocate the plot to another city or decade without losing anything, the setting was decoration. If they cannot, ask what the place or period made possible: a rule, a silence or a danger the plot depends on.
How would this be different told by another character?
Why ask it
Makes the choice of narrator visible, where normally nobody notices it. Name one specific character instead of asking in general, and the group soon sees what the chosen point of view kept the reader from knowing.
What did the writing style do to your reading pace?
Why ask it
Easier to answer than a request to assess the prose. Where you slowed down, skimmed or lost the thread is direct evidence of how the style worked on you, and it gives less confident readers a way to talk about craft.
Where did it lose momentum for you?
Why ask it
Better than asking about pacing, because it asks for a location rather than a judgement. If several readers name the same fifty pages, the group has found something real.
What did the author leave out that you wanted?
Why ask it
Distinguishes an omission that frustrated you from one that was doing work. Some gaps are the point of the book, and arguing about which is which is usually the best part of the evening.
Did the ending earn itself, or did it just arrive?
Why ask it
Separates an ending you disliked from one that was unprepared. Ask what the book would have needed to plant earlier for the ending to land, which turns complaint into analysis.
Would it be a better book if it ended a chapter earlier?
Why ask it
A specific and slightly provocative question that works on most novels, and it forces readers to say what the last chapter was actually for.
What would be lost if this were filmed?
Why ask it
A practical way to find what only prose is doing here: a character's private thoughts, a narrator who may be lying, doubt about what really happened. If the answer is nothing, that is a real observation about the book and not a failure of imagination.
Deep questions
What is the book actually about, as opposed to what happens in it?
Why ask it
Pulls plot and subject apart, which most summaries run together. If the group lands on two answers that can both be defended, the book is probably doing more than one thing, and that disagreement deserves more time than any other.
What is the book arguing, and do you agree with it?
Why ask it
Keeps the two halves apart, which matters because readers routinely reject an argument they never actually identified. Ask for the sentence in the book that comes closest to stating it.
Does the book tell you what to think, or leave you to work it out?
Why ask it
A book can state its case outright or trust the reader to find it, and a split in the room often comes down to which of those each person prefers. Ask for one passage where someone felt told and another where they felt trusted.
Where did you stop reading and want to argue with it?
Why ask it
The places a reader resists are the places the book is making a claim. Asking for the exact page turns a vague objection into something the group can look at, and it gives people permission to dislike part of a book everyone else has praised.
Whose side were you on, and did that change?
Why ask it
Tracks how the book moved you, not only where you ended up. A reader who never shifted may have been reading for confirmation, and saying so out loud usually starts a better argument than agreeing about the theme.
Which character did you recognise yourself in, and how did that feel?
Why ask it
Recognition tells you more than liking does, and the second half is where the discomfort sits, because the character people recognise is often not the admirable one. Give this one time, and let anyone pass.
What made you uncomfortable, and was that the point?
Why ask it
The second half separates a book that unsettles on purpose from one that misjudged something. Either answer is fair, and having both on the table stops the talk shrinking to whether the book was allowed to go there.
What did the ending do to the rest of the book?
Why ask it
An ending changes how everything before it reads, and this asks what got rewritten in hindsight. Listen for the reader who liked the book until the last twenty pages: that usually points to a promise the ending chose not to keep.
Verdict
Did it change how you see anything outside the book?
Why ask it
Worth asking without assuming the answer is yes. "No, it was just a good read" is a legitimate response and usually more honest than a claim that the book rearranged someone's worldview.
How does it compare to the last book you read by this author or in this genre?
Why ask it
Comparison gives a way in to anyone who cannot say why something worked. Regular readers of the genre can tell you which conventions the book followed and which it broke, and most groups never think to ask them.
How do you think this will read in twenty years?
Why ask it
Shifts the group from taste to durability, and it lets people praise a book they did not enjoy or admit that something they loved is tied to this moment.
Who would you give this to, and who would you keep it from?
Why ask it
Forces a precise verdict, because naming an actual person requires deciding what the book is for. The second half often produces the frankest criticism of the night.
Will you remember this in five years, and what will you remember?
Why ask it
Asks for honesty about a book people have just spent an hour defending. The yes or no matters less than the specific thing each person names, because that is what the book was worth to them.
What would you ask the author if they were sitting here?
Why ask it
A good closer, because the questions people choose reveal what the book failed to resolve for them, and the group often answers a few of them between themselves.
Running a good book discussion
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Opening the discussion
- Start by going round for a one-sentence reaction from everybody, including anyone who did not finish. It takes four minutes and it stops the loudest verdict becoming the group's verdict.
- Agree at the start whether spoilers are open. In a book club they usually are, but say so, because one member reading slowly can quietly derail the whole evening.
- Ask people to bring the book, physically or on a device. Discussions where nobody can quote anything drift into general opinion within twenty minutes.
- Put the vaguest question last, not first. "What did you think of the themes?" opens badly and closes well.
Choosing from the list
- Pick five questions, in the order you want them, and accept that you may only reach three. A group that works through the whole list at pace never gets past the first layer of anyone's opinion.
- Take one or two of the deep questions and put them in the middle of the meeting. They land better once people have warmed up on reactions and characters.
- With two readers instead of a group, use fewer questions and expect to go much further into each.
- In a classroom, pair the question about another character telling the story with a short written exercise: one scene, rewritten from that point of view.
- On a reread, ask what has changed since last time. The answer is usually about the reader more than the book.
- Keep one question back for the last ten minutes, such as what people will remember in five years. A discussion with an ending is better than one that simply runs out.
Keeping it honest
- Ask for the page. "Where does it say that?" is not aggressive; it is the difference between a discussion and a set of impressions.
- Make room for the person who disliked it. Groups drift toward consensus, and the dissenting reader usually has the most to say.
- When two people disagree, ask each to state the other's reading back before continuing. It resolves half of all book club arguments, which turn out to be about different interpretations of one scene.
- Let someone say they were bored. It is a real response to a real book and it usually points at something worth examining.
Common pitfalls
- Treating research as authority. Reading an interview with the author settles what they intended, not whether the book achieved it.
- Letting the conversation become a series of personal anecdotes the book reminded people of. One is a good digression; five means you have stopped discussing the book.
- Asking whether people liked it as the first question, which tends to end the discussion rather than start it.
- Assuming a difficult book is better and an enjoyable one is slight. Both assumptions shut down honest reactions.
If the book is non-fiction
Swap the character questions for questions about evidence and structure. Ask what the central claim is and whether the book proves it or only illustrates it. Ask which chapter you would keep if the book had to be an essay, and which parts were there to reach a publishable length. Ask what the strongest counter-argument would be, and whether the author engages it or a weaker version of it. With memoir, ask what the writer could not have known at the time they are describing, and how they handle that gap. It is also fair to ask who else appears in the memoir and never gets a reply.