Shoutout to the book club member who argued we should read genre fiction

Reese Martinez · 2026-03-31T04:20:04.766627+00:00

Last month at our meeting in the library basement, she said 'literary fiction is just one flavor' and pushed for a sci-fi novel. It sparked a huge debate about what makes a book 'worthy' for discussion. Anyone else's group get stuck on this highbrow vs. lowbrow thing?

wright.michael5mo ago

Ever try discussing a romance novel with purists?

6

viola_moore85mo ago

Remember when our group tried to read a mystery novel and half the table acted like it was a moral failing. They spent the whole meeting talking about "themes" and "subtext" while the rest of us just wanted to figure out who the killer was. It got so tense the librarian had to ask us to keep it down.

5

ryanf665mo ago

Wow I never thought about it this way but the whole highbrow lowbrow debate misses something bigger. Like genre fiction actually has this crazy ability to sneak in deep ideas without people realizing it. Take that sci-fi novel she suggested - those stories can tackle stuff like what it means to be human or how technology changes us, but wrapped up in a cool spaceship plot. Meanwhile some of that "literary" stuff is just about rich people having affairs in nice houses. The real question should be whether the book makes you think or feel something, not what shelf it sits on at the bookstore.

4