Faking It

Every few months, Barbara G. drops off a stack of New Yorker magazines and I get to catch up on cartoons and articles of interest. This article is must-reading for anyone in a book club -- especially those of us who have been guilty of skimming or skipping a book and had to fake it through the discussion...

The article is arranged into "discussion points," for example:

Book-club members who have actually read this book have called its plot “depressing,” “disgusting,” and “too much about poor people.” Does this suggest that you, as a reader, have a moral obligation to say that you liked the book?