The discussion questions I wrote for years were way too vague

For about 8 years I ran our neighborhood book club and I always wrote openers like "What did you think of the characters?" or "How did the ending make you feel?" and every month we got the same shallow 10 minute chat before drifting off to wine talk. Last spring I finally switched to what a friend from another club called "fight questions" - specific, arguable prompts pulled from one exact scene or choice in the book. For example, with The Midnight Library I asked "Was Nora right to reject the life where she stayed with her cat?" and suddenly people were picking sides and quoting page numbers. Now I spend 30 minutes before each meeting just finding 3 moments that can be read two ways. Has anyone else found that a single pointed question beats five broad ones? What kind of prompts get your group arguing productively?

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