I am part of a book discussion club of eight excellent men. The group alternates between a fiction and non-fiction book a month. I am not that drawn to fiction and when it comes time to suggest books, I have a much harder time recommending fiction.
The most interesting course I taught was an attempt to review all the books read over one's lifetime. It was a graduate education course for teachers. So, in that course, we had long and short discussions of all sorts of books, from childhood Golden Books to high school thrillers to things required in college but were not actually of interest. Not of interest for me personally included "Wings of the Dove" by Henry James in sophomore English class. We experienced recalling books with pleasure and other books with displeasure.
The next book we will discuss is "Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy. I wasn't sure whether I had read it or not. I looked for a summary of it but couldn't find one. I used "Goodreads", connected to Amazon where I buy my Kindle books, more than I ever had. I read some comments and reactions to Tides. I tried to get a loaned download from local libraries but there were waiting lines and I don't have much time. I looked online and the book was $1.99 so I got it.
The men in the discussion group are interesting, articulate and well-educated so they make good comments. I am not adverse to attending a discussion without having read the book. When teachers lead discussions of books, it is important to focus on the comments made and the tone of the group. Knowledge of a fictional plot is a bit secondary to the questions, opinions and objections expressed by the actual people present. I believe that the point of a book discussion, like most discussions is to learn what others think, including what they think of my thoughts and reactions.
In my class, each person tried to make a list of all books ever read. It often happened that reading another student's growing list reminded the reader of having indeed read such and such a book. Sometimes, a particular favorite was re-read. Reactions to a book at age 20 can be very different from reactions to the same words at age 45 or they can duplicate earlier reactions.
My last fiction recommendations were older ones: "Skinwalkers" by Tony Hillerman and "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce. Both good books but I was reminded that the group had already read and discussed Harold.
