Medbh of Dante and the Lobster has brought this New York Times article to my attention just days after my boyfriend joined his first book club. I’ve never joined a book club myself, though I’ve always intended to, my reticence partly due to my fear that I’m likely to turn into the ayatollah of which they speak, and partly because of fear of (time) commitments. Yet several people I know and of whom I think very highly are involved in book clubs, and plenty of good things seem to come out of them (including one particularly delightful marriage). So are Joanne Kaufman and her New York Times interviewees being a little too snotty about the book club format (and about chardonnay, I might add, a fine beverage in my own estimation), or are they in fact to be avoided at all costs, much as the poopy Pamper conversations which they allegedly engender?