Discussion Questions in the Back

The trend these days seems to put discussion questions in the back of books. As an author, I’m generally tasked with developing these questions for my works. And oh…I dislike it.

I do understand the point. With book clubs seeming to have a renaissance, it’s nice to offer some built-in guides for discussion. Something that takes you beyond “Well, what’d you think?” My problem, most likely, stems from just simply not being a book club gal.

That said, it’s terribly challenging for me to come up with questions that don’t sound ridiculous to me. First, you have to try and avoid spoilers. Cause you know there are some people who flip to the back during their jaunt through the book and then if they catch a glimpse of a discussion question that gives something major away…they’re disappointed. Or they stop reading. I hate to cause either of those reactions. But keeping things generic only lets you get so deep. After all, it’s usually the spoiler-y things that you most want to discuss. On the flip side, you’ve got to keep the questions from being too simple. If they can be answered with yes or no, they’re not all that useful in a book club.

Honestly, it gives me flashbacks to when I taught full-time and had to design my own tests and quizzes (though actually I kind of enjoyed that – I made a lot of essay-type questions though.)

So…if you’re in a book club, do you use the questions in the back of the book? (Or even if you’re not in a book club – are they something you like?)