These questions have been created by Book Clubs Resource, a website dedicated to helping book clubs.

 

Discussion Questions for Fiction

The following general questions can be applied to any novel, and they provide a good starting point for creating your own discussion questions for a given work.

• What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
• What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think he or she is trying to get across to the reader?
• Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
• How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?
• In what ways do the events in the books reveal evidence of the author's world view?
• Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?

Discussion Questions for Nonfiction

While many book clubs choose to only read novels and other works of fiction, there are many fascinating works of nonfiction that make for excellent discussion. Biographies, memoirs, essays, and historical accounts can all be very good reads, with topics ranging from politics and religion to science and technology. The following questions should help provide some ideas for discussion.

• What did you find surprising about the facts introduced in this book?
• How has reading this book changed your opinion of a certain person or topic?
• Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he or she achieve this?
• If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides the debate? Does he or she seem to have a bias?
• How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

 

 

These questions have been provided by Esther Lombardi in Your Guide to Classic Literature.

 

What did you think the book was about?

Did you feel that the book fulfilled your expectations? Were you disappointed?

Did the author seem to appear in the book? How? Why? Was the presence of the author disruptive? Or did it seem appropriate/fitting?

Did you enjoy the book? Why? Why not?

How did the book compare to other books by the author (or other books in the same genre)?

What about the plot? Did it pull you in; or did you feel you had to force yourself to read the book?

How realistic was the characterization? Would you want to meet any of the characters? Did you like them? Hate them?

Did the actions of the characters seem plausible? Why? Why not?

If one (or more) of the characters made a choice that had moral implications, would you have made the same decision? Why? Why not?

How does the setting figure into the book? Is the setting a character? Does it come to life? Did you feel you were experiencing the time and place in which the book was set?

How would the book have been different if it had taken place in a different time or place?

What are some of the book's themes? How important were they?

How are the book's images symbolically significant? Do the images help to develop the plot, or help to define characters?

Did the book end the way you expected?

Would you recommend this book to other readers? To your close friend?