Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Reading is FUNdamental?

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I usually write my posts on a Saturday night because I just hate waking up to obligations. I will say that morning posts are definitely different than evening posts when it comes to my writing but with the time change (you did set your clocks forward, right?) I couldn’t even think about a morning post. Instead, you get my take on the latest Saturday night book club.

Here’s my 5 minute brain dump…

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Just home from book club (which my husband jokingly calls wine club – but we do read and discuss books – I swear!) and I had a lot to discuss tonight.

The way our book club works is that one person chooses the book for the month. They host the evening by provides food and drink and we all come and write down a question and place it in the question bowl. We pass around the bowl and each person takes a turn asking a question.

Admittedly there are some books that I really really like but I just can’t think of any questions worthy of discussion. It’s a good book. The end. There are no open questions or philosophical issues for discussion. And then there are some nights where I write at least 3 questions because the content of the book flipflopped in my mind so much.

Our latest book was An Untamed State by Roxane Gay. I can’t really recommend it or say I liked it or didn’t like it. The subject matter was disturbing (fair warning – there’s a lot of rape in the book) and there were certainly a lot of ethical and moral questions raised. But the biggest question that I couldn’t find the answer to is why someone would write a fictional book like this.

Does fiction serve a purpose other than to entertain? And if not, can we ever truly appreciate a story with violence and rape? Then again, we all read Gone Girl with plenty of violence but nobody objected to that. It was suspenseful and entertaining, I guess.

So what do you think? When reading fiction, what if anything do you expect to get out of it?