Book Club | September – Life of Pi

My life is complete.

I am in a book club.

So what if it started off as only my jolly-good husband and I? We rocked the first month’s book, and here I am one month later to tell you all about it!

Rules of book club:

1. The “Pagemaster” (person who selects the book for the month) selects three books for all member(s) [in October it was only Riley voting] to vote on.

2. Book choices must have already been adapted to film.

3. The “Pagemaster” is responsible for making up the discussion questions as well as organizing and hosting the monthly meeting.

4. Following the discussion, a viewing of the movie is to take place.

5. “Pagemaster” title is passed on to another member who repeats steps 1-4.

That’s pretty much it… without going into crazy specifics.

Being the founder, naturally, I held the Pagemaster title for the first round.

After giving Riley the choice between: Fight Club, Life of Pi, and Silver Linings Playbook, he selected Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.

Neither of us had ever read the book nor seen the movie.

That's the ideal situation because you go into the reading and viewing unbiased compared to other members, but we realize it will be pretty tough to always find choices that are fresh to everyone. Especially when I've read a lot of books and Riley has seen a lot of movies.

Since we live together, and having a meeting is about as easy as sparking up Netflix, we decided to split the book in half and do two meetings.

****Don’t read past this part if you can’t risk potential spoilers! I don’t want to be responsible for ruining anything for you.****

Here are the discussion questions from meeting #1:

1. Do you agree with Pi’s statement that animals in a zoo are better off than animals in the wild?

2. Do you think it’s possible to commit to 3 different religions, or would you deem it more feasible to pick and choose best practices / concepts from those you’re drawn to?

3. Describe your personal connection, or lack thereof, to the story given that there is a reference to France [we just came back from there] / Montreal [where we live].

4. What do you think will happen next in Pi’s attempt to rid himself of threatening Richard Parker?

5. Who is your favourite character so far?

6. In chapter 50, Pi states “How true is it that necessity is the mother of invention, how very true.” What is your favourite invention that was sprung from necessity?

7. What would you have been most excited about if you were Pi when he discovered all the supplies on the lifeboat (consult list)?

8. Which animal would you have preferred to be stranded with on the lifeboat in the first place (zebra, hyena, orangutan, tiger)?

The first meeting went great and of course, these main questions sparked other tangent discussion topics, as was expected.

Here are the discussion questions from meeting #2:

1. Which of Pi’s stories do you choose to believe and why?

2. Do you find it odd that Pi doesn’t grieve the loss of his family members that sunk with the ship?

3. How would you react if Richard Parker didn’t say goodbye to you / walking into the jungle without turning back after such a journey?

4. Would you classify “Life of Pi” as a comedy, tragedy, or romance?

5. Do you agree or disagree with the claim that the “story has a happy ending”?

6. Why do you think Pi decided to save R.P. given that he had the supplies to poison him?

7. How do you think all this will be translated into a movie?

8. Do you believe Pi would have survived that ocean journey as the only occupant on the lifeboat?

Note: I know a lot of the questions within both sets seem like “yes” or “no” questions. It goes without saying that there were follow up questions that would get way too repetitive to type out in this post. ;)

The movie was pretty good! We didn’t have an elaborate discussion after watching it, but did comment on which we liked better.

It’s interesting that Life of Pi, our first book, is premised on which story is the preferred version. This will essentially form the structure of our book club. Do you prefer the book or the movie, and why?

So deep…

Next on the docket (October) was The Firm by John Grisham with Riley as the Pagemaster. Val joined in on this cycle and I’ll have more details to share next week after we have our meeting!

#books #bookclub