But let’s imagine a Platonically perfect book group, one that would meet every need of the former literature majors who sometimes write to me with longing for the good old days of college. What would characterize such a group? First and most important, people committed both to careful reading and serious conversation; second, books with sufficient complexity and thoughtfulness to generate significant debate, whether about the works’ own structures and procedures or about the issues they raise. Given such circumstances, the solitary act of reading and the communal act of conversing
