Who writes the questions??

Most of you are members of a book club; and you notice at the end of many books, the editor will include discussion questions for the book clubs. Frankly, I’ve never been impressed with most of the questions because they don’t seem to provoke critical thinking. Nevertheless, these questions often serve as a starting point that can lead to other questions. I happened upon an article in The Literary Hub that was written by Je Banach, a person who writes the questions at the end of books, and she provided an interesting and amusing perspective of her occupation.

Je Banach has written more than 100 guides to works of world literature for a variety of well-known publishers. Banach is a writer herself as well as a writing teacher and coach. She begins the article with the shocking revelation that she thinks Reading Guides are not necessary. Yes, she actually said that, but she meant that they weren’t necessary unless one is simply reading a book for him or herself alone. To have a conversation about a book, Banach feels that one can use a guide do just that–start a conversation.

In fact, Je Banach considers reading guides to be a literary genre. While that assumption is not widely accepted, she doesn’t care. She thinks there are advantages to remaining anonymous, and she takes great pride in her work. Banach says, “It is a wild privilege and a gift to get to walk with so many readers, to start so many conversations about books…” In addition, her work isn’t open to criticism. So, the next time you get to the end of a book and skim over the Reading Guide, think about Je Banach and others like her. She’s having a great time reading and writing!!