Finally saw the payoff from sticking with a dense book club read for 6 weeks

Our group spent 6 weeks on 'The Power Broker' by Robert Caro. At week 3, half the members wanted to bail, calling it a boring slog. But last night at our final discussion, everyone admitted the later chapters on Moses's power grab changed how they view city planning. Has anyone else pushed through a tough book and felt the payoff was worth it?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenix_adams601mo ago

Did you actually finish the whole thing though? Because I pushed through 'The Power Broker' a few years back and honestly, the payoff just wasn't there for me. Everyone kept saying the later chapters were where it gets good, but by then I was just tired of reading about parking lot deals and bridge heights. I get that Moses changed city planning, but the book's length felt like punishment for something I didn't do. Sometimes a dense book is just dense, not deep.

black.mark1mo ago

Yeah but @phoenix_adams60, the payoff for me wasn't just the city planning stuff, it was watching how power actually corrupts someone over decades. The early chapters feel like a slog because Caro is building this slow burn case for why Moses was so dangerous. By the time you get to the parking lot deals and bridge heights, you realize those boring details were the whole point.