Blue Book Club: Breakneck
We are creating a rigorous, lively social scene of book readers. The Blue Book Club will meet regularly starting in January 2026 with an integrated course of books, and this event is the best way to join us. Here is the full event write-up.
Event Overview:
Introducing: the Blue Book Club. Our first meeting is Sunday, November 16, at noon. We will be reading Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang. Here’s how the book club meeting will go:
12:00pm–12:45pm: Blue Book exam. You will take a handwritten exam on Breakneck. Pencils down at 12:45pm. You must earn 95% to pass. Most of the exam questions are contained in the final section of this post, though not all. Read well!
12:45pm–1:15pm: grading of the exams. While this goes on in a back room, all exam takers are welcome to socialize, have snacks, and enjoy themselves.
1:15pm–1:25pm: exams will be returned. Those who passed will stay, those who did not pass will leave at this time. But there is no shame in leaving! Better to die nobly upon the sword than shirk the battle. We hope to see you in the future.
1:30pm–3:30pm: based on the number of people who pass the exam, we will commence the main book club event. This might be a small group seminar, or it might be a full unconference. We’ll be prepared to scale as appropriate.
What you'll need to prepare for the event
Here is what you will need to have done and prepared before you come to the Blue Book Club meeting:
A marked up copy of Breakneck.
Here is what would be fun/more to do, but is not required:
A response to Breakneck, published online.
A high-level timeline of Chinese and American history.
A map of China, marked up according to what’s mentioned in the book.
A glossary of terms and people you learned while reading Breakneck.