Viktor Frankl (wrote a book about finding meaning in concentration camps from his personal experience) described the wish as the father and the fear as the mother of an event.

I think it's possible to have very disordered wishes or to wish for the wrong reasons. Wishing for something you don't really aim or desire to achieve as a shared behaviour in a book club, is probably a waste of time. Wishing for the right reasons is probably a valuable part of human nature. The disregard for wishing likely needs to be brought into order.