A few days ago, I bought a copy of North and South. I had to after hearing so much about it here on NW.

I was wondering about the Hunger Games... How is it for content? Anything that a content-picky person like me should be concerned about before reading it?

~Riella

There's not really any content to worry about in it besides violence. It gets a bit gory in places and very emotionally intense, but there's no explicit love scenes or anything like that.

There's not really any content to worry about in it besides violence. It gets a bit gory in places and very emotionally intense, but there's no explicit love scenes or anything like that.

How gory would you say? Like what would you rate the books for goriness on a G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 scale?

Anyone here read Dickens books? I've read a couple and liked them, and was thinking of reading another. But I can't decide which one I should pick next...

~Riella

For all that people die really awful deaths in the books, the gore is probably never above a PG-13. It's done tastefully even if it is disturbing.

Ithie - What Dickens have you read? My favorite's are Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, and Our Mutual friend. But I love them all!

Ithie - What Dickens have you read? My favorite's are Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, and Our Mutual friend. But I love them all!

I've read Hard Times and A Christmas Carol. I've also read a tiny bit of Great Expectations. I really liked A Christmas Carol (of course ), and I liked Hard Times as well but the transitions between subplots wasn't done as smoothly as it perhaps should have been.

I was trying to decide among reading Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Little Dorrit, The Pickwick Papers, and Bleak House...

~Riella

My favorite books include: The Hobbit, LOTR, Narnia, Ted DekKers series about the books of history,The Homelanders by Andrew Klaven, and Echos from Edge by Bryan Davis.

My favorite books include: The Hobbit, LOTR, Narnia, Ted DekKers series about the books of history,The Homelanders by Andrew Klaven, and Echos from Edge by Bryan Davis.

I love The Hobbit, LOTR, and Narnia! (As most of you have probably guessed by now ) I've never read anything by Ted Dekker, but he seems to be pretty famous. What sort of stuff does he do, and why is he so popular?

~Riella

Ted Dekker's popular because he's a great storyteller and his fans recommend his books so readily - never underestimate the power of word of mouth. He writes in many different genres (suspense/thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, general fiction, horror and romance) but most of his works fall into the suspense/thriller and fantasy/sci-fi genres. Ted's works explore the nature of sin, suffering and redemption and the power of God's love in thought-provoking and sometimes controversial ways.

I see. I might give him a try some time. Which one of his works would you most recommend I read? (I can probably get most of them at my library. They have a pretty big Christian fiction section)

~Riella

Hmm... There are many great titles. Maybe begin with Thr3e (a suspense/thriller) and The Circle books (Black, Red, White, Green - these are sci-fi/fantasy/adventure novels).

I was trying to decide among reading Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Little Dorrit, The Pickwick Papers, and Bleak House...

Oh dear - that's a really hard choice. Let me see . . I would recommend either Little Dorrit or A Tale of Two cities. Bleak House is really super good, but it's a bit more boring, and I think you should read other Dickens first. Tell me what you decide on!

I fail to understand how something can be both "really super good" and "more boring" than 'Little Dorrit' or 'A Tale of Two Cities'. Can't say I'm a fan of Dickens. He's too wordy and long-winded. A Christmas Carol is very good though.

Currently I'm reading Stephen King's 'Under the Dome'.

haha - I'm the sort of person who can get through long boring books, and really enjoy them. But Bleak House was the first Dickens I ever tried to read, and since I was very young, and not knowing what I was getting into, I was really bored with the first 100 or so pages. So I set it down for years, but when I picked it up again, after reading a lot of other Dickens, I loved it.
You do have to acquire a taste for that sort of book, which is why I recommended that Ithie read some of the more interesting one's first.
I've heard that from a lot of people, and it does take some work to read him, but less than Dumas and Tolstoy, and they are stunning. But it is all a matter of taste. I know some people who find LoTR too hard to read.

I adored Bleak House. Since I wasn't already familiar with the basic plot and events I could enjoy the unfolding both of the prose and the plot at the same time. I wouldn't call it boring, but I might describe it as slow-paced. Dickens takes his time and does lavish layers of atmosphere, unlike Tolstoy who focuses a bit more on the characters than the overall feeling of his novel.

Elanor, what would you suggest as the next Dickens for someone who has read Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Bleak House? I've considered both Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit but never had a good reason to pick one over the other and I don't think I could handle both at once.