I'll have to be the odd one out and say that I really enjoyed David Copperfield. It wasn't my favourite Dickens, but I did really like it.

Mel: Alas, no. It didn't have that one! Was it a particularly good short story?

Betsie: Loverly pictures! Maybe you could share some when they are all on your shelves? If, of course, you want too.

I finished The House of The Seven Gables last night. For the most part, I enjoyed it, although there was a couple parts I didn't like. I'm not sure the proper term for them, and I don't want to call it the wrong thing and make it sound worse then it really was but,

The rest of the story was pretty nice, and I liked the characters.

I've read several books since the last time I posted (a few weeks ago).
I read First the Dead and Ends of the Earth by Tim Downs. I preferred Ends of the Earth, but they were both really good books; very hard to put down, so I had to stay up late to finish them! My mom was up until one this morning reading First the Dead; that's why she doesn't like to me to give her Tim Downs books until she has plenty of time to read them!
I also read A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle. I've read A Wrinkle in Time and Many Waters before, but I think that was the first time I've read A Swiftly Tilting Planet and A Wind in the Door.
I just finished the Chronicles of Chrestomanci (The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, and Conrad's Fate). I'd already read Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant and The Pinhoe Egg. I can't decide which is my favorite!
Now it's time to decide what to read next!

I'll have to be the odd one out and say that I really enjoyed David Copperfield. It wasn't my favourite Dickens, but I did really like it.

I'm with you! I really liked "David Copperfield"! It wasn't my favorite by Dickens, but I did really enjoy it! I'm not sure which is my favorite by him...I like several, and it's so hard to choose! "Nicholas Nickleby", "Our Mutual Friend", and "Bleak House" definitely rank up high on my list though. Still working through "Little Dorrit", and while I am enjoying it, I don't think it'll rank higher than "Our Mutual Friend"!

Silvertongue: I would have to agree- while Little Dorrit is my absolute favourite Dickens, most of the ones I've read I enjoyed very much. The only ones I didn't like quite as much were Barnaby Rudge, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. But even then, it is not as if I hated or found those three dull, they were very interesting reads and I didn't find them a waste of time. It's just that I did not enjoy them as much as some of the others. Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend stand out as my second two favourites, after Little Dorrit, I think. But yes- with Dickens it's very hard to choose.

My local library doesn't have this Attolia series in stock, which isn't much of a surprise because everytime I go there they never seem to have any books I look for. My wife works there and can put in a request for it, but before she does is this a series that anyone here who knows me would say that I'd enjoy?

Hmm. I *think* you would. You might get annoyed with Gen, the narrator, in the first book because he can be very whiny. But it's funny whining. Basically it's a fantasy world based loosely on ancient Greece (but there are some firearms and glass and things like that too). The first book, The Thief, is a quest story. The second, The Queen of Attolia, has a lot about war. And the third, The Kig of Attolia, is political intrigue. The Attolia books don't read like your usual YA fantasy. The characters are really believable and Turner's writing is so deft. The twists are pretty good too . And the romance is utterly unromantic, but so satisfying.

The first book has a lot of stories about the gods that are interspersed throughout the narrative. The second and third books don't. The second book is my favorite, followed closely by the third. I think you would enjoy the sense of humor throughout the series and the impossible, incorrigible Gen... though he's far more than just a jokester. He's one of those characters who seem one-dimensional at first until you get a glimpse of something deeper under the surface — and then everything starts falling into place. I think your lirbary should have copies of these books, even if it turns out you aren't a huge fan. The Thief is a Newbery Honor book, so you could use that as justification too, lol.

I would link you to my reviews which give a lot more detail, but I really don't want to spoiler you. Be careful, if you look up anything about the Attolia books online. In fact, I would advise against looking them up. And don't read the back-cover blurbs either! Sometimes they give away the most crucial plot points. I can't wait to hear your thoughts if you end up reading them!

Lady Courage, Charles Dickens is one of my favorite authors! We actually have a Special Feature coming up on Dickens soon, so stay tuned for that

Well alrighty...I'll have her put it on order. Of course it'll be a couple of weeks before they come in, but I can wait. And for once maybe the library will have a book I do a search on.

It's embarrassing how little Dickens I've actually read. Let's see... Great Expectations [abridged for high school students]. I've seen Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol [many versions], Oliver Twist [many versions], and Bleak House. I want to read A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield. So why do some of you not like the latter? Other reading suggestions? What you like and don't like and why?

Curious: who's read Hemingway? Faulkner? What did you like and why? Who's the better writer?

This is one of the coolest threads because its so interesting to see how many books everyone has read!
Well, I love the Chronicles of Narnia ( duh!) but right now I've been reading Don Quixote. I'm enjoying that. I also just read Blink of an Eye by Ted Dekker! That was so scary! But I like reading Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis! I guess I read way too much.
Does anyone have any suggestions on other good classic authors?? I'm at a loss as to what to read next!!!

Lady of the Green Kirtle, that's neat that you read Madeline L'Engle's Time Quintet. My sister read those and enjoyed them, but I'm sort of undecisive about reading them, since I don't really like Sci-Fi all that much.

It is almost scary how you just happen to be reading the exact same books I just finished reading. Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Fairest!!!!
I enjoyed Northanger Abbey though perhaps not quite so well as Pride and Prejudice. It was indeed very funny though, especially when she always imagined things in real life that she read in novels. Amazing how such an old book can still feel very relative to you many years after it was written! I often do that sometimes!
Fairest was good. It got a little strange here and there, but then, Levine's books often are strange. I liked it, though I think Ella Enchanted was much better.

Haha! That is rather coincidental!
I'm enjoying Northanger Abbey so far. I haven't read much Jane Austen, only around 1/8th of P&P and around 1/3rd of Northanger Abbey, but one thing I keep noticing about her is that she always has a series of sort of detailed balls, and having deep conversations in them...if you know what I mean. I sort of prefer Lousia May Alcott's and Charlotte Bronte's writing style to her's. That might change, however, once I finish reading a couple more of her books.
Heh, I know what you mean.
I enjoyed Fairest alot, and when I finally realized

Spoiler

that it was sort of to represent Snow White (which I didn't notice from the beginning, smart person I am. )

The Princess Tales! I LOVE those books. Cinderellis and The Glass Hill, The Fairy's Mistake, Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep, The Princess Test and For Biddle's Sake. Lovely.

Oh, Gail Carson Levine wrote more books? Yay! I really enjoy the way she writes. Thanks for posting the titles, I'll be putting these on hold.

Betsie, that's a huge collection of books! Wow! And so many of them great ones. Also, hurrah for buying more books!

Re: Amy in Little Women, I hate when a less-than-lovely fictional character has my name! I'm reading posts about how everyone hates Amy

Ahaha! I can sort of relate with having the nickname "Bella," but it isn't my real name, so.
I was thinking about writing "Amy March", so that if you had seen "I don't like Amy all that much", you would know. But, I figured you'd guess who I was talking about.

----

Well, I finished Fairest, as I said above. And, I've started Northanger Abbey. I'm getting through it sort of normally. (Sort of, because I have to be careful not to drift away from the book. I don't recognize familiar passages if I come back to the book, so accidentaly re-reading one page happens often. ) However, it's coming along and I can understand the story just fine.

Catching up from page 9....

Shadowlander, yes, there are few of us here who step beyond the bounds of classics and Christian fiction.

This is a misconception that you continue to propagate for some reason. Why I don't know. Very few of us relegate our reading exclusively to these two genres. Young adult works, historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery also have strong showings here. You must have selective "hearing."

I'm sorry reading aloud to your brother isn't going that well, Fauny. My sister (roughly the same age as your bro) and I went through The Wizard of Oz and five of the Chronicles this summer, and had a great time doing it. It's true that reactions vary greatly depending on age, though, and she likes to tease me by telling me that Oz is her favorite book, when she knows I wasn't too crazy about it. (I love Peter Pan, though, and of course the Chronicles as well.)

I enjoyed reading your Sherwood Ring review, Ryan, as well as your thoughts on Escape from Warsaw. Admittedly, I was once assigned the latter for school and for some reason couldn't stand it, so I convinced my mother to give me an alternate assignment. Of course, my other WWII reads were The Hiding Place and two Hilda van Stockum books, so I was being a bit spoiled at the time.

*decides not to discover which Jane Austen heroine he is* I do remember taking a Jane Austen heroes quiz, though, and I ended up as Captain Wentworth. Massive amounts of win.

malkah, I love the childhood section of The Mill on the Floss; Eliot's insights into the mind of little Maggie are really incredible. My favorite section is the ending to Chapter V:

• "such things as these are the mother-tongue of our imagination, the language that is laden with all the subtle, inextricable associations the fleeting hours of our childhood left behind them. Our delight in the sunshine on the deep-bladed grass to-day might be no more than the faint perception of wearied souls, if it were not for the sunshine and the grass in the far-off years which still live in us, and transform our perception into love."[/*1d41hi3x][/list1d41hi3x]

I used the same worldviews curriculum as you, Glenstorm, and you'll actually be reading Paradise Lost next year. I agree with DiGs and others: it's absolutely fabulous.

We actually have a Special Feature coming up on Dickens soon, so stay tuned for that

Is this a joke? First Collins and now Dickens? Both had books on my thinking-about-taking-to-college list but neither made the actually-going stack. If I had known there were going to be SFs, I might have made alternate plans. Ah well ... at least I've read some Dickens.

I fall somewhere in the middle with David Copperfield. The characters are so intensely memorable, and I must like the story since I've watched 4 movie adaptations! And yet certain things annoy me about it ... the coincidence-driven plot, the multiple climaxes, Mr. Micawber in general.

Have you not actually read A Christmas Carol, 220? It's one of my favorites, so I highly suggest doing so. If you have watched several adaptations, it's difficult to shake them, but I've found that reading it aloud, or at least mouthing the words, helps in creating one's own picture of things.

Now, what have I been up to? Well, I was goaded by some friends to start The Hunger Games last weekend, and ended up reading both books between Friday night and Sunday evening. I swear, those books are the literary equivalent of crack cocaine! Parts were predictable, and others deeply frustrating, but overall I enjoyed it. Usually I don't do dystopia, but the world Collins created fascinated me with its subtle social and political implications. And her descriptions, while quite slight, give a good idea of the characters and their surroundings. I did think The Hunger Games more even in quality. My favorite part:

Spoiler
when Katniss shot the apple in the pig's mouth during her private session with the Gamemakers.
The part that effected me the most emotionally:
Spoiler
When Rue died. Wow!
In Catching Fire, I became pretty annoyed at the
Spoiler
love triangle. I saw it coming, but I didn't think it would eat up nearly as much of the first half as that. Before I started The Hunger Games, I was told my some friends that if I wanted Peeta and Katniss together, we couldn't speak to each other anymore. Luckily I really liked Gale in HG and thought he was a much better man for Katniss than Peeta, but in CF I found myself getting aggravated with all three of them, and particularly with Katniss' flip-flopping. One moment she's fantasizing about running off to District 13 with Gale, and the next she's admiring Peeta's eyelashes. I liked it better once we returned to the Capitol for the Quarter Quell; at first that looked like a virtual repeat of HG, but it ended up working out beautifully.

Longer reviews forthcoming.

~~~~~
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
~~~~~

Hello all!

As most of you know, I've started reading Northanger Abbey. I really like it, although I find Mr. Thorpe very annoying. But Mr. Tilney now....

My sister has almost finished reading The Scarlet Letter. She had to read it due to school. She just now retold the story to me and some of my family. I must say, if you're in an odd mood to be depressed, that's the book that would suffice.

I am in need of a really mysterious book, slow books like Northanger Abbey... well, I lose interest quickly. But if I had a good mysterious book, I would like that.

Shadowlander, yes, there are few of us here who step beyond the bounds of classics and Christian fiction.

This is a misconception that you continue to propagate for some reason. Why I don't know. Very few of us relegate our reading exclusively to these two genres. Young adult works, historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery also have strong showings here. You must have selective "hearing."

Now, now Lysander. W4J and I don't always agree on everything that goes on in the various Spare Oom threads but I think he touched on some truth when he made this statement. If someone who was new to the threads asked me about the Books thread and what went on in there (if they hadn't already visited) I would tell them that it's largely about your average book with a special focus on the classics, and within those classics a heavy emphasis on Austen, Hugo, Dumas, Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. While other classics are brought up conversation invariably meanders back to this root group of authors. When I come into the book thread I've a pretty good idea that there will be an ongoing discussion of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, any number of Dickens' work, The Count of Monte Christo, Crime and Punishment, and especially Les Miserables. (Likewise, fan though I am of Lost, I think the TV thread tends to focus on it and Heroes at times almost exclusively, with occasional references to other shows that may be on. It's not just this thread). W4J has obviously picked up on this as well and mentioned it in the quote you referenced above.

I've read several of the above books and enjoyed them immensely, but there comes a point where I start thinking, "what else is there to say about the book?", and still the thread goes on in the same general way. Now there's nothing wrong with any of this, and if you focus entirely on the classics then that is truly wonderful. There's some really wonderful reading experiences to be found there and my hat's off to you.

There are other titles that pass through the thread from time to time but it's uncommon for them to take root, especially if they tend towards "grittier" material, like can often be found in most modern day fantasy or techno-thriller books (like the aforementioned Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Terry Brooks, Tom Clancy, etc.), and while these are occasionally brought up they never stay in the thread for long and get buried under 20 posts on one of the "root" authors. *shrugs* It's just the way it is. When the topic of The Stand came up I was really surprised and excited to see that at least a few others in here had read and enjoyed it as much as I had. But it is long since buried several pages back and I don't think it'll see another posting in a while. And I'm at peace with that. There's a lot of great stuff that goes on in this thread and I still enjoy reading the various posts, and it's good that folks can talk about the classics in an environment with others when it's quite likely that the next door neighbor's most reputable reading experience is the phone book.

'Tis true. My observation was exaggerated but it did have a point - the focus of the books in this thread are the classics.
I visit this thread often because I can't talk to my friends about books I've read and enjoyed/disliked because they don't read regularly. It's a shame too because reading is a huge part of my life.
Great post Shadowlander. You too make some good observations. I'm one of those people who keeps bringing up Lost in the TV thread (but to be fair the show encourages endless discussion).

Well said, Shadowlander. That is why I don't visit the book thread very often, because any discussion of more recently published books (the last 20 years) tends to get de-railed by the classics.

I'm reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. I already read Gods and Generals by MS's son Jeff Shaara. TKA, G&G, and The Last Full Measure(by JS) are part of my history curriculum this year for school. I really in enjoyed reading G&G, but now when I read The House of Winslow books (by Gilbert Morris) set during the Civil War, I know that not all of the historical facts are accurate.

SnowAngel

Shadowlander, did you hack my account?? I talked to WW about that very thing...

On the subject of books, I'm in the middle of reading P&P for the seventh time. This time around, Elisabeth's journals are particularly standing out to me - they are so strikingly honest. I'm amazed that she was willing to publish any part of them, even after all these years.

~Scarlet