Hayley

A (slightly belated) Happy New Year everyone! May it be filled with wonderful things for all of you ❤️

It’s great to have you back Angury! I love your idea to keep a writing log alongside your reading log. Looking forward to following your progress this year 😄

What kind of books do you usually enjoy? I really like The Lord of the Rings collection, read by Rob Inglis

This plus plenty of gothic tropes sounds good to me - adding to wish list 😄

I really enjoyed the book club group reads in 2023, so I’m really hoping that some of you will join me for more in 2024! Just as we did last year, if you have any suggestions for the first group read theme of the year (lasting for the first three months of 2024), please post them here! My own suggestion is: Folklore and Mythology This could include non fiction books on the subjects, modern retellings, poetry etc.

Hi William, welcome to the forum! I asked my sister about this (she’s a much bigger romance reader than I am) and she immediately said Maurice by E.M Forster!

Hi Emmanuel, welcome to the forum! What kind of books do you like? Are you looking for fiction?

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I’ve never noticed that either! That’s just not right 😂

I’m still reading In A Glass Darkly but I couldn’t sleep a couple of nights ago, so wanted read something light and grabbed ‘The Diary of A Nobody’ by George and Weedon Grossmith. It’s nothing like anything I’ve read before. Some of the ‘entries’ are literally about things like getting the house painted, or booking a holiday, but it’s strangely compelling!

I agree with Brian regarding translations. I’d definitely read the originals if I could! I hope you’ll share your reading journey with us too, I’d love to hear about it 😄.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one before! It’s lovely and very relaxing.

I hope that went well Virginia, and that you’re calmly looking forward to Christmas now! I like all the classics too. I think if I had to pick one favourite at the moment, it would be God Bless Us Everyone by Andrea Bocelli, which is from the soundtrack for A Christmas Carol (the one with Jim Carey as Scrooge). Not only does he have an amazing voice, the soundtrack music was by the incredible Alan Silvestri AND it’s a Dickens reference. That’s also probably my favourite Christmas movie 😄

I am finally at the end of a weekend that has been packed with work, so I'm about to put my pyjamas on and make a hot chocolate .

This is on my wish list, so I'm glad you still think it's worth reading! The goblin market does sound particularly intriguing. Have I already mentioned The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern to you? Because if I haven't (and if you haven't read it yet) I think you'd love it! It's so magical and has absolutely brilliant characters.

Where the nooks are around the base you could have a little button to press and each one would still play the audiobook of a short Christmas story 😄. I finally got around to putting up Christmas decorations today (though none as cool as the idea above). I’ve been ridiculously busy for the last few weeks and now I think I’m getting a cold, but at least I got to feel festive today! On a related note, I have discovered that I hate doing self-assessment tax returns 🥲.

I decided to do a just-for-fun reread of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for my next challenge read. It’s on the GCSE syllabus, so I use it when I’m tutoring, but I had a student who was really genuinely interested in it and it made me realise that it’s been years since I read it just to enjoy the story. And I really did enjoy it! I’ve also started the In A Glass Darkly collection of short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu.

This would be a great short option for anyone doing the Victorian group read! That’s an interesting point. It was obviously less easy to ‘confine’ a man for having a mental breakdown (either in his own house or in an asylum) because of the way the law worked in terms of legal ownership. In some ways though, the fact that hysteria (and in fact any sort of state considered to be ‘overly emotional’) was perceived as feminine would have made it even more difficult for men. I know there are a few books about Victorian masculinity and I wonder whether it’s dealt with in much detail there. I might dig around and see if I can find anything!

Hi Ran, welcome to the forum! I love Dickens and Tolkien too, but haven’t read very much horror. What games do you play?

Update: I've managed 6... I realised who the 'I love lady C' man in the doorway was!

Yes! I’ve managed 5 and I’m already stuck!

I know there are some John le Carré fans on here; have you seen this? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/10/john-le-carres-son-to-write-new-george-smiley-novel CAN it be as good?

I have a couple of his short stories on my to-read list, including this one. I know it should feature an interesting example of the gothic ‘double’, but your review has given me the impression that the ‘double’ in question might be stranger than I expected!

That’s great news! By next week, you’ll have it all sorted. I hope you’ve got lots of relaxation plans for the days ahead now.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I’ll ask about taking it out during our next update