Kell

It's good to see you again, Essiotrot! How are you doing? I see you read Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride - if you liked that one, you'll love Dying Light and Broken Skin - they're both every bit as excellent!

Hello & , Leona - it's good to have you here. I look forward to hearing all about your favourite books and authors.

Roll up, roll up! Come one and all to the Book Club Forum Daily Quiz Challenge! I've set up a forum quiz challenge at Fun Trivia and invite you all to pit your wits against each other on a daily basis. The questions are set at random from all the quizzes on the site and throughout the week they get harder (starting on Mondays and going through to Sundays before starting again with an easier quiz the following Monday). The questions cover a range of topics from literature to TV & film to politics to general knowledge to sport - it's a mixed bag and you never know what yo9u're going to get! So, follow the link to The Book Club Forum Daily Quiz Challenge!

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many comparative reading circles. Over the months of July and August we will be reading, discussing and comparing the following two titles (although the thread will remain open indefinitely, so that others who read the novels later can add their thoughts). Please feel free to make posts at any point, even if you are only part way through one or the other of the books in question - it will be interesting to see how your perceptions change as you read. NOTE: When making posts relating to plot points, please use the spoiler tags and state which chapter of which novel you are up to (so that others who haven't reached that point can avoid that section, and those who have reached or passed it know it's safe to take a look. Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla. "Carmilla" predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by over twenty years, had a strong influence on Stoker's famous novel and has been adapted many times for cinema. When an accident occurs on a road near their castle, Laura and her father take in the stranded survivor. Carmilla and Laura both appear young, beautiful, and innocent. But one is an ageless vampire; the other, an unsuspecting victim. True to vampire rituals involving blood, fear of dying, and obsessive eroticism, Carmilla herself falls victim to the "rapture of cruelty that is love." Dracula by Bram Stoker Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of diary entries and letters. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and repressed sexuality, immigration, colonialism (possibly postcolonialism) and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical and film interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival. In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. SOME POINTS TO PONDER: (You do not have to answer all, or indeed, any, of these questions, they are meant only as points for you to perhaps mull over as you read, and provoke more discussion. Please feel free to ask and answer any questions that come up as you read.) * How do the portrayals of vampires in the two novels hold up to one another? In your opinion, is one character more strongly/weakly written, and in what ways? * How do the styles of prose compare? Are there major similarities/differences in the way the stories are told? * Did you enjoy one novel more than the other? Which was it and why? Was there a particular part of either one that really stood out for you? Were there any parts you struggled with and why? * What do you think each novel says about society at the time they were written? * Did you find either of the novels particularly graphic in any way? How do those scenes compare to graphic scenes in more modern novels that you have read? Happy reading!

Ever lamented the fact that hotels and guest houses often have no better reading material than a wilting Bella or an aged National Geographic? Then despair no longer - there's a bookable bookish place to stay in New York City - truly a city of culture! Over 6,000 books, all logged using the Dewey Decimal system for easy location, all available for guests to read at their whim. What more could your average bookworm ask? Of course, if I ever went there, I might never leave the hotel, and miss out on all the other joys of New York, but it might be worth the risk! Check out (or should that be "check into"?) the Library Hotel.

I couldn't resist - I have a few more questions for you, Kelley: 1. Which kind of supernatural do you think you

I very recently read Pride and Prejudice - I'm a fairly recent Austen convert - and loved it.

I occasionally flick through a Halliwell's film guide (I'm a bit of a film-lover). I've also got a lovely library of books on Paganism and Witchcraft, as well as others on herbalism and natural remedies.

I have on my shelf: I have read: I was looking at this one yesterday: Looks like we have plenty of books in common - and you certainly have some good'uns to look forward to!

Glad to hear you get so much out of it, Wrath - your posts are always looked-forward-to by me - there's always something interesting in them! Like you, since I joined this place I've expanded my reading horizons so much that I can hardly believe I ever read between such narrow margins without realising there was so much more out there to be enjoyed. I'll be joining you reading Lady Chatterley for the reading circle...

I recently started reading The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, which is set a the tail-end of WWII, but I couldn't get into it at all. Maybe I'll come back to it one day, but not for a while - it just wasn't appealing to me at all.

Hello & to the forum, Elbereth. I hope you'll enjoy sharing your favourite books and authors with us.

:lol:Scott Bazooka! LOL!

I used to go to belly dancing classes, but they got really expensive and I wasn't learning anything new, so I eventually stopped going back. I've not been in 1 1/2 years now, although if a new class started nearby that was a bit cheaper and where I might actually learn something a bit more advanced, I might be tempted back - it's good fun!

I'd love to be able to sit out on our veranda with a good book, but we're having crumby weather and also have pigeons nesting on it at the moment (there are two cute, fluffy chicks there), so I don't want to disturb them even if the weather DOES suddenly get nice!

I want that chair! It totally wouldn't go with my decor, but I want it anyway - it's fantastic!

Ah, Quantum Leap! One of my old favourites. I got very upset at the last ever episode though - I didn't like the thought of Sam never getting home again. My hubby is a big Babylon 5 fan...

Actually, I've scarcely ever watched Bewitched - I just loved the little flying Sam - LOL! I tend to watch sci-fi TV shows such as Farscape, Firefly, A Town Called Eureka and Battlestar Galactica, as well as pitch-balck comedy like Desperate Housewives and Dead Like Me, but I actually watch very little TV - mostly just movies.

In the 3rd picture, I'm to the far left (next to PP) and in the last picture, I'm the blonde pulling a ridiculous face to the right (nearest the camera).

I look absolutely HORRID in both the photos on that site! Positively frightful!

Seeing as how you're curious, I've moved the posts to a separate thread. The Posh Club is an Aberdeen-based book group that meets on the last Tuesday of each month in the Old School House bar on Little Belmont Street, Aberdeen. Every month, a member either chooses the monthly book, or nominates two or three to choose from, in which case there is a vote on which it will be. We then all read the book and gather at the pub to discuss it. Purple Poppy and I are both members there (in fact, it's soon going to be her turn to nominate the book!). If anyone would like any further information, you can visit the WEBSITE.

I love cooking and watching films, especially old screw-ball comedies.

It's a "real life" book club in Aberdeen, of which PP and I are both members.

LOL! I agree, agree, agree! I found it almost unbearably tedious in parts - nothing ever seemed to happen! And I wanted to give that Emma Woodhouse a good, hard slap every five minutes! I've much preferred the other Jane Austen books I've read far more.

I have Small Island on Mount TBR too - I'm looking forward to it a bit more now I've been hearing such good things about it!