Hayley

I finished Stephen King’s Fairy Tale and absolutely loved it. I’m sad that it’s over! Definitely a must-read for anybody interested in the fairy tale form

Hi Wimble! That’s right, but the same would apply to those advertising something book related. Imagine, for example, that an author joins the forum to say that they have a new book and provide a link for people to find it. That doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing, right? But nobody comments on that post, because it’s an advertisement. And the original poster doesn’t take part in any other forum discussions because they didn’t actually want to talk about books, they just wanted to sell their own. Now imagine that there are hundreds of people doing the same thing. Now the forum is cluttered with single post threads, each one an advertisement which other members find annoying. If somebody is actually here to talk about books and not just trying to get people to notice their own published book, they will not be banned. In fact, as you’ll see in our policy, established members who are authors can contact me or a moderator to ask whether it’s ok to tell people about their book. We just want to make sure this space stays fun and interactive for everyone . As @Brian. said, if there’s a particular post you’re not sure of, just ask us!

Why only 3 stars for Abroad in Japan? I nearly bought that as a present for someone who wants to visit! The Stand is one of the Stephen King books I do want to try, so I’m glad that got a good rating. Very happy to see The Colour of Magic on your new stack 😄. I hope you love it!

Wow, thank you for coming back and posting this to help other searchers Kal!!!

I just saw that Susanna Clarke has a new short story coming out in October, ‘The Wood at Midwinter’. It’s set in the same world as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and I can’t wait! 😄

I need to ask a favour of those who’ve read Fairy Tale already… I am about 100 pages in at the moment and I am going to need a single spoiler (otherwise I am afraid I might cry in public 😅). Does the dog die? (Please put the answer in a spoiler box, in case others don’t want to know!).

I haven’t read it but I have heard good things about it!

I love reading myths from different parts of the world! So interesting when you get crossovers in the stories with small changes 😄 I’m still working my way through Watkins’ fairytales (there are a lot!) but also started Fairy Tale by Stephen King!

I just looked it up - it sounds good! Our group read at the moment has a ‘folklore and fairytale’ theme though, do you think it would fit?

Nope, sorry, you’ll have to come back

It does tend to be the main criticism of Stephen King books, doesn’t it? The slow pace. I’m still working my way through Watkins Book of English Folktales and I love it. It’s perfect if you’re interested in how folktales develop and how they’re categorised! I have started to feel like I’d like to dig into a longer story now though, so I might be tempted to read something alongside it .

Oh that is intriguing!

Same here!! I actually decided to go for The Watkins Book of English Folktales by Neil Philip. It’s such a beautiful book and has explanations of the origin of folktales, how they were recorded and who by, as well as details of how they connect to other stories (giving clues as to how they might have developed). I haven’t had much reading time recently (it exam season and I’ve been especially busy this year) but this book is great to just dip into. That makes me want to read it too. Although I have heard of Salem’s Lot, I will admit that I didn’t even know it was a vampire story!

I loved it! It made me cry, but I loved it. That was actually the first Stephen King book I read - the one that made me want to try more!

It won’t be my first Stephen King book . I don’t read a lot of horror, so he’s not an author I come across a lot, but I have read The Green Mile, Cell and the short story collection Everything’s Eventual.

Currently reading The Darlings of the Asylum by Noel O’Reilly

That sounds interesting! I don’t know anything about those either but always found witch belief and persecution really interesting. I do think witch-related things count as folklore too 😄 I haven’t started my first challenge read yet (I’m aiming to finish a book my sister lent to me, but finding it hard to get past the first bit! I may potentially give up on it, but I know there’s a something in it later which should appeal to me more!). When I do start this one, I think I’m going to go for Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees or Fearsome Fairies: Haunting Tales of the Fae (one of the British Library collections!).

April is nearly here! Which means we need to make a speedy decision about our next group read theme. Please post your suggestions in the comments below! I am going to suggest the runner-up from our last group read - Folklore and Mythology. As always, those joining in can read any book which connects to the theme! For this one, maybe you could read some classic mythology, a modern twist on something (like Pandora, Medusa or Circe), a fantasy book featuring folkloric creatures, or a book with ‘myth’ in the title - like Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Anderson 😄.

It’s still nice and spring-like here! I’ve haven’t had as much time for the garden as I’d like (exam time is approaching, so I’ve got loads of work right now) but I’m gradually trying to take all the dead heads off my hydrangeas. It’s satisfying but really time consuming!

Hi Craqdi! Welcome to the forum. Just to check, do you mean non-fiction books on occultism or fiction that features the occult?

What a great history! If I ever travel nearby, I will definitely get some ice cream. I want the peachy one 😄. My favourite ice cream place here is Henley ice cream. I’d link to them but their website seems to be having issues, so here’s a picture! The building is older than the actual company (it’s from the 16th century). They won an award for having the best ice cream in the country before

I felt the same way about this one. It was an intriguing concept but there was something missing. I also found the purpose of the relationship to be confusing. Almost as though the author intended for there to be a romance at the beginning, then changed their mind? This one sounds interesting and (although I know this shouldn’t be the important thing) I love the cover!

Yes, definitely! 😄

This makes me even more excited to read it 😄

Ooooh it wasn’t that one, but I just looked it up and that one sounds good!! The one I read was by Alexandra Bell. It’s very like a YA book (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just wasn’t expecting it) only with some particularly dark references which would have made it unsuitable for YA. Not a huge spoiler, but if you want to know what the unsuitable theme was: I hope I will too, I like it so far but I’m only one chapter in! 😄