Hayley

I got really addicted to Stardew Valley a couple of months ago, I didn't even expect to like it that much, a friend who loves Harvest Moon recommended it! Is the Animal Crossing game 'Pocket Camp?' Because I love that too! It has the same addictive, yet relaxing to play, quality. I'm a bit horrified by Fallout 76, I have to admit. I was really excited when they announced it (but, like you, not keen on the only online aspect) but the reviews that came from the beta really put me off. I really hope you love it and say the reviews were all wrong, because I've always enjoyed Fallout games and I so wanted this one to be good too! What platform will you be playing it on? @Nollaig I thought Alan Wake was terrifying, I wouldn't even play it by myself . That is a really strange feature in Bloodborne isn't it? I actually like reading everything when I play a game but I don't think you should have to work that hard to find out what the story is!

Oooh I see you read A Bridge of Clay this month, really interested to see what you thought of that! I loved The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger but this one sounds quite different. I also added The Luminaries to my 'to read' list recently

I agree that you should post your booktube reviews I'm sure you'll find a balance between them and your thread too. I also hope your reading slump ends soon!

Supporting members this month have the chance to win two beautiful a5 prints from www.thestorygift.co.uk ! Supporting members from patreon, as well as members who supported before patreon, will be entered automatically. If you want to enter but aren't a supporting member, you can still support for November and join in with https://www.patreon.com/bookclubforum . Members who were already supporters before patreon, and still have active supporter status, will be contacted within the next few hours to confirm their entry. If you think you should have received a message but haven't, please contact me. The winner will be announced on Friday 30th November. Good Luck! As a special extra treat, all members can also receive a 10% discount at www.thestorygift.co.uk ! You simply need to be a member of the forum with at least 10 posts. Just send me a message to receive your code!

Thank you @Angury that was a really lovely message to see . I've started to develop a slight panic when there's a new message in this thread, in case something has gone horribly wrong! The forum software does seem to confuse adsense quite a lot, since it's obviously designed to fit the most standard web layouts. With this software, the changes you can make on adsense sometimes just don't work, or cause a weird change that you didn't intend, so it's definitely a case of trial and error.

@Michelle There's no reason there should be more ads now on mobile but I've checked and I see what you mean. I think it's possible that there aren't actually more but that the size (as they all seem to be quite long) is making them more obvious. I'll look into it!

It's not your computer, don't worry, we all have a blank strip on the right hand side. We're supposed to be able to see the ads over there, which obviously isn't working at the moment, but the update should allow more control over where they are. Thanks for pointing that out! I'm glad the changes have made a positive difference, although they weren't a complete fix. As I said above, I should be able to control the position of the ads more after the new update, which will be happening soon. I really appreciate everyone's patience with the ads, they're far more fiddly than I expected but I really need to try everything to help cover the costs of the hosting and software updates.

@itsmeagain I don't know why some people are getting such very different ads, I've had nothing like that appear. AdSense does not allow porn advertisements, so I assume the ad you saw had been categorised as a dating ad. I've asked for it to be looked into, I'm sure there will be a way to but a total ban on adult themes.

Ooh they are very nice. They're in such perfect condition too! I love the colour and font for the spine of Crime and Punishment.

What a weirdly offensive advert! @Athena I can't take any credit for that. I didn't even know it was called a favicon, never mind how to change it, it was entirely my friend's idea. I do love it though! @~Andrea~ Thanks for that. I hoped that setting it to the end of the page would get them out of the middle of posts entirely. I think it's actually worked on mobile. At least it's not covering text any more on pc! I've spoken to my friend about them turning up in odd places and he thinks the next software update might help. That will be happening soon but, until then, if you keep letting me know if anything goes wrong, I can try to keep tweaking things until we get it right.

@~Andrea~ Thanks for letting me know, I've asked for it to be changed to a setting that specifically directs the ads to the end of posts, so let me know if that works. Were you on pc or mobile?

@vodkafan I don't get any choice in the adverts, unfortunately. I don't know whether Lead Adventure Forum might run their own advertisements but we're just using AdSense. There are some things I can change but it doesn't give you a huge amount of control. On the subject of ads though @Madeleine they shouldn't be slowing things down, that is a problem. When you say they're popping up all over the place, where exactly are you seeing them? At the moment, for example, I have one at the top of the page and one just above this text box. We were having an issue a couple of nights ago where ads were popping up within posts, but that's been fixed now. Have you noticed any improvement in the last couple of days? In the mean time I'll ask my friend (who's much better with the tech side of things than me) to look into it for you. Regarding Paypal @vodkafan, I would say it's probably the safest way to send a monthly payment, that's one of the reasons I chose it. When you log into your paypal account you can see any direct debit you currently have and, if you needed to, you can tell paypal to cancel that payment without needing any contact with the company the money is going to. You shouldn't ever actually need to do that, since you can cancel your patreon payment at any time anyway, but it adds an extra layer of security.

That sounds so lovely @muggle not! I love Pink Lady apples and Sweet Cheeks just sound like they're going to be delicious! I'm going to look after somebody else's dog later this month so I'm looking forward to that, she's such a sweet dog!

I've only heard good things about Robin Hobb but I've never read anything by her. 'Shaman's Crossing' sounds good but, if you didn't think it was her best, what would you say is a good book to start on? I really like the idea of the different trilogies overlapping too!

It's a shame the longer anthology has gone out of print but I might have a look for this shorter version. With folktales I particularly like the way you see universal human fears and questions but portrayed uniquely depending on that culture. I suppose that the 'Round the World' challenge does the same thing really, but on a more complex level, with more modern considerations. Do you think you could do the challenge again, picking different books for each country?

Hi @Talisman, Patreon automatically shows dollars because they're based in the US, but I chose to use Paypal which will convert it into any currency once you select a tier. On that first page though it will always show dollars. It's not something you can change (I did do research to try), and unfortunately we don't really have a UK equivalent of Patreon. Thanks @poppy and yes of course, you'll get a message about it today

Hi, welcome to the forum! It's always nice to see a new book blog, and you've definitely come to the right place for book discussions! I look forward to seeing what you're reading

Sounds like a great selection of books! I love reading about folklore from different countries, what was Folklore and Tales from Lesotho like?

Due to monthly hosting costs and software updates, keeping the forum running does cost money. If you want to help to keep the forum running, and get some prizes in the process, please use our Patreon page... https://www.patreon.com/bookclubforum It really is greatly appreciated

Penguin did a really lovely leather bound classics edition of Dracula too.

208 @Little Pixie!? How fast do you get through a book? Please teach me your secret! I've now read 30, which means I'd have to read 20 books in about 50 days to reach my target of 50 books...

Thanks @frankie, that really means a lot . The new ideas are coming very soon, I'm just finalising a few things. I'm excited to tell you about it! My friend is a reader. He listens to audiobooks every day, but didn't think that counted. I'll keep trying to persuade him! He's like the BCF elf at the moment, coming in and fixing things, then disappearing before we can see him! That really made me laugh! I don't think I can change the type of ads that show, but I'll look into it.

I'm at 29, which beats my total last year, but I'd have to get reading really fast to make it to my target of 50!

You may have noticed a few small changes around the forum in the past couple of days (has anybody noticed our little book stack favicon on their internet tab?). These have mainly been carried out by a very good friend of mine, who also helped massively in getting the forum here today. He's a little shy, but we may be able to convince him to join us one day... This morning we were given permission to run advertisement on the forum, which is probably the biggest visual change to be made. I appreciate that not everybody will like to see ads on the site, but due to the costs of hosting and upgrading, I need to find ways to help the forum support itself. For the same reason, it would be very much appreciated if you could disable adblock for this site. There are a few more ideas in progress, which are a bit more exciting... but I don't want to say too much on that yet! If you have any feedback on the changes, good or bad, please use this thread to let me know.

Oh, I misread your review, I thought you were made to read The Tempest at school! Well you enjoyed Hagseed without having read The Tempest then, so I think that's a good sign that I wouldn't really need to read The Tempest first. I actually read the same two plays as you at school and I also sometimes think I should go back to Shakespeare as an adult, but there's so much more I want to read that I just never get round to it.