Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make September's book selection Tom. I'd like to propose a choice between two soul searching journeys, and would appreciate everyone's opinion.

"Adventures of Don Quixote De La Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (both volumes if time allows) Titles vary according to translation

"The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer

Izz, they are both great choices! I would go for either whatever anyone else wants.

Wonderful izzi! I would be happy to read either one also. I'm so happy I stumbled along into this forum. The choices have been great, and have encouraged me to read books that I may not have normally done so. I appreciate the chance to pick a book for OCtober. I'll give it some thought and post choices in a few days

October's Pick..heres some food for thought. Would everyone prefer to go with the Halloween theme and read:

"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"
"Fall of the house of Usher and other tales" Edgar Allen Poe

Or try:
"Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins
Tess of the D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy

September

I'd be happy with either choice. On the one hand, I haven't read "Don Quixote" (though I've got Smollett's English translation on my shelves), so that would be another new experience. Then again, I'd love to renew my acquaintance with Chaucer: I've read most of the Canterbury Tales at one time or another, but I don't think I've ever read the work from end to end.

October

The choices are tantalizing. "Tess" (so far as the central story line is concerned) would seem to have some obvious parallels with "Adam Bede", and it would be interesting to look at the similarities and differences between the two. But on the whole, I'd be inclined to go for one of the horror stories, in the interests of taking us into a genre that we haven't so far looked at.

I vote for Poe's works! *shiver of delight*

Yah--If no one has any objections for October let's read "Fall of the house of Usher and other tales" by Edgar Allen Poe. Poe was to have lived in Philadelphia for 6 years (the region I live) and there is a tour of his house available. I'll make a note to try and visit it and share some pictures as well.

I'd like Poe best. Not a fan of Frankenstien, and I had to read it twice already for various school subjects. However, since "other stories" may be a specific collection hard to come by, you may want to list the other stories we'd be considering (or just--Poe's complete stories--they aren't more than 1.5 volumes, I don't think.)

The collection I found featured "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "Purloined Letter" "Cask of Amontilado" "Tell-Tale Heart" & "Masque of Red Death". I found it listed on Amazon.com & Half.com for relatively cheap. You can preview at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451526759/qid=1056748574/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/104-1784536-7507100?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I read Don Quixote a few years back, and I absolutely loved it. I have also read some of the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer--in school, but either will be fine with me.

I'm a big fan of Poe, so that sounds wonderful with me. I have a couple of volumes of Poe, myself.:o

For August, I was wondering if there would be any interest in reading HG Wells or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

For HG Wells, I was thinking either The Time Machine or War of the Worlds.

For Doyle, either A Study In Scarlet (which is Sherlock Holmes' first case) or The Hound of the Baskervilles--which I think was the best of the Holmes novels.

This will give us the option of having science fiction or detective fiction, which we haven't touched on, yet. Any of these are readily available, too.

Please feel free to make suggestions and comments. I am really very amendable.

Linda, my preference would be for H G Wells' "The Time Machine", but any of your choices would be fine.

Ok then, let's go with Don Quixote for September. Realistically, the first volume would probably give us more than enough ground to cover for one month, and we could always read the second volume as a 'book of the month' in the future.

I really can't remember ever reading a horror story in my life, so going with the suggestion of Poe's works will be a new experience for me. The actual collection you listed isn't an available option for me, it's not showing up on the database. I've found many titles listed, but can't find a definitive list of stories for each edition. Could someone with better access to leaf through a few volumes in a bookstore give me some idea which would be the best one to order please?

Tales of Horror
Selected Tales
Selected Stories & Poems
Murders of the Rue Morgue & other Tales
Tales of Mystery & Terror
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Tales of Mystery & Horror
Tales of Terror
Complete Tales & Poems (far more expensive than the others on this list)

Izzi

I went thru your list and the one that actually listed the stories was "Selected Tales". The synopsis included all the stories from the "Fall of the House of Usher". I definitely suggest that if anyone cannot find "Fall of the house of Usher" to try this.

Here are the included stories:

"MS Found in a Bottle; Berenicë; Morella; Ligeia; The Man That Was Used Up; The Fall of the House of Usher; William Wilson; The Man of the Crowd; The Murders in the Rue Morgue; Eleonora; The Masque of the Red Death; The Pit and the Pendulum; The Mystery of Marie Rogêt; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Gold-Bug; The Black Cat; A Tale of the Ragged Mountains; The Purloined Letter; The Systems of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether; The Imp of the Perverse; The Cask of Amontillado; The Domain of Arnheim; Hop-Frog; Von Kempelen and his Discovery" It is in paperback format and very inexpensive.

I'm excited for Don Quixote. I started reading it numerous times and never quite finished it so I will enjoy reading it very much.

LindaC--both good choices. I actually just picked up a Dover Thrift collection of Sherlock Holmes stories and am always glad to read him. But would be even happier with H G Wells, to take a break from Doyle.

Excellent!! Thanks sebastiancat, I can actually take that one out on loan as a "spoken word" cassette from the library and have the ghoulish tales read to me. I'll buy a copy of the book too though, so that I have it available to refer to.

They are all excellent suggestions, and you are spoilt for choice, I think! It is very tempting to leave unsaid what I want to put here, but I have to make a point, and vote with my feet.
I am absolutely disgusted with the behaviour of a member here, in posting a spoiler. It practically ruined my enjoyment of a book I have been waiting to read for some time. I am up to my ears in work. I am , as I mentioned in another thread, a teacher at the end of an extremely traumatic and long term. We had to cope with SARS, providing individual work for students who couldnt go to school for weeks, along with all the usual end of term stuff.I am really looking forward to a good long relaxing read, and HP5 has arrived a little too early. However, I aim to stay out of here, and FT in general for a while, as I cannot be responsible for my behaviou towards selfish members here. Patience has run out, I am afraid, and I have plenty, usually, especially with the young. So count me out of the club for the next few weeks(or months, as long as it takes). I have enjoyed it all so much. Thanks everyone of you members of the B.O.T.M. Club for your intelligent, thought provoking contributions. I am sad, but I am sure you will understand.

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it seems to have become a problem once again

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Thanks , Linda for the reminder about Spoilers. But I am afraid you can "remind" some people here as much as you like. If a post does not suit them to respond to, or comply with then it is ignored. This is now an accepted fact in FT. Former posts in a thread are ignored, former threads on exactly the same subject are started, spoilers are posted. Selfish people are almost encouraged, and smilingly indulged because "they are only young". Sorry but this is true. If a person is mature enough to join FT, then they are mature enough to comply with the rules, or they shouldn't be here. it is no problem for me as I am out of here for a while, but it may bear thinking about. Thanks.

I agree that it is a shame if the plot or ending is given away to people who are still reading, but to be fair, the discussions regarding "Adam Bede" didn't even really get underway until the final week of the month.

I noticed with the current book that because everyone was understandably afraid to give away spoilers, there had been very little input into the thread in the early weeks, which was why I suggested alternative talking points.

I'd like to make a couple of suggestions, and maybe we can come to some sort of concensus of opinion for future readings. We could read the book during the chosen month and put off all discussions until the following month. Anyone who still hasn't had the time to finish the reading could easily avoid opening the thread until they had. Alternatively, we could agree to discuss just the first 1/4 of the book on the first week and so on until everyone has posted that they've read the lot.

Any other ideas?

Izzi , I am certainly not speaking of spoilers with the books we read in Book of the Month. Oh no. Sorry if I gave you that impression. No the game was given away well and truly with regard to the latest Harry Potter, which I am really looking forward to.Someone chose to give the game away in Movies about who dies in the new book
I am pretty fed up about that. Not about anything to do with Adam Bede, I am sure lots of us knew the story of Adam Bede before we started. I am really just disgusted that the person chose to completely ignore rules as given in Forums. Thats what you get when you over indulge immature members,and let them get away with the blatant disregard for the feelings of others, I suppose. Sorry!

Thank you for breaking your self imposed exile just long enough to clear that up ren. It certainly looked as if your post was intended to be addressed to the rest of us who contribute to the Book of the Month Club discussions, and as it was entered in this thread, how else were we supposed to read it?

Yes , I guess you are right, Izzi, but I put it in here as I wanted to let people know I would be out of the Book Club for a while, and why.
Of course I have informed the mods of my feelings as well. I hope you all enjoy the next few choices.

Ren, I do hope that you will change your mind and stay with us in the book club. I honestly think that 99.95% of all the people on FT are really nice people. In every board when people post, there is always going to be a problem with the tiny obnoxious minority. So...you will just be missed too much, yes?

You know, izzi, when we first started the book club, Jazz had the chapters divided up into reading so many in a certain length of time. What does everybody think of dividing each book into fourth's--discussing each section at the end of the week? Or the following Monday? Also, for long books, as you say, izzi, take more time? If it takes 2 months to thoroughly read and discuss a book, why I'm sure that is fine--or 6 weeks. I'm sure this could be easily worked out.

The reason that I've not joined the Adam Bede discussion is that I just now finished the book. But, I went back to the thread yesterday--read all the posts, so I could join in.

I want to say that really enjoy the book club. It is just nice to be able to read a good book with people who are enjoying it, too.

But, Ren, whatever you decide, please remember that you are a valuable part of our reading group. We all wish you only the very best in whatever you decide. So, if I don't see you post for awhile, please take care. Come back soon.

As for August, I love The Time Machine, too. Shall we let it be the selection for August?

Oh ren I am so sorry to hear how everything was spoiled. I have seen the same spoilers and am only glad that I read Harry Potter extremely fast otherwise I would be in the same situation. If I ever inadvertently leak out information in either the Book Club forum, or in anyother, please someone kindly 'e-slap' me so that I don't ruin the information for anyone else.

In reading "Adam Bede", (once I started getting rolling that is) I was also a bit leary of posting a question concerning a major occurrence knowing that there may be members just checking in, or hadn't completed the book. I am very supportive of the idea of choosing to wait and discuss portions of the book until later in the month.

I tend to be a fast reader who has free time during my work commutes, as I am a passenger on a train, and can finish the readings fairly quickly. "Things fall apart" is already done and I am just patiently waiting until July to start the ball rolling as I have a number of questions. If the general concensus is to wait until at least the middle of the month to discuss the book then I will gladly oblige.

I am sorry ren that I won't get to view your very insightful comments, and hope that this much needed sabbatical will prevent you from commenting "harey carey" on a very young, and far to free with his comments trivia member.

Izzi-I'm actually looking forward to finding out who read the chilling tales of Edgar Allan Poe on your book on tape. With just the right inflection, anyone can be transformed into a creepy otherworld. Sounds deliciously scary.

"Time Machine" is a wonderful selection and I will scour the used bookstores for a copy.

Just in viewing where everyone is from, it is wonderful the diversity of personalities and therefore opinions we have about the books we have chosen. It only took a common theme, a love of reading, to bring us all together.

I look forward to discussing "Things fall apart" with everyone here. I hope Ren that circumstances enable you to find a moment of peace.

Sebastiancat, before The Time Machine becomes the August selection, let's see what skylarb and Tom think. I really want to pick a book everybody will like.

I'm quite happy to have "The Time Machine" as the August choice.

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Izzi-I'm actually looking forward to finding out who read the chilling tales of Edgar Allan Poe on your book on tape. With just the right inflection, anyone can be transformed into a creepy otherworld. Sounds deliciously scary.

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There are three of Poe's collections of tales available to me in cassette form, sebastiancat. "Tales of Mystery & Imagination" is read by Christopher Lee, "Murders of the Rue Morgue" read by Vincent Price, and the one I hope to loan, "Selected Tales", is read by Andrew Sachs. I just hope that I can get the image of his wonderful character Manuel, from Fawlty Towers, out of my mind while he's reading, it won't be nearly so spooky otherwise.