The Border Book Club

[NightMistBlue]

I loved the Blackadder series, though we got it here in the States quite a few years after it was made. After each "era" I thought they couldn't top that, and then they did.

Bookwise, I'm just about halfway through the audio version "Of Human Bondage" by Somerset Maugham. By the time it's finished, my audiobook of Toni Tennille's memoirs should have arrived. Talk about a contrast! From culture to schlock. Though maybe there are unexpected parallels: Carey has a complex about his club foot; Tennille has one of her fingers amputated in an accident and is self-conscious about it; Philip Carey is consumed by an unrequited and self-destructive love for a callous tart; Toni stays for decades unhappily married to a chilly, emotionally distant man.

[AlreadyGone95]

Very rarely do I not finish a book, but after 100 pages of the Damascus Gate book, I had to throw in the towel. I just couldn't get interested in it, especially since there was 400 more pages to read.

Now, I'm going to read 2 classics back to back, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. I should've read Uncle Tom's Cabin before now because it was written during the time of America history that I'm fascinated the most by. (The Civil War era, and the events before and after the war). I'm going to read For Whom the Bell Tolls because of the Metallica song of the same name. It will be my introduction into Hemingway's works.

[Brooke]

Good luck with Hemingway, AG! I have three of his books and have tried to read them with no luck. I just couldn't get interested. I'm one that has to finish a book if I start it, but these....couldn't do it!

[buffyfan145]

I've never read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" yet (expect for what we studied in school) or Hemingway's books, even though I love his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels. I'm currently finally reading the "Sherlock Holmes" novels. Even though I love both the BBC version of "Sherlock" and CBS' "Elementary", and so many of the other Sherlock movies & shows over the years I've never read the original books till now. I'm having fun reading the original stories and now seeing how the various adaptations did things compared to how the books were.

[NightMistBlue]

I've read three Hemingway novels and enjoyed them. Read everything by F. Scott Fitzgerald (I took a course on him in college) and adore him. I was surprised at how empathetic Hemingway's writing is, particularly about women. His swaggering, macho image belies a real sensitivity.

[AlreadyGone95]

I've only read one F. Scott Fitzgerald book, The Great Gatsby. My 8th grade history teacher had us watch the movie, the one with Robert Redford as Gatsby. I liked the movie, so I read the book twice. It wasn't until the second reading that I grew to love the book. I don't know where to start with his other books.

[zeldabjr]

I recently read For Whom the Bell Tolls...it was my first Hemingway novel...not sure I loved the subject matter...but I did like his style...will definitely try another of his books...I am loving reading classic books in recent years...right now I'm starting "The Brothers Karamazov"...

[buffyfan145]

"The Great Gatsby" is one of my all-time favorites!!! I've loved it since we read it in school when I was 16, and I liked Redford's movie but enjoyed the recent one with Leonardo DiCaprio so much. I even saw a TV movie that had Paul Rudd as Nick. My 2nd favorite of his is "Tender is the Night" (which I knew of the Jackson Browne song before I read the book, even though they aren't connected). I also loved "The Beautiful and Damned" too and a lot of his short stories too.

[NightMistBlue]

I agree with Buffy re: Tender is the Night.

[AlreadyGone95]

I'll look for Tender is the Night the next time I go to the library, which won't be for a few weeks, because I've got 7 books to read, including the 2 classics. I'm good for a while! Lol

Buffy; I've read some of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I love them. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the onlg one of the 4 novels I've read, but it's great, too.