Have you started yet?

[Penny]

Well, I've started. Funny thing is, after watching the film a few weeks ago, I can't help but hear Maggie Smith in my head as Miss Bartlett fussing about her room that lacks a view...

[Emma]

I've almost finished - I've been reading while lying in the sun. At times I found the story tiresome but have enjoyed it more if I committed to longer sections of reading.

[Penny]

I think I've enjoyed getting the various sides of the story that is missing from the film. Sort of an 'oh, that's what makes this character say that!' kind of thing.
At times I want to yell at the author for being a male chauvinistic pig, but then I wonder if he's purposefully taking potshots at his characters by being so on the page...

What I have noticed is the odd way the chapters are headed. I was always led to believe that you have to have a consistent way of labelling chapters. You either do or don't do it. So weird to find names for some chapters and then just 'Fourth Chapter' for Chapter four and 'Twelfth Chapter' for Chapter twelve. It feels kind of lazy. If he couldn't think up chapter names for these chapters it would suggest that he himself couldn't fathom was what going on in them. Are they just plot filler???

Just got to page 100. The copy I'm reading has small print and reading ten pages has me tired. OR is that the effect of Xmas food making me feel blurch?!

Anyway, trucking on...76 pages to go :)

[Penny]

I see you've finished Emma. Damn. The trick is to find a classic with more pages than this and less pages than Middlemarch. Approx 400 pages would be good I guess :)

Incidentally I love the way the author made me hate Cecil, the manipulating pig. I tell you, Daniel Day Lewis had the right kind of calculating for the role in the film :)

[Natarsha]

Just starting the book tonight, quickly downloaded as i only found out about the summer reads. Hello :)

[Penny]

Hey there!

You'll find it is a quick read compared to some classics. I've finished myself :)

[Zara]

Hi,

Just joined because I love 'A Room With A View' so much! I decided to use it for my LAMDA Speech and Drama Verse & Prose exam, where I need to select a page (roughly) to learn by heart and "perform" in the exam. I'm having such a hard time deciding! I was thinking Lucy's speech in the chapter Lying To Cecil, or the very beginning, or the tennis match with Freddie and George... it's too difficult to decide! Any ideas would be welcome please.

[Penny]

Hi Zara,

Unfortunately I don't think the people on this group are still reading 'A Room with a View' as it was a Summer Solstice read in the Southern Hemisphere. We're now heading toward Winter.
If it helps, I remember the tennis match bit more than Lucy's speech, but I thought the passages in Italy had more action?

Cheers,
Penny :)

[Zara]

Ok, thanks anyway. Think I might do the passage where Freddy and George and Mr Beebe go bathing, it's quite a fun bit.

[Emma]

Yes! Do the bathing scene - it's so fun and instantly memorable. When you wrote that you had to pick a scene I instantly thought of that one.

[Penny]

Yes - agreed too :) Have you seen the film version that starred Helena Bonham Carter? - It's one of the best moments in the film too.