"Me Before You" and "The Waves" will be our Jan. and Feb. Group Reads!

[Petra]

It was awhile ago. I didn't like the stream of consciousness and thought the story was boring. The Waves is also written as a stream of consciousness style but it really works well with that story (or I changed).
I may try rereading Mrs. Dalloway one day. It could have been bad timing on my part...or I wasn't ready for it.

[Viola]

Question, Sheila:

Are we to finish reading the books by the beginning of the month? Or the end? I think traditionally with this group, the discussion starts at the beginning of the stated month. But in that case, I feel like we don't have that much time to read Me Before You.

[Karen]

Petra- I understand about the stream of conciousness, it can be difficult, but now I really like it. I figured that if I love Faulkner, I will like Virginia Woolf.
Also, the way I understand it is that the reading of a Jan book would start in Jan, and end at the end of that month so discussion would start at the end of Jan?
Karen

[Sheila , Supporting Chick]

Viola, I agree that having Me Before You read by Jan. 1st could be tough for many.

Julie is our leader for this book. Julie, do you have a preference for a reading schedule for this? Maybe everyone try to get a copy of the book and start reading by the 1st, with an actual discussion of the finished book not starting till around the 15th of January?

[Christine]

I couldn't finish Me Before you by Jan 1st :( ...with all Christmas & New Year stuff behind the 15th would be great though :)

[Roberta]

I'm good for the 15th, also, on Me Before You. All loaded up for my downtime over Christmas. FYI, very excited about The Waves - it will be [I hate to admit it] my first Woolf.

[Petra]

Karen wrote: "Petra- I understand about the stream of conciousness, it can be difficult, but now I really like it. I figured that if I love Faulkner, I will like Virginia Woolf ..."

Agreed. Stream of consciousness can be really enjoyable when well done. Both Woolf & Faulkner do it well.
For The Waves, I was thinking of starting the read on Feb. 1st & starting discussion a week after.

Is a schedule needed? I could figure one out easily; the book is divided into well-defined chapters. I think each chapter will have its discussion points.

[Karen]

Sounds good, looking forward to it! I will be reading Absolom,Absolom starting in a week or so, I have all my reading planned and this is the first group reading I am doing with The Waves! Fun!

[Sheila , Supporting Chick]

Petra, that sounds good.

So for January, for Me Before You, everyone should try to get a copy to start reading by January 1st, and we will plan the discussion of the finished book to start January 15th.

For February, everyone should start reading The Waves by February 1st, and Petra will start the discussion of the book a week after that.

Happy reading everyone!

[Karen]

Sounds good, but do we have to finish The Waves in a week? If so, I will have to start reading it the last week of January.

[Nell]

The Waves is available on Kindle for $2.99. I just downloaded it. Don't know if that is a sale or regular price.

[Sandra]

If you go to The Waves here on GoodReads, there's a link that says "read book" and you can download it for free!

[Sandra]

In the middle of the page, there is also a link that says "download book" and you can download it there to whatever device you need.

[Petra]

Karen wrote: "Sounds good, but do we have to finish The Waves in a week? If so, I will have to start reading it the last week of January."

No, that would be too quick a read. This one takes a bit more time.
I'll have a look at my copy tonight and get back with a more defined idea of how we can tackle this one and enjoy it.

[Karen]

Thanks! :)

[Nell]

Sandra wrote: "If you go to The Waves here on GoodReads, there's a link that says "read book" and you can download it for free!"

Great! I downloaded the free version and returned the previous download to Amazon for a refund. Thanks

[Dee]

I'm excited for The Waves!

[Petra]

I am, too. I've wanted to restart this one ever since I dropped it. It was a very busy time in life and I just didn't have the time to give the book. But the first chapter was spectacular.
I ended up baking and wrapping last night; forgot to check my copy about a schedule but I will do that tonight.

[Tonya]

I have been trying to find time to read Me Before You forever, maybe January will finally work out for me! I've never read anything by Virigina Woolf, the blurb looks fascinating!

[Petra]

For all The Wavesters:


I've had a look through the book. There aren't chapters but sections, each starting with a short page in italics.
In order to fit this book into the month of February, I've come up with 2 tentative schedules:

Week 1 - read Sections 1-3 (pages 3-77)
Week 2 - discuss Week 1's reading; read Sections 4-7 (pages 78-151)
Week 3 - discuss Week 2's reading; read Sections 8 & 9 (ages 151-220)
Week 4 - discuss the book in its entirety

OR

Week 1 - read Sections 1 & 2 (pages 3-51), start discussion mid or end of the week
Week 2 - read Sections 3 & 4 (pages 52-106, start discussion mid or end of the week
Week 3 - read Sections 5-7 (pages 107-151), start discussion mid or end of the week
Week 4 - finish the book (pages 152-220), start discussions mid or end of the week.

The second schedule allows us to read and discuss our weekly sections together.
The first schedule means we discuss one week's reading while reading a second section (which we aren't discussing yet).

I lean towards the second schedule that allows us to read and discuss a section in the same week. I think it might help us understand the next week's sections better.

Thoughts?

[Misha]

looking forward to reading Me Before You, really excited... gonna be my first group read with u "chicks" :-P :-D

[Karen]

The second schedule looks great!
Karen

[Sandra]

I like the 2nd schedule.

[Viola]

The Waves isn't that long of a book. So, I think my preference would be to read it all on my own pace and discuss all together. If you want to set up a schedule and others like it, that's great. But I'll probably just chime in with my thoughts at the end. 50 pages a week is a bit too slow for my tastes.

[Petra]

We don't need a schedule. People were asking about pacing, so I thought I'd provide one for discussion. Whatever works best for the group is okay by me.
It would be nice to be able to say something before the end of the month. For me, if I don't mention a particular passage or point around the time I read it, I'll have maybe forgotten about it by the end of the month.
We could just have open reading and open discussion using the spoiler tags and noting the page we're at at the time of posting.

This discussion is for the group to decide how they'd like this to run.

ETA: how comfortable is everyone with the stream of consciousness style of writing? That did influence how I set up the proposed schedules. I would like to leave enough time for people to enjoy the story; not rush through it.

[Karen]

Makes sense!

[Tonya]

I like the second! Of course, I always try to do schedules and end off in my own little world, but it's good to have a reference point for commenting.

[Petra]

Thanks, Karen and Tonya.


Let's start reading The Waves with Schedule 2:

Week 1 - read Sections 1 & 2 (pages 3-51), start discussion mid or end of the week
Week 2 - read Sections 3 & 4 (pages 52-106), start discussion mid or end of the week
Week 3 - read Sections 5-7 (pages 107-151), start discussion mid or end of the week
Week 4 - finish the book (pages 152-220), start discussions mid or end of the week.

We'll play it by ear. I think this might be a good pace for this book. Stream of consciousness can take some time to read (sometimes). We'll see how it goes.

[Sheila , Supporting Chick]

Petra, personally, I have really disliked the prior stream of consciousness books I have read. :-) So, I am going into this one expecting to not like it, but hoping for the best. LOL

[Petra]

Sheila, I hope you enjoy this one. I'm rather on the fence about stream of consciousness. But I loved the first chapter of The Waves (hope the rest is as good) and The Sound and the Fury. So, either I'm starting to appreciate stream of consciousness or these books are the better parts of it.

[Karen]

It takes perseverence to read Faulkner- it is hard at first but if you stick with it it rewards you- I read him after I went to his website and got some background info on his books. I would check to see if I was on the right track, once I gained confidence that I was, I really enjoyed his books. I'm sure you can do the same preperation for Virginia Woolf, I know I am going to.

[Julie]

Sheila wrote: "Viola, I agree that having Me Before You read by Jan. 1st could be tough for many.

Julie is our leader for this book. Julie, do you have a preference for a reading schedule for this? Maybe everyon..."
Makes no difference to me...I will do whatever the group wants to do as far as a reading schedule.

[Gloria]

Me Before You is a quick read.

[Irene]

So, when are we going to start the nominating process for our March and April reads?

[Sheila , Supporting Chick]

Umm, oh yes, how about now? :-) I'll start a new thread. Thanks for the reminder, Irene. :-)

[Carol]

I'm reading Me Before You and loving it. I hope the ending isn't disappointing.