Call Me By Your Name #1

[Trisha]

This thread is to discuss Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, the first book in the Call Me By Your Name series.

Pages: 248 pages

Length: 1 Month (January)

Participants: Eirelyn, Bailey.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

[bailey, Challenges]

I just borrowed the audiobook for this today so I might crack into it soon! Is this your first time reading it, Eirelyn? If so I’m really excited!

I’m planning on reading the sequel Find Me as well but don’t feel pressured to! I read CMBYN in 2019 and Find Me in 2020 both in print so now I want to give the audiobooks a try and see how they compare :) Looking forward to discussing with you again!!

[Eirelyn]

Yes, Bailey, this will be my first time reading this! :D I have seen the movie (I didn't realize it was a book before I watched it, whoops!), so I'm interested to see how it compares.

I'll wait to see how much I enjoy this one before I decide whether or not to read the sequel. ;D

[Black Cat Bookshelves]

Eirelyn I have read both and loved them both so much I planned too reread them. I was excited to see it listed as a buddy read so I’ll reread it now. I too saw the movie first. I think you will find that reading the book now will fill in a lot of gaps that the movie just glides by. For instance, without giving anything specific away, in the movie there is a scene where they show all of Oliver’s swimsuits one after the other. Seems like just a filler scene, but you’ll find in the book there is a reason why they show them. I am very excited to talk about the book with everyone reading it. I also look forward to rereading it myself.

[bailey, Challenges]

So I finished the entire audiobook yesterday and I loved it even more this time around! I agree with @Michelle that it’s a great experience to watch the movie and then read the book to fill in the gaps. I read the book before I watched the movie and I didn’t like the book as much during that read because it was hard for me to visualize a lot of things. This time around, having read the book and watched the movie already, the book was way more enjoyable because of the visual references I had.

Also, I’d say that reading Find Me made me like CMBYN more if that influences your decision to read the sequel at some point!

Spoilers for the whole book here: (view spoiler)[ There were a lot of things that I forgot about this book that surprised me!
1. I totally forgot about Vimini and how tragic her story arc was. I loved her relationship with Oliver and that last part of the book hits so hard when he says she wrote to him everyday and then it just stopped.
2. How beautiful the writing is. Some of the thoughts Elio shares are just so gorgeous and we don’t get to hear as much of his inner monologue in the movie.
3. The book just skips the scene where Elio and Oliver actually part ways and this as one of my favorites from the movie. Specifically when Elio is in the car with his mom and breaks down—UGH it gets me every time! I was somewhat shocked when listening to hear it go from “We’re in Rome” to “Anchise was waiting for me at the station”.
4. How far the book went into their lives after their relationship ended. I forgot that Oliver literally has kids in the book. I remembered that it went further down the timeline than the movie but more so forgot some of the specific details like all of the trips Elio and Oliver made back and forth to Italy and the US.
5. How strange the pacing was. It seemed very push-pull to me because Oliver was there for 6 weeks and we really only zoned in on specific days rather than the whole timespan. For example, the scene in the bookstore in Rome went on for such a long time compared to the beginning of the book where Elio was just like “This amount of time went by” and we were pushed forward in time by like 3 weeks. My point is I wish some scenes were given more and some were given less but I guess that’s the point of the book, to leave you wanting more.

Definitely need to reread Find Me so that I can get the happy ending now. (hide spoiler)]

[Black Cat Bookshelves]

Bailey I agree. I read Find Me after and there were a few things that I was disappointed in. I won’t mention specifics here so as not to spoil. However, having closure to CMBYN was great. I got very invested in the characters and was not ready to let them go.

[Patricia]

I have an ebook on this book and I like to read this but I can't. Maybe I'm going to join next month. I hope you have a great buddy reads:D

[Black Cat Bookshelves]

Hey Patricia, I read both on ebook. If you’re reading another book, just listen to this in times you can’t hold a book. That’s what I did. I was reading multiple books at the time. I kept this to when I was driving or at work on my lunch, etc..

[Eirelyn]

I finally started this tonight. :D I'm not very far into it yet but hopefully will make quick work of it.

[bailey, Challenges]

Eirelyn wrote: "I finally started this tonight. :D I'm not very far into it yet but hopefully will make quick work of it."

Yay!! So excited to see how you like it! And hopefully it'll be a quick read for you :)

[Eirelyn]

It feels very stream-of-consciousness right now. He's just rambling on about the summer, jumping from one occurrence to the next, with no real sequence or chronology to it. XD But that's all right. I'm enjoying how quickly it goes, and it's really an easy read.

[Justicia]

I'm late for this one, but I'll still go ahead and start on CMBYN.
I've watched the movie before, and I look forward to reading the book.

[Eirelyn]

I'm way behind on reading, so I'm glad the thread will be open through most of next month too. XD