October 2022 BOTM - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

[Ian]

Hi All,

The October 2022 Book of the Month is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.

It looks like a fairly short book (just over 100 pages) so I won't bother with a reading schedule. Instead, let's just hold off on posting anything that may be spoilers until the second half of the month (i.e. starting on October 16th)

There is a free version of this book available on Project Gutenberg:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41

Cheers,
Ian

[La Tonya]

I have always wanted to read this book. Just never found the time. I am glad it was selected. Enjoy Reading, 📚

[Terry]

sounds good : )

[Michelle]

Thanks for sharing the link to the free version!

[Kathy]

One of my favorite stories to tell at Halloween. I loved to imagine the characters even before the Disney versions came along.

[Constanza]

hi I'm joining this one. thanks for the link!

[Kathy]

Who is your favorite character?

[Ian]

I finished this book/short story yesterday; It was not at all what I expected. I had to read the wikipedia summary to confirm that I did indeed read the correct book. 😀

I'll hold off on any spoilers until the second half of the month, but I was surprised about the large percentage of the book that describes the setting, introduces characters, etc versus the percentage that concerns the plot of what happens at Sleepy Hollow.

[Larry]

I sat down and read this in about an hour today. I couldn't help but get Disney characters in my mind. The descriptions in the book seem spot on with the cartoon. I mean the other way around, but I did see the cartoon a hundred times before I read the book. If you have kids, you know what I mean. LOL

[[deleted user]]

I have this book almost ready to pick up at my library…probably tmrw!!

[[deleted user]]

Wow I am not in a headless horseman mood this month But I do want to read a selection of short stories…I had cancelled the hold. :)

[Sarah]

Everybody knows the story of the Headless Horseman, and I didn't even realize I'd never actually read it. This is the platonic ideal of a ghost story, and it's so perfect for Halloween.

I know the setup is a little long and meandering, but it creates the perfect, idyllic, slightly mysterious atmosphere to sucker you into a sense of complacency. That takes a while, there's a reason Stephen King's novels are such doorstoppers.

Ichabod Crane is the perfect character. He's harmless and sociable, but he's also kind of greedy and selfish, and mean to little kids. We can be sympathetic, but also secretly satisfied when he gets his comeuppance.

The ending is perfect because it's spooky and it leaves a twist of the unknown at the end. Sure, there's no Headless Horseman, and Bram is just a prankster pulling a fast one on his rival. Ichabod, his matrimonial hopes dashed, high tailed it out of town to escape embarrassment and his irate landlord. But he didn't say anything to anyone? And he left all his things behind, even his hat? Still, I'm sure nothing supernatural or nefarious happened. Right? Right?

[Yusuf]

Very slow with too much, too detailed description plus I had to read it for a course but once it picked up the pace I liked it, especially the open-to-interpretation ending. Never seen the Disney adaptation before so I'll be checking that out sometime after the midterms.

[Michelle]

I felt the story was too slow. I don’t mind the author taking time to set the scene, but I felt like the action at the end was too short in contrast. I also didn’t feel spooked by it.

[La Tonya]

I finished this book. It was orignial written in 1824; therefore, the language was diffcult for me. I had to re-read sentences to make sure I understood what was happending. Overall I did look the book. Follow my review below:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...