Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion
Common reads
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What are we going to read in this group?
Jean, thanks for explaining your circumstances (I can totally relate, because I'm often in a similar situation with a common read in other groups!). If The Ghosts (or some other book you'd like to read) is the one chosen, I do hope things work out so that you can join us!
The Ghosts sounds good to me, too. I'm always up for a good ghost novel!
Deb wrote: "The Ghosts sounds good to me, too. I'm always up for a good ghost novel!"I thought you might be interested in that one, Deb! :-)
Oddly almost as soon as I'd posted, saying I thought I might have a bit more free tiem in October, I found I am leading a day-by-day read after all! 🙄 But I still hope to join in 😊
We'll cross our fingers and hope with you, Jean!
It will/would be my first read with Deb, too 😊
RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "October is coming..."Yes, it is! :-) So far, we only have the one suggestion on the table, but it's generated a fair amount of support.
Well, it's now official: with no other nominations, The Ghosts by Antonia Barber will be our group read this October (since there's no point in having a poll with only one book on it :-) ). I'll plan to have the discussion thread up by Oct. 1. Looking forward to joining in on this one!
Sounds great Werner! I have my DAISY CD ready 😊
Bionic Jean wrote: "Sounds great Werner! I have my DAISY CD ready 😊"Cool! I'll have to borrow my library colleague Paula's paperback copy; but she's already promised to loan it. :-)
Bionic Jean wrote: "It will/would be my first read with Deb, too 😊"Yay! Looking forward to it!
Werner wrote: "Well, it's now official: with no other nominations, The Ghosts by Antonia Barber will be our group read this October (since there's no point in having a poll with only one book on it :-) ). I'll pl..."That was an easy process! October will be here soon. I can start to smell fall in the air.
A note about our upcoming read of The Ghosts by Antonia Barber: you may want to plan a bit ahead on obtaining the book. I live in a largish city (over 400k residents) with a system of multiple libraries, but none of the libraries carried the book. Readers could probably order The Ghosts through an independent bookstore or possibly find it at a used bookstore. Barnes and Noble doesn't have it. I ended up buying a used copy through Amazon; it will arrive the first of October--just in time for the group read.
I have to confess l've started already - mainly because with audio books it takes us a long time to get through them at just 20 minutes a day or so. We were reading an Anthony Trollope for over 6 months!This one is short though, and I'll be careful of spoilers.
Oh, and just to add it was retitled as "The Amazing Mr. Blunden" after the film was released, so it may be as well to search for both The Amazing Mr. Blunden and The Ghosts!
Deb wrote: "I live in a largish city (over 400k residents) with a system of multiple libraries, but none of the libraries carried the book."Deb, I'm sorry that you wound up having to buy the book (or feeling that you had to)! Being a librarian, I tend to think that everybody knows about interlibrary loan, the practice where libraries borrow a book they don't have from another library if one of their patrons wants to read it. The main network for this is OCLC; according to their WorldCatalog database, 290 libraries in their system have copies of this book in English. So your library system probably could have gotten a copy for you from one of them, if you'd known that you could ask them to :-(.
No worries, Werner! This is really good information to have, and it may prove useful to others finding the book.I had heard of interlibrary loan long ago but thought it only worked within counties. Thanks for the information. I will use it in the future.
Glad I could share something helpful, Deb!
Bionic Jean wrote: "I have to confess l've started already - mainly because with audio books it takes us a long time to get through them at just 20 minutes a day or so. We were reading an [author:Anthony Trollope|2052..."Oh, interesting! I definitely came across The Amazing Mr. Blunden. Thanks for the tip. Knowing the new title may help others as well.
Some books have both on the cover, but that doesn't help if you're searching a library catalogue etc. Sorry Deb ... I should have said about the titles before!
Haha! I kind of like the new title. It sounds more mysterious.When I was a kid, I loved a book about WWII called The Silver Sword. They renamed it Escape from Warsaw. I never warmed up to the new title even though I know it was more representative of the novel's contents.
Oh yes, I remember that one! Not with the new title though - I agree! Nowhere near as exciting-sounding.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Oh yes, I remember that one! Not with the new title though - I agree! Nowhere near as exciting-sounding."Especially since the silver sword was such an important symbol throughout the book. Oh, well.
Since tomorrow is likely to be a busy day, I went ahead and posted the discussion thread for The Ghosts just now. Here's that link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... .
I'm always drawn to opening lines. Consider: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" [1984/George Orwell.] Or: "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom" [Beloved/Toni Morrison]. By the way, Beloved is the most incredible and searing ghost novel ever.So, The Ghosts: "If it had not been such a rain-lashed, windy evening, the people who jostled the pavements of Camden Town might have noticed something a little odd about a white-haired elderly gentleman who made his way against the steady flow of the crowd."
There's so much to love about that opening sentence--the atmospheric setting of wind and rain, a man who makes his way against the flow (possibly metaphorical?), and foreshadowing. What is odd about this man, for instance? And why does it matter that no one notices him?
That opening sentence leads into a first chapter I really like as well. I'm intrigued by Mr. Blunden. He seems confused and burdened, and I want to know his story. I'm about halfway through the book, and Mr. Blunden is not on scene often, but when he is, I always pay attention. What I've noticed so far, though, makes me believe Mr. Blunden has some serious redemption work to do.
Deb wrote: "I'm always drawn to opening lines. Consider: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" [1984/George Orwell.] Or: "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom" [Beloved..."Good thoughts, Deb! If you share them on the discussion thread for The Ghosts, here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... , I know they'll be of particular interest there.
Oops! Put this in the wrong place. Thanks, Werner.
Deb wrote: "Oops! Put this in the wrong place. Thanks, Werner."No problem, Deb! (I thought you might have meant to put it on the other thread. :-) )
Can you remind me when the next common read is please? (I did a bit of scrolling, then thought it best to just ask!)
Hi Jean,The annual common read is in October--the spooky month, right? People offer suggestions of titles, and then we vote at the end of summer. Do you have a title you'd like to put forward?
This past January, we did an additional read. Werner and I were the only commenters on that one, but maybe other people read along as well.
Happy reading as always!
Yes, Jean, happy reading! The January read Deb spoke of was a buddy read, set up through this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... . Those can take place at any time.The October annual common read has been a group tradition for a number of years. We generally start brainstorming seriously about what to read in August (though suggestions are welcome before that, too!), and I post the poll at the beginning of September and let it run through two weekends. There's no rule against doing a group read at other times, if someone suggested it and there's enough interest (during our first two-three years, we tried doing quarterly or even monthly reads, but people pretty much got burned out on them).
Hi Deb and Werner,Thank for the info! I've joined in with 4 of these I think, as you know, but can't seem to get the month dates fixed in my mind 😂
No, I haven't got a title in mind Deb, but will remember brainstorming starts in August, Werner. October - the "spooky" month should definitely be easy to remember ... it's not ideal for me, but you never know I might be able to squeeze one in 😊
Sounds good, Jean! (I'm in the same boat in some groups I belong to, so I can relate.)
Bionic Jean wrote: "Hi Deb and Werner,Thank for the info! I've joined in with 4 of these I think, as you know, but can't seem to get the month dates fixed in my mind 😂
No, I haven't got a title in mind Deb, but will ..."
I do hope you can squeeze the October read in, Jean! I've been sort of wracking my brain for titles of potential candidates but haven't come up with anything yet.
Oh dear, although it's ages yet, I kind of know I won't be able to, as I'm leading a chapter-a-day read in another group. From experience, I don't manage to read anything else when I'm doing that, as the discussions are very demanding. It goes from mid-Sept until mid- December.Outside these times I should be able to fit something in, as the other group where I lead a chapter-a-day read in the Spring, I now have help. (I was finding nowhere near enough time to do other reading!)
I can only apologise ... and offer what I would have suggested, which is any of three books by Robert Westall. Either Antique Dust: Ghost Stories (my first choice) or Ghost Abbey, which I'd also love to reread. The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral is also very good, but I'm not sure how easy it is to find.
Sorry Deb 🥹
Jean, I'm hoping to join in that chapter-a-day read too (though at my own speed); but I won't start it until after this group's read. I'm trusting that I'll be able to catch up, though!Robert Westall's name seems vaguely familiar to me, but I don't know if I've read anything by him --I'll have to check one particular anthology in the bookcase in my office on Monday. My proposal would be that, between now and the posting of the poll, we narrow the Westall suggestions down to one. I really like supernatural short fiction (and there's a large corpus of it; in this genre, it's historically played a major role!); my only caveat would be that a lot of modern readers don't like the short format, which is probably a factor in why we we've never chosen a story collection for a group read. Other than that, I don't have any thoughts for or against any one of Jean's suggestions; I'll gladly read any one of the three if it's chosen!
While we're at it, I'd like to put in a plug for The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker. That one has been on my to-read shelf for quite a while (I nominated it back in 2020 as well, but it came in second that year); and at 304 pages, it should be a fairly quick read, although not as quick as the two novellas Jean mentioned would be. We have done a read of a Stoker work before (Dracula, back in 2012), but that doesn't necessarily bar his books from being considered again.
My Large Print "Ghost Abbey" is 278 pages. The only other LP book I have of our reads (I usually read them on kindle) is "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe", which is 249 pages, so that was actually a shorter book! The short story collection "Antique Dust" is 342 pages in LP, but as you say, not everyone enjoys those.I've discovered that The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral is on kindle (129 pages, but not equivalent of course), but not everyone has a kindle. That is his best story, in my view. It was once dramatised to terrifying effect on the radio! You can perhaps tell by the title that his stories have the feel of M.R. James, and he has been called the best proponent of modern fiction in that genre. His books are sometimes classed as YA. I've been told that "Blitzcat" is also very good, but not supernatural.
I do feel bad about not being able to join in at the right time, but all the research etc. that I do for the reads makes it impossible to do anything else. They honestly are different from normal group reads.
On one occasion I started writing my summaries and finding illustrations a whole 5 months before, doing some every day - yet I still had to use every minute once it had started! I build in occasional "days off" at the end of an original installment, but people do sometimes even come in then as well, and want answers from me and discussions. 🙄 So I will have to do whatever is chosen as (what seems to be called) a "zombie read", i.e. later on, and add my comments then. I'm really sorry. 😟I do enjoy the common reads here a lot.
Or you could miss my suggestion out of the poll of course, and have it as a buddy read later perhaps.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Or you could miss my suggestion out of the poll of course, and have it as a buddy read later perhaps."Suggested books that don't win the poll can always be pursued later as buddy reads! But I'd be in favor of including one of the three Westall titles you suggested in the poll, since otherwise we only have one other title in the ring so far. (If we have a poll at all, it should have at least two nominees!)
It turns out that I have read a short story by Westall, back in 2019: "The Haunting of Chas McGill." (I found a different way of tracking it down. :-) ) It's contained in the anthology Favorite Ghost Stories, and in my review of that collection I characterized it as "quite good." (It's also stayed in my memory very well; I just didn't recall the title or the author's name.)
The regular print edition of Antique Dust (at least, the one Goodreads shows first) has 214 pages. Ghost Abbey has 169, and The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral has 97. When I get back to work on Monday, I'll search for the print version(s) of the latter in the World Catalog database, to see how available it would be through interlibrary loan.
Jean, knowing how much time and effort you put into leading one of your in-depth chapter-a-day reads (which are enormously rewarding experiences for all of the participants!), I totally understand why you can't realistically fit another group read into the same time slot! We'll miss the benefit of your comments reading along with us, but we'll still enjoy and benefit from your thoughts when you read it later. That's why common reads threads stay open indefinitely; later discussion is rewarding, too!
Thanks Werner! Choose one by its length by all means, too.
Well, I got sidetracked yesterday and forgot to search the World Catalog database for The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral; but better late than never. :-) As it turns out, there are well over 400 libraries in the worldwide OCLC system that have the book, so it definitely should not be hard to get by interlibrary loan. Jean, given that you recommend this tale as Westall's best, my suggestion is that it be the one we put in the poll.
Great! There are lots of cheap copies on various websites for those who read normal print too.I meant to say, I don't think I have read "The Haunting of Chas McGill". It's not in Antique Dust: Ghost Stories, although 5 more short stories are 😊
Bionic Jean wrote: "I meant to say, I don't think I have read "The Haunting of Chas McGill". It's not in Antique Dust: Ghost Stories, although 5 more short stories are 😊 "Besides being in the anthology where I read it, it's the title story of the Westall collection The Haunting of Chas McGill and Other Stories. But unfortunately, it doesn't appear that either book was ever given an audio or an e-book edition; and a Google search for the title doesn't seem to have unearthed any venues where it can be read online. :-(
That would explain why I don't know it, especially if it was never on the radio either. By the way, The Jewel of Seven Stars is on kindle - and it's only pennies too! (49p)
The BU library where I work has a copy of the Stoker book, too, (I was pretty sure it was the sort of book that would be pretty readily accessible.)
Since today is August 1, it's the day I normally would start encouraging folks to start thinking seriously about what book to pick for our October common read. But this year, we actually have a couple of good suggestions already!
Werner wrote: "Since today is August 1, it's the day I normally would start encouraging folks to start thinking seriously about what book to pick for our October common read. But this year, we actually have a cou..."Glad we have some good candidates for our October read! I haven't been able to think of any suggestions this time around.
Supernatural Fiction Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Cold Visitor (other topics)The Cold Visitor (other topics)
The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral (other topics)
The Jewel of Seven Stars (other topics)
The Jewel of Seven Stars (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert Westall (other topics)Bram Stoker (other topics)
Robert Westall (other topics)
Anthony Trollope (other topics)
Antonia Barber (other topics)
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In October there is a chapter-a-day read starting in another of my groups, and I thought I would be leading it. Now it's possible that someone else will, but it's only a sort of half promise, so I'm still the backup. Such reads take all my available time to prepare and post.
If I am just a contributor, and not the leader, I should be able to join in the read here anyway. Otherwise, not. However, if The Ghosts is chosen, then I know that is a short book. Because of this I have ordered it as a DAISY book from the RNIB library (they tell me I have had it before, but I don't remember!) and we listen to those together at lunchtime, hence it does not come out of my "reading time".
Of course something else could well be chosen though ... I'm just filling you in 😊