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Book Club Discussion for December 2024 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-05 21:26:14
Imported:
2026-06
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Dear Book Club Readers ---

You had another incredible reading month in November, and it would be lovely to hear about the books you're enjoying this month.

Your comments in these Book Club Discussion threads continue to reveal your deep love of great literature, and we would love to hear about how your reading is treating you at the moment.

So, tell us what your December is looking like.

What are you reading at the moment?

Let us know anything that's on your mind, your literary loves, and anything you wish to share or sharpen your thoughts about.

  • Author details

  • Seasonal reads

  • Areas to explore

  • Your current Big Read

  • Complementary art forms

  • Questions about literature

  • Favourite lines and passages

  • Things you're finding difficult

  • Rewarding literary rabbit holes

  • Musings, notes, and marginalia

  • Things you want to recommend

  • Resonant character descriptions

  • General life updates (we're interested)

This is the place to put anything bookish you like, and get other readers weighing in on your thoughts!

Our wonderful Book Club community continues to be a literary oasis thanks to your thoughtful appreciations of the Great Books.

Reading through the recent book discussion threads, one can see what a truly special group of literature lovers we have here:

So thank you so much for being a part of the family, and I hope your month is filled with exciting bookish adventures.

Happy reading!

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Comments

Jessi

New member here. I’m reading Les Miserables. Started in November and am now on page 870–only about 325 pages left to go. I’m taking a lot of breaks to look things up and learn more about French history as I go. Listening to a Great Courses program by Dr Suzanne Dusan about the events that led up to the French Revolution and beyond as I go. It’s SO fascinating! I feel immersed in 19th century France, and feel like Victor Hugo is a kindred spirit sharing things with me that matter to him most. I’m starting to see this book as a compilation of opinion pieces, with the story threaded through it to hold it together. The digressions are the real story. The writing is so beautiful, compassionate and thought-provoking. My only criticism is all of the coincidences, how characters keep running into each other all the time. But it’s still a fulfilling read if you can look past that. Anyway, I came here to see what Ben has to say about Les Miserables. Already thinking of my next book… maybe Crime and Punishment, not sure.

Jason M. Meyers

I’m so happy to share - my dear, fellow members of the Hardcore Literature Book Club - that my first ever reading of A Christmas Carol has just concluded, and I cannot find the words to adequately express this feeling of unencumbered joy that I currently have. It is 9:45 pm, Christmas Eve, 2024, as I sit in my home in Brooklyn, New York. Dickens’s story is known the world over; adaptations, modern re-tellings and interpretations, the endless recitations and translations…it’s impossible to quantify how many of us have heard the tale of Scrooge, the ghosts, and the Cratchit Family through the years. I myself thought I knew the story; from film, pop-culture references, and so on. But I’ve never actually read the story. Until today. This story has moved me in a way I couldn’t have predicted. I’m sitting here now with feelings of hope and a kind of brightness that is hard to articulate. I feel lighter. How have I gone my 50 years and not have experienced this tale personally, intimately, before? I can say confidently that not another Christmas season will go by without me undertaking a reading of this most purely uplifting and inspiring of creations from the hands of a master in Charles Dickens. Thank you Ben for the invitation to bask in this little beautiful little tale. A Happy Christmas to everyone here, and my best to you and yours…

Emma S.
>>159287383

Happy Christmas Jason! I didn't read A Christmas Carol this year, although I've read it a few times before. I watched The Muppets Christmas Carol instead! It's a tradition with my children that we watch it every Christmas eve. I even find the Muppets version quite moving! Wishing you a peaceful holiday season.

David Alexander-Watts

Hi, new member here. I've been trying to read Wuthering Heights for the past couple of months but, to be honest, am really struggling with it, which is one reason that I joined when I recently came across the book club. I don't normally struggle with classic literature but I'm not finding the narrative structure, the characters, the story working for me, yet it is recognised as one of the great works so I must be missing something. I'm persevering.

Leslie Ostojich

A question for the group: I am interested in reading What In Me is Dark by Orlando Reade. I missed our reading of Paradise Lost because I was not yet a member of this book club. So should I read Paradise Lost first or the Reade book? (It’s about Milton’s continuing influence in modern times)

Marita

Hi! I’m new to the club. Just finished “A Christmas Carol” for the first time and am hoping to finish “A Tale of Two Cities” by the end of the year. Almost done. 😄 I am looking forward to being in community with you all seeing what you all have to say regarding the 2025 reads and Hoping this helps me stay on track with my reading goals . One of my goals is to deep read and really glean understanding of what I am reading more so than completing a list of books.

Emma S.
>>159600096

Hi Leslie, how strange you just posted this... I hadn't heard of this book until yesterday and have just asked my library to purchase a copy! I read a few reviews and the author said he wanted it to be accessible to those who haven't read Paradise Lost yet, so I think you could read them either way round.

Julian Faust Julian

Hi! I just finished "Doctor Faustus" by Thomas Mann resterday and I absolutely loved it. It kind of took me by surprise because though I really like Mann (I have not read very much of his work before. What I read I liked but most of it was mainly for him making me think) he does not have a great reputation of emotional intensity and rather of being difficult as being highly educated person, and being focused more on ideas and thoughts (which I don't claim this was not. There were important points made about politics and humanism and interesting aspects of making art. This is also what I felt mostly for the first few hundred pages of the book, but toward the end it gained a surprising emotional dimension). I don't want to spoil it for any one who has not read it. The Faust-Saga is an old German story and this feels like a more modern, more intense, more emotional version

MJ Föhr
>>159781567

Thanks for sharing! I also recently started Doctor Faustus because I fell in love with Mann’s writing in The Magic Mountain. Looking forward to making the journey through Doctor Faustus!😃

Cherian Philipose
>>159402441

What helps me in such circumstances, is to read really slowly, or to use the audiobook and follow along.

Cara Carlson-Roberts

I’m a newbie to the book club. I have purchased a copy of 100 Years of Solitude and have watched the Netflix movie of the same name. I decided to cheat a little bit on this read because I don’t want to fall behind. While looking on the first page of the novel, there is a chart of the Buendia family with many characters sharing the same name, so I didn’t want to fall behind by having to read too slowly to make sure I knew which character was speaking at any one time. I won’t give an opinion of the Netflix movie at this time; I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. I do have one question, when do we start the Marquez novel?

Cynthia Hawkins

Happy New Year! Currently, I am reading Music Stories published by Everyman. I do love short stories. The range of authors included there is remarkable and I am nearly at the end, just in time for Marquez. Hardcore Literature Club will be challenging because I am so busy. However, I am looking forward to shedding scrolling, and watching TV. One author I do like is George Gissing, his books are hard to find but a great one is The Odd Women. Excellent.

Kimberli Lengning

I downloaded the Patreon app and couldn’t find the chat feature. I found this by accident. ( This means I can’t recall how to do it again. Such is the challenge of a tech curse. ) I began reading 100 Years of Solitude and read to page 145 so far. I am anxious to start taking about this reading adventure.

Kimberli Lengning
>>160139033

I think Ben said the lecture will drop over the weekend. That family tree is getting dog-eared because I have to keep referring to it. I notice that Marquez refers to the first Jose as Jose Arcadio Buendia - always. His son is referred to as Jose Arcadio. The latter’s son (with Pilar) is called Arcadio. Kind of like an atrophy of the name, almost diluted as time goes by.

Maria Knickerbocker
>>160754361

I agree. I just joined this year and am very excited. I am reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. Does anyone know when we start discussing it as a group? Thanks and I am so looking forward to this reading year!