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Book Club Discussion for October 2023 (Patreon)

Published:
2023-10-02 19:10:42
Imported:
2026-06
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Dear Book Club Readers ---

You had a wonderful reading month in September, 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 October 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.

  • Short stories
  • Author details
  • Seasonal reads
  • Areas to explore
  • Your current Big Read
  • Questions about literature
  • Things you're finding difficult
  • Rewarding literary rabbit holes
  • Things you want to recommend
  • 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

mariah schneider

Well, I'm still reading too many things though I'm slowly knocking a few off of my list. I just finished Pilgrim's Progress today and a nonfiction book that I wanted to get off of my book pile. I'm also reading Proust's ISoLT volume 1 very slowly, along with the KJV. Last month I read Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein (the 1812 version). I just finished Henry V a few days ago, and the fourth book of Paradise Lost yesterday. I'm caught up to where the next lecture for the Invisible Man will end, but I think I'm going to keep going since I really want to start Jane Eyre. I started to re-read the first Wheel of Time book since I want to actually make it through the series at some point, though I might put it down to read Dracula and the Return of the King. I've got some essays and the next book in the Penguin History of Europe to tackle, but they can wait for awhile. Happy reading everyone!

Paul Servini

My big read continues to be Paradise Lost. I started late but I'm on book 4 now so I've almost caught up. And I've also started reading Jane Eyre. At the end of this week I'm off to rehab for respiration and lung problems which means I'll have more time to read. I'm taking The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende with me. I love Allende's writing and her stories are always so fascinating. I've been holding this back especially. As well as that I've started Soyez un stressé heureux by Couzon and Dorn, two French psychologists writing about emotions and how to make the best of them. In poetry I'm reading a selection of poems by French poet Paul Verlaine.

Mike

My October goals are to continue with Paradise Lost, Jane Eyre, and Hamlet. I am about 50 pages into Jane Eyre. I just finished Invisible Man today and will comment on it later, but what a great addition to our readings. I’m savoring Paradise Lost. I love that Ben offers a podcast after every two chapters so we can get the most out of it. Paradise Lost has it all, just as an epic should: war, sex, cannons, turncoats, angels, devils, etc. Much more entertaining than I expected. I’m supplementing these readings Bloom’s Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. I’m in the lengthy section on Hamlet in preparation for the upcoming play. I’m reading short stories and poetry written by Kipling. I read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the other night, along with poems Gunga Din and The Power of the Dog. Finally, I’m reading Wonder Confront Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter by Gary Saul Morson. Since reading War and Peace and the Brothers Karamazov earlier this year, I wanted to learn more about Russian literature, and this book was highly recommended. It’s a dense book and a comprehensive treatment of Russian literature, but I think it’s worth a read for anyone interested in Russian literature. Happy reading to all!

Anonymous

I’m reading “Jane Eyre,” 5 poems a day by contemporary poets, a Booker long lister, “The Bee Sting” and listening to Anne Rice’s “The Witching Hour.” Also many items related to American poet Lucie Brock-Broido, as well as her poetry books. Also a cozy mystery called “A Dark and Stormy Murder.” I find I need a lot of variety in my reading pile :)

Shelley Riden

I was traveling most of September, but I did finish invisible Man, as well as David Copperfield and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. I also reread The Red Tent, for another bookclub. I've decided to take my time with Paradise Lost using this process: 1) Read silently along with a good narrator; 2) Re-read by myself, stopping to study the notes in back of my volume; 3) Look up the unfamiliar classical stories alluded to; 4) Read the book aloud, this time with the allusions and the notes under my belt. Then... onto the next book. I've completed Book I and am on the last step for Book II. I'm clearly behind Ben's schedule, but... I'm getting so much out of reading this way! I thought I'd read PL before, in school. I realize now I'd only read Books I and X (the ones included in the Norton Anthology), and I hadn't gotten a sense of the theology embedded within, or of Milton's incredibly labyrinthine imagination. I'm kind of knocked out by this work, and I frankly didn't expect to be. In school (50 years ago) it seemed dreadfully formal and stuffy. Maybe there are 20-year olds who have the sophistication to "get" this stuff, but I was not one of them. Once again... so grateful for this bookclub and for Benjamin.

Phil

Also reading Marcus Aurelius: To Himself/Meditations, Martin Hammond translation. One of my favorite lines/themes is: "All is as thinking makes it so."

Tim Lovelace

Cf. Hamlet: "[T]here is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" (Folio, 2.2.249-50).