I really like the idea for the book club, megan. How often are you meeting?

Well, the original idea was once a month, but since so many people picked longish books, we're thinking that might be too often.

What we decided after our first meeting (where everyone was really thrilled with the discussion) was that we would continue with quests next time but pick our next topic (so we had a bit more time to read).

So, for next time, some people are finishing their quest book, some are reading a second shorter quest book, but others are starting on longer eponymous heroines (Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina I believe).

Note: This is a work thing, so we just head out for drinks after work so it's easy to coordinate.

Wow, so you like, read things? And talk to people? Socially? People who don't exist on the internet? Oh, brave new world.

force me to get through The Count of Monte Cristo

t weep it shouldn't take force to get through The Count. Ah, Msr. de Nortier, how cunning you are even though you can't talk.

it shouldn't take force to get through The Count

I am reading the unabridged novel in the original French. At 1400 pages, it's by far the longest thing on my should-reads list.

in the original French

OK, that wins at literary badassery, I adore my unabridged Count, but I can't attempt the original French. Though it's always fun to find where someone very formal suddenly trots out casual English where the French was translated oddly.

If you are looking for book salon theme ideas, here are the other book lists I proposed:

Classic "Boys" Adventures

Around the World in 80 Days (Jules Verne)
Captain Blood (Gabriel Sabatini)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas père)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Verne)
Kidnapped (Robert Louis Stevenson)
King Solomon’s Mines (H. Rider Haggard)
The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Orczy)
She (H. Rider Haggard)
Tarzan of the Apes (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas père)
Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)

Dystopian Novels

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Children of Men (P.D. James)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
The Hunger Games trilogy (Suzanne Collins)
Iron Heel (Jack London)
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
Neuromancer (William Gibson)
1984 (George Orwell)
Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)
The Stand (Stephen King)
The Time Machine (H.G. Wells)
V for Vendetta (Alan Moore & David Lloyd)

Water, Water, Everywhere

Billy Budd (Herman Melville)
The Falls (Joyce Carol Oates)
Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
Kon-Tiki (Thor Hyerdahl)
Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
Sail Away: Stories of Escaping to Sea (Jules Verne, Virginia Woolf et al)
Sea Tales (James Fenimore Cooper)
The Sea, the Sea (Iris Murdoch)
Ship of Fools (Katherine Anne Porter)
Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
Two Years Before the Mast (Richard Henry Dana)
Zeitoun (Dave Eggers)

Oooh, I love the eponymous heroine theme! (Although Anne of Green Gables totes needs to be on there!)

Hmm, I think perhaps tomorrow needs to be a library day.

Classic horror needs to include The Haunting of Hill House. One of my all time favorite creepies.

The last thing I read in the original language was The Satyricon, and I haven't read Latin much since. Dirty idioms are really a pain to translate.

I have We Have Always Lived in the Castle out from the library, but I'm too scared to try and read it at bedtime. I'm not sure quite how I'm going to handle it.

Oooh, I love the eponymous heroine theme! (Although Anne of Green Gables totes needs to be on there!)

Good idea, but if you want to see the problem with this category, go to Wikipedia, where there were only 6 screen pages of eponymous heroes, but 18(!) of eponymous heroines.