I can't remember if I read Jane Eyre for school or fun. (Maybe both? I read a lot of books for fun as a kid that were later assigned in school.)
Simon: I swear when it's appropriate. Kaylee: Simon, the whole point of swearing is that it ain't appropriate.
'Jaynestown'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Jessica - Jul 24, 2026 9:14:58 am PDT #28729 of 28743
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Laura - Jul 24, 2026 2:36:19 pm PDT #28730 of 28743
Our wings are not tired.
The nuns always gave us a summer reading list of maybe 40-50 titles and we were supposed to read 10 over the summer break. I always read all of them. I devoured books as a kid. I don't read nearly as fast anymore. My ability to retain absolutely anything I read was just as bad back then as it is now so I could reread all of them without a clue as to what happens next. It would have been nice to keep track of what I read back then and rate them as we do now.
Calli - Jul 25, 2026 5:50:03 am PDT #28731 of 28743
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
I’m pretty sure I didn’t read Austen or any of the Brontës in high school. Or even college, although that was because I took as many poetry and play-focused courses as possible. They were generally shorter than novels, and college was my first experience with an active social life/ interpersonal drama, which was time-consuming.
Laura - Jul 25, 2026 7:24:43 am PDT #28732 of 28743
Our wings are not tired.
The only Lit class I took in college I ended up dropping because there were just not enough hours in the day to read with working full time and pursuing a BS in Accounting. I foolishly thought taking that class would justify time for reading fiction but that was fantasy. When I finally did graduate I spent months devouring novels after not having the spoons to do so for so long.
aurelia - Jul 26, 2026 2:35:07 pm PDT #28733 of 28743
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story. Tell me a story.
Senior year included Johnny Got His Gun, Hamlet, The Bell Jar, and Les Miserables. Frosh or soph year included Romeo and Juliet and Lord of the Flies but I don't remember any others. I think Jr year was split between world lit and contemporary writing. I remember Siddartha, A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, and readings from the Odyssey. I got to Austen and the Brontes on my own.
Jessica - Jul 27, 2026 11:44:25 am PDT #28734 of 28743
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
I finally got around to finishing Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and I found it ultimately pretty unsatisfying. I think the tone and style of the writing made it hard to feel like the three women were distinct characters, and so when everything finally comes to a head I wasn't invested in any one of them in particular.
sj - Jul 27, 2026 12:51:30 pm PDT #28735 of 28743
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
If anyone is looking for a good translations of Beowulf by a woman I highly recommend this one [link]
-t - Jul 27, 2026 1:54:56 pm PDT #28736 of 28743
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Thanks, sj!
Calli - Aug 12, 2026 5:41:44 pm PDT #28737 of 28743
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
If anyone is interested in a modern day Holmes-verse book about Moriarty and Moran, The Casefile of Jay Moriarty is fun. [link] It’s set up as a series of cases, sort of like the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and you can buy those as shorter stories, individually, too. I never found them them most interesting part of the original ACD books, but Kit Walker does some fun things with the characters.
bennett - Aug 12, 2026 6:29:48 pm PDT #28738 of 28743
"The Senate today have voted to make me a god in Palmyra. They'll put a little statue to me in the temple, and people will bring offerings to me, asking me to bring rain or cure their father's gout. Tell me, Livia: if I'm a god, even in Palmyra, how do I cure gout?!" Augustus, "I Claudius"
Seconding "The Casefile of Jay Moriarty". It's also available on Kobo for those who don't like Amazon.