Hi bookcollecting. Yes, I'm familiar with the Folio Society, and yes, they are very expensive. I have gotten onto their mailing list, probably because of my purchases directly from Easton. I get the Easton catalog and try to buy a book every month from them directly, even if it costs a few dollars m...

Hi bookcollecting, and welcome to our forum. I collect Easton Press and Franklin Library leatherbound books, most of which I buy on eBay. I buy a few directly from Easton Press, mainly because I hope they will stay in business and not go the way of Franklin Library. I did check out your website, and...

On the third day of stories, Boccaccio has developed a real obsession with sex. And the story about how the king shaved the head of the man who seduced the king’s wife to single him out, but the newly-made-bald guy then proceeded to shave all of his comrades’ heads too so that he wouldn’t be nearly ...

Yes, President, Return of the Native is pretty hard going so far - I'm about one-third the way through it. But it has an occasional spike upward to keep me staying with it. It's my first book by Hardy, and he was very successful, so I'm going to fight onward all the way to the end. The description o...

. . . Although I've yet to read the Odyssey, I imagine Odysseus when I think of this tale. . . I hope we can do one of these discussions on The Odyssey sometime in the near future. I read it as a teenager, and would like to try it again now that I'm all grown up. Having the benefit of these discuss...

Yes, Heidi, Boccaccio attacks the hypocrisy of the clergy very vigorously, as we discussed in earlier posts in this thread. I hope you'll read some of the stories carefully so you can draw your own conclusions and give some specific examples, and don't rely too heavily on our discussion. Your profes...

I will certainly agree with your assessment of the fifth story of day two as a long but good story, President Camacho, and it had a little humor as well. How often do we run into stories in which the main character falls into a latrine and spends the rest of the story fouling the air around him, muc...

Thanks, Chris, but I can't take credit for thinking of that. I read the suggestion in someone's post a week or so ago, but I can't remember now who it was.

I would like to participate in this, and will watch for developments. Thanks, President Camacho, for suggesting it. There's a reason why these books have stood the test of time, even though not everybody will agree on every book on the list.

As I get deeper into the tales of the first day, I’m beginning to see that the clergy provide a frequent bulls-eye for the storytellers, so I guess my initial impression about hypocrisy among those closely connected to the church was correct. In fact, the ease of hitting ‘sitting targets’ such as th...