BookTalk.org

What fiction book would you like us all to read and discuss together next? We'll start a fiction discussion when we have a group of us all excited about one book. Let's get the process started here. Think of a good book that you would like to suggest to your fellow Booktalkers.

My suggestion is that we find a fiction book that is free, in the public domain, and easy to read. I just Googled "readable fiction classics" and came across this page.

11 Readable Classic Books You’ll Actually Like

We've actually read and discussed several of the classics on that list, but that leaves many more that we still have available as options.

Here they are...

Little Women
Louisa May Alcott

Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy

I Capture the Castle
Author: Dodie Smith

Wuthering Heights
Author: Emily Brontë

Anne of Green Gables
Author: L.M. Montgomery

Murder on the Orient Express
Author: Agatha Christie

Emma
Author: Jane Austen

The Bridge of Years
Author: May Sart

I suggest The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, available for free here and with an excellent Wikipedia page here, with something of a pandemic relevance.

Another topical option is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Free pdf link and Wikipedia page, quite relevant to some campaigns by Governor De Santis.

Coincidence on Fahrenheit 451 - I recently got the audio from the library, read by the author. We're used to professional actors reading books with perfect elocution and diction, but Bradbury doesn't have that - slipping a syllable here or there, maybe slurring two words together or dropping volume on a word...it was enough of a distraction while driving that I had to stop listening. Obviously that's no reflection on the book itself, just a strange experience. Could be a good choice.

Long ago there was a TV series of Ann of Green Gables that was delightful, but can't quite see it as a discussion here. As I recall conversations were something like "Ohhh I must say, Katherine with a K, your smile warms my heart like a Summer day!"

So we're going with one of the "classics," haven't done that in quite a while. Honestly can't say I'm in the mood for that, but will give it a shot.

We don't have to go with a classic. That was just a suggestion. If you have a different direction in mind, you are welcome to share it. My idea of doing a free book, which just about necessitates a public domain book, is to reduce obstacles to participation. I'd love to see a good group of participants.

That's an interesting experience you had, LanDroid. I think I'd find it frustrating to hear the narrator's voice fluctuate in speed, tone and volume. I definitely appreciate quality voice narration in my audio books.

I just read the book description for Fahrenheit 451 and it does sound good.

I am reading The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and would highly recommend it as a Booktalk fiction selection. Written in 1951 and set in London, it is a science fiction classic, presenting a contemporary imaginary dystopia where the whole world is blinded by a meteor storm and aggressive walking plants are stinging people to death. The book explores moral dilemmas created for the survivors who did not watch the meteors, with the cautionary problem of genetic engineering of supercrops in a laboratory having potential to go very wrong. It has lessons for thinking about both climate change and the COVID pandemic, especially in terms of the sensitivity and fragility of our world. A link to a free pdf is in my earlier post in this thread.

Day of the Triffids sounds like a blast. I think I will probably read it regardless.

I'm in the process of creating the forum for The Day of the Triffids right now...