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brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
10,025
16,070
Just a tip/suggestion for my fellow BAD afflictees:

A way to support local bookstores instead of the vampire squid Amazon and still get the convenience of ordering online from a single site:

Bookshop.org works to connect readers with independent booksellers all over the world.

‍We believe local bookstores are essential community hubs that foster culture, curiosity, and a love of reading, and we're committed to helping them thrive.

Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Our platform gives independent bookstores tools to compete online and financial support to help them maintain their presence in local communities.


 
G

Gimlet

Guest
Yes. They include The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. The Oxford Press collected these in an edition titled The Oxford Illustrated Dickens Christmas Books with an Introduction by Eleanor Farjeon.
I think I've always preferred The Chimes to A Christmas Carol, even before the latter was done to death in TV adaptations. The Chimes is very vivid in the way it brings the Victorian world to life.
 

jaingorenard

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 11, 2022
735
3,345
Norwich, UK
I think I've always preferred The Chimes to A Christmas Carol, even before the latter was done to death in TV adaptations. The Chimes is very vivid in the way it brings the Victorian world to life.
I just read the Chimes for the first time and liked it a great deal. I agree, it's hard to read a Christmas Carol with fresh eyes, but in a strange way I think that can come with many repeated readings (much like other Dickens like Oliver Twist, or Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, or anything else that can suffer from a large number of adaptations). Shakespeare's plays are a great example of this. I've seen many adaptations of my favourites, both good and bad. But it's through repeated viewings or readings that you begin to love the plays behind any specific adaptation.
 
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jaingorenard

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 11, 2022
735
3,345
Norwich, UK
After a short break, I'm back on Simon Raven's Alms for Oblivion series. This one was written in 1972 but set in the late 60s. It's a funny and cynical look at radical politics at universities, and the sinister and dangerous people who can exploit that. Just as applicable nowadays... As good as all the others I've read, and there are sections that make me laugh out loud.

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G

Gimlet

Guest
I just read the Chimes for the first time and liked it a great deal. I agree, it's hard to read a Christmas Carol with fresh eyes, but in a strange way I think that can come with many repeated readings (much like other Dickens like Oliver Twist, or Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, or anything else that can suffer from a large number of adaptations). Shakespeare's plays are a great example of this. I've seen many adaptations of my favourites, both good and bad. But it's through repeated viewings or readings that you begin to love the plays behind any specific adaptation.
Dickens's Christmas stories are still worth reading, just to enjoy the use of language, which gets lost in screen adaptations.
No film depiction of Marley's ghost has ever been a patch on the original description on the page.
 
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