December 2020 book of the month club

rubysmama

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Knowing it's normally a busy month for a lot of folks, we skipped reading a book last December. But with 2020 not being a normal year, we decided to keep some normalcy in our lives, so this December we are having a book club read and discussion.

It will, however, be a shortened version, with a shorter book, shorter reading time, and shorter discussion period. That way it won't interfere with the holidays and family time, at the end of the month.

The book we've chosen is a novella. It was published December 19, 1843. There have been several movies based on it. And it's a seasonal story.

The book for December 2020 is
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

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As this book is part of the public domain, it can be read for free at
Project Gutenberg.

The download options include, HTML where you can just read it online, as well as EPUB, Kindle and plain text. The links to the files can be found at
Project Gutenberg - A Christmas Carol

There's also various versions available at Amazon and is also probably available at public libraries.

Reviews of the book can be read at
Goodreads.

There's also some audio versions available at Youtube. Here's the link to one that has had over 850,000 views:



The length of the above Youtube video is 3 hours and 11 minutes. And Google advises that "the average reader will spend 1 hours and 50 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute)". So it shouldn't take too much time for most of us to read it.

We will be reading it between December 1st and December 10th
Discussion will be from approximately December 11th to December 15

As always, everyone is invited to read along with us. You can either RSVP that you're going to read it, by posting in this thread. Or just read it, and then join the discussion once it begins. I think that covers everything, however, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
 

pearl99

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Oh good idea! I don't think I've ever read it but I do have the book.
We always watched the Mr. Magoo cartoon of it when I was little. And my favorite movie of it was the one with George C. Scott as Scrooge. I've seen the Alistair Sim one many times too.
The one with Reginald Owen from 1938 was my mom's favorite movie version.
 
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rubysmama

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I have 2 library e-books I have to finish in 10 days, and 18 days, so I'll be focusing on them first. Then I'll read A Christmas Carol, keeping in mind that I have to finish it by the 10th. Looking forward to reading it, though, and seeing how similar or different the movies are from the book.
 

BellaGooch

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I'm about halfway through it (I started very early this morning when I couldn't sleep) and I love Dickens' writing style! He's very witty and I enjoy the way he paints such a vivid picture. I was planning to just use the audio, but then I realized that we have a copy in our Christmas bin, which is great, because it's hard for me to concentrate with audiobooks, so it worked out well :)
 

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I'm about halfway through it (I started very early this morning when I couldn't sleep) and I love Dickens' writing style! He's very witty and I enjoy the way he paints such a vivid picture. I was planning to just use the audio, but then I realized that we have a copy in our Christmas bin, which is great, because it's hard for me to concentrate with audiobooks, so it worked out well :)
I really like radio/audio theatre me, listening to a person just reading makes me loose concentration.
 
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