Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

The New School Group Read for June 2025 will be The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001). Please join the conversation!

I've actually read this book twice, 2009 and 2020. So good. Honestly, I will probably read it again.

I really enjoyed this when I read it. I liked the audio a little bit less...there was some annoying music that faded in and out (I've heard that the author may have written the music?) and the narrator was a little too dramatic for me.

By the way, I read the sequel The Angel's Game (actually a prequel) and liked it even better.

I have the sequel too, so am glad to see how much you liked it, RJ!

I read this book in 2020 and while I was reading it the author passed away. It was a very strange feeling. That is the second time that has happened to me :/
But I loved the book!

I enjoyed this one quite a bit when I read it years ago. I like how the plot unfolded and the intrigue involved. I remember reading The Angel's Game though and being less than enthused with it.

There are four books to this series:
The Shadow of the Wind
The Angel's Game
The Prisoner of Heaven
The Labyrinth of the Spirits

What do you think about the title of the book? How does a wind have a shadow?

Katy wrote: "What do you think about the title of the book? How does a wind have a shadow?"

I am at 13%. I read the title as the title of the book in the book. And the book is about that book.

There are (at least) two possibilities: 1) The title is more mysterious in English. “Shadow“ may have a secondary meaning as the backside/behind in Spanish? (It does in Danish). Like “Life is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans”. Wind is the front side, shadow is the back. 2) Or it is supported to be mysterious and selfcontradictory, attention grabbing.

Spanish Title:
La Sombra del Viento

And yes, this is a story within a story.

Katy wrote: "There are four books to this series:
The Shadow of the Wind
The Angel's Game
The Prisoner of Heaven
The Labyrinth of the Spirits"

Also a short story collection: The City of Mist

Hello everyone! I joined this group several years ago but haven't participated for awhile. Life gets busy! I read The Shadow of the Wind many years ago and really enjoyed it but couldn't remember much about it so I decided to re-read along with y'all. It's an intriguing story!

I pondered the title as I read. Yes, what is the shadow of the wind? Backside seems plausible. Like the dark side of the wind. Wind can be a beautiful and refreshing thing, but can also be a destroyer. And it can pull one along with it helplessly. Daniel says that Julian's book is "a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind." Perhaps he is talking about those dreams we can't help dreaming even though we know they will destroy us. Julian loving Penelope. Daniel loving Beatrix.

Finished.

Why all this talk about how much Daniel resembled the young Julian? I expected that maybe Julian’s son, had not been stillborn but adopted away, and the stillborn story was to cover for the scandal. …. and that son would turn out to be Daniel. So far as I understand the resembled between Julian and Daniel is a “symbolic” thing not to do with family.

Why did the priest refuse to marry Daniel and Bea? Because she was pregnant? Why would he need to know that?

I liked the story of the fountain pen. When I heard that Julian had “Hugo’s pen”, I though that “that is what all antique dealers say”, not realising it was the same pen.

It was OK, but I am not a great fan: Nothing here I had not seen many other places. Not I book I will think about still in a year.

When I read The Shadow of the Wind in 2013, it was my favorite book of all time – a solid 5-stars. It checked many of the boxes for me: a relationship between a father and son, a book about books and reading, the magic and complexity of writing [with the ”Hugo” pen], a family epic with drama through the generations, a bit of family dysfunction, historical politics in Spain, several romances, and a mystery that threads through the entire story. I remember thinking it had the most satisfying ending ever!

I generally don’t re-read books, too many more to read. But, “The Shadow of the Wind” stayed in my mind over years, and I thought I’d like to re-read it to see if I still loved it. So, I was delighted when it was selected by the group for June.

I think my tastes have changed, and/or, this time I listened to the audio book, rather than reading the hard copy as before. I still love the premise, the idea of a reader being a steward for books, and the family stories. However, now, I think I would have liked more development of some of the characters, Daniel’s father, Fermin, and more. I don’t often wish a book would be longer, but I felt like I’d like to know some of these characters more deeply. Interestingly, this time, it was more sad and forlorn for Julian Carax than I remembered. The Shadow of the Wind was good, but not as amazing as the first time I read it.

I read “Angles Game” and “The Prisoner of Heaven” in 2020, both solid 3-stars for me.

My other favorite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas What a story! Do I risk re-reading that classic????

EvenB wrote: "My other favorite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas What a story! Do I risk re-reading that classic?..."

I suggest you don't. I read it fairly recently (2017) and was a bit underwhelmed. Not disappointed.... just... expected more from such a mega-classic. (3 stars)

One of the novels that I found thanks to the group. I am glad, because it was an interesting and memorable story.

Nice discussion this month. Thank you everyone for participating.

I finally got around to reading it.
While I thought the book got a bit confusing at the one-third point as I was having trouble distinguishing between various characters, I did end up achieving 'clarity' and ended up returning to the enthusiastic enjoyment I had in the book's first 50 or so pages.
Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Brian, I too have just finished it some hours ago. I was feeling a bit confused at 25% in, more like not real sure. So I restarted. Often that is just the trick. I almost got confused at the end too. Like your said, things cleared up by the end.

EvenB, I too have found that I different reads of the same book at different times of life. I can see how I would have enjoyed the story f more as a young woman for the exact same reasons you named, adding complexity for extra-fun element.

If I reread. I will pay more attention to the use of the phrases that look like this: the shadow of. . . .. The repetition means something and the repetition will help me understand the Spanish title better: La sombra del viento.

If I reread the novel, I will pay more attention to the quotes of Fermín. There is some wisdom in them, however flawed.

Isn't Fermín a great literary clown!