Pick-a-Shelf discussion

LynnB and I have Cranford on our 2012 LOST list and so we have agreed to read it together. We are, however, happy to welcome others to join us.

Cranford is freely available to everyone so you can either read online on GR or download it from Project Gutenberg.

Our schedule is as follows:

Week 1 (16th Jan – 22nd Jan): chapters 1-4
Week 2 (23rd Jan – 29th Jan): chapters 5-8
Week 3 (30th Jan – 5th Feb): chapters 9 - 12
Week 4 (6th Feb – 12th Feb): chapters 13-16

Feel free to jump in anytime but please do not post spoilers until after the scheduled reading (noting time zone differences).

If we like the reading well enough, we may follow it up with a scheduled watching of the BBC mini series.

I'm looking forward to this one. I'm trying to get more classics read than I have in the past, so this will be a good start to the year's reads.

I seen the miniseries Cranford and Return to Cranford - both really wonderful as only the BBC can do the classics. The book is on my TBR list so might try and join you.

Leonie wrote: "I seen the miniseries Cranford and Return to Cranford - both really wonderful as only the BBC can do the classics. The book is on my TBR list so might try and join you."

Do join us, if you can, Leonie. The more the merrier :)

I will read along with you - just finished 11/22/63 and Cranford will be something completely different!

It's starting soon! I'm so excited and glad you're on board, Leonie!

My copy of Cranford is sitting on the top of my book pile, ready to go on Monday!

So sorry guys, I went to edit shelf status to reading now and realised I've already read it. Silly me :( I hope you are all enjoying the book though. I've gone on to 1984 fits in with this month's shelf and has also been on the TBR list for ages. What an amazing book - I can't put it down!

i listened to this last year and really enjoyed some of the wit in it, I hope you guys like it as well

I finished chapters 1-4. It seems like this will be a sweet little story about the lives of some women in one small village. I haven't seen the mini-series - it might be fun to watch.

I love the beginning: "...Cranford is in possession of the Amazons..."!!

**Girl Power!!** LOL

Are you finding it strange that the narrator is not a current resident of Cranford so it's like we're either reading the story second / third hand? It's an interesting choice but clever too, in that it basically highlighted the uniqueness of Cranford.

I find it interesting, too, that the narrator is never identified or told about and yet I seem to have a strong sense of her by her storytelling.

I finished the book. Anyone else going to be done by the Feb 12 ending?

LynnB wrote: "I finished the book. Anyone else going to be done by the Feb 12 ending?"

I'm finished! Sorry, was away for the weekend with not much time to read :)

What do you think? In a way, it's a pretty satisfactory ending even though really there's not much happening but I liked the way she concluded about Miss Matty :) -lovely lady. Although, I do wish there's a bit more romance in it (like North & South) :p

I was hoping for something between Peter & Mary, ha ha ha...

I was told by a trustworthy friend that the mini series is pretty good. At least the first season because it's based more on the book but then I think they spun out more stories (which may mean something MAY transpire between Peter & Mary - I think I'm just getting my hopes up here!) But I would definitely like to know more about Mary.

I can see how they easily made this into a mini-series. A town with a lot a females, day-to-day gossip and activities...a mini-series all laid out! I enjoyed it. It wasn't exciting, but it was a quiet little story of life in the village.

Peter and Mary! I hadn't thought about it. She seemed to be so mousy and just an observer of life there. But that could be a fun change to the story.

It was interesting that the narrator wasn't identified until nearing the end (unless I spaced out early on in the book and missed her intro).

LynnB wrote: "Peter and Mary! I hadn't thought about it. She seemed to be so mousy and just an observer of life there. But that could be a fun change to the story."

I knew it! I was just being weird, as usual.

I think you're right, her name wasn't mentioned til the last couple of chapters. I only knew cuz I cheated. My book has this intro & footnotes. The intro had a spoiler disclaimer so I skipped that but I checked out the footnotes as I finished each chapters. Mostly, I wasn't too interested in the footnotes as they mainly explained certain things of the time but it mentioned Mary's name earlier on in the footnotes.

I read a bit of the Intro after I finished the book last night. It mentioned that the book is kind of autobiographical in a way. Not that it represents any sort of true story but in a way that Gaskell spent her life like Mary Smith (travelling between the 2 little towns). And do you notice that even though I don't think Mary Smith is that much younger from the rest of the ladies, what we read from her POV makes her sound like she's quite a bit younger than the rest of them? Do you find that? I certainly did and I thought maybe I just didn't get it quite right but apparently that was the case. For whilst Gaskell wrote this when she was not so young herself, it still carried the tone of when she was young & travelled between the 2 towns. Interesting tidbits, huh? I couldn't get through the rest of the Intro though (about halfway), I was a bit tired yesterday.

Oh, and I'm trying to get my hands on the mini series!!

My book had no footnotes or intro. It sounds like you picked up more than me from just the story.