Welcome to Litsy!

It being Christmas, it was time to set out my grandmother‘s Dickens dishes. I‘ve used these as our Christmas dishes for many years but only read Dickens for the first time a few years ago. How marvelous that my favorite Christmas story, A Christmas Carol, was written by Dickens, on whose story (tagged) these dishes were clearly modeled.

Unfortunately after reading through 50% of the book, the story could no longer hold my attention. I found it difficult to get vested and wasn‘t enamored with any part of the book except a couple of chapters. There are redeeming qualities in the story but it just wasn‘t holding my interest. It was almost a chore to pick it up and move further along. Bail for me. I will gift my copies to my favorite Uncle as he unlike me, loved it.

Hello everyone! This is my first time here. I'm reading Dickens with the book club. I'm really relaxing with his stories. It's always between fabulousness and hard reality. Now my reading experience is much richer and I see Dickens's traces in works of Dostoevsky. BTW, he's my icon equal with Hugo.

Did Nell's fate touched you or leave indifferent?

#Dickens #TheOldCuriosityShop

This was a gift from my mom many years ago.

#temptingtitles #withold

Finds from today‘s vacation thrift! As if I needed more…😌

The money lender, Daniel Quilp, is certainly #malicious
#MayCharacters Day 21
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I‘m joining @monalyisha in offering up some books to trade. The next couple stacks are from a huge donation for my LFL from a friend who is an English Lit professor.

Post your own stacks using #booktrade and let me know if you‘re interested in any of these. (US trade only for me due to shipping costs I‘m afraid.)

Day 10: #mourns

Apparently the whole nation grieved when the serial announcing Little Nell's death was published.

#maycharacters @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#sink #quotsynov20 #quotsy #besties

#BiblioMAYnia #Samebookdifferentcover

I‘ve started collecting antique books, which leads to multiple copies. I might have a problem! 😁

#motivation #QuotsyJan20
@TK-421

My best bookish Christmas gift (as my dad picked up for me) was so old, the pages were falling out 😄 but the collectable feel was so meaningful; found at a Christmas farmhouse called The Cat's Meow. The shop is no longer in business, but was a pioneer beauty to visit (around 2005) with hot cider at the log iron stove. 🎄 I soon bought a new edition for reading The Old Curiosity Shop.

#ReadNosedReindeer @StayCurious 10+1
#WinterGames @Clwojick ❄️

My sister's store! 😍 www.curiosasociety.com

My sister's store! 😍 www.curiosasociety.com

My sister's store 😍 www.curiosasociety.com

“There‘s plenty more of it at the same shop,” said Mr. [Dick] Swiveller, by turns advancing and retreating in a threatening attitude, “a large and extensive assortment always on hand— country orders executed with promptitude and dispatch—will you have a little more, sir? Don‘t say no, if you‘d rather not.”

So I have just finished The Old Curiosity Shop. I enjoyed his descriptive writing so much and it was often poetic. As for the narrative I thought it plodded along, sometimes a little to slow but picked up a pace towards the end.

My next read is staying in London though in a rather different genre!

There are certainly people #losttogether in The Old Curiosity Shop #TimbitTunes Prompt 21 @Cinfhen @TheKidUpstairs

I read this book purely because Oscar Wilde once said, if you dont laugh over the death of Nell, you have a heart of stone. Which kind of gave a huge part of the story away but it's Oscar. I was really surprised to have the main character killed off to be honest, but i guess i should have known better as Dickens does love to bash his characters around. Like most classics, I found it pretty hard going, but not overly descriptive as they can be.

#timbittunes #thatgirl

Is it just me or is #thatgirl Little Nell written as the most saccharine sweet child that ever lived? Apologies to the fans but this is my least favourite Dickens. #misshavishamforever #alsobarkisandpeggoty

Just seen this on Twitter

Dickens writes, as in all his novels, beautifully, but this one is completely discomforting. The villain is a little person treated more of as a demon than a human which is extremely socially problematic. Even giving it a little levity for the time period it was written in, it‘s a little sad that an author like Dickens, who spends a lot of time writing about the misfortunes of others, showed this amount of callousness in the character of Quilp.

I thought I would like this more than I did. By the middle of the book my mind started wandering, but I finished. It was sad. 😔

#LitsyClassics

The #octoberputaspellonyou photo challenge today is #luckycharm and I bet some could be found in the place featured in my next read.
Thanks @vkois88 & @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This book played like a twisted fantasy from the mind of the author. The book itself is like a shop displaying its curiosities, which in this case, are characters that are so completely good or evil that they cannot be real.

I‘ll select one character to make a point. Sally Brass is portrayed as being as smart as a man, and daring to function in the male sphere of law. She is ugly, mean, and ‘unnatural‘. Dickens has a serious problem with women👇

One of the joys of reading #DickensInSeptember is discovering the seriously odd names in his books.

Last year in Barnaby Rudge the winner of the Weird Name Contest was Simon Tappertit.

Dick Swiveller takes the cake.

#ReadingTheClassics

Each September I choose a book written by Charles Dickens. #DickensInSeptember has been a tradition for me for the last 7 or 8 years. I was only able to start reading this one a week ago, but as the napkin says, “Better latte than never”!

Do you have any annual reading traditions?

#ReadingTheClassics

📚 84
📚 100
📚 The Broken Girls or Caraval
📚 The Old Curiosity Shop

#2018checkin

Look what I found, look what I found! I‘m so thrilled that I managed to find a copy of this Out of Print edition of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop‘. It was one of my favourite designs from the series and I had almost lost hope in ever getting a copy! #happybooklover
#penguinenglishlibrary #penguin #bookstagram #booklover #coverlove

Discovered a new recipe: Miso Butter Shrimp with some Garlic Fried Rice! So delicious.

Also, here is my PEL edition of Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. I have only read two Dickens novels and wasn't a huge fan, but I do want to give him another chance. This one seems promising.

Getting back to my old friend Boz. My plan is to at least read all his completed novels before I die. Reader‘s have very different bucket lists from normal folk. 😁

“The child looked around her, with that solemn feeling with which we contemplate the work of ages that have become but drops of water in the great ocean of eternity. The old man had followed them, but they were all three hushed for a space, and drew their breath softly, as if they feared to #break the silence even by so slight a sound.” #QuotsyJuly18

"The glare and hurry of broad noon are not adapted to idle pursuits like mine; a glimpse of passing faces caught by the light of a street-lamp or a shop window is often better for my purpose than their full revelation in the #daylight; and, if I must add the truth, night is kinder in this respect than day, which too often destroys an air-built castle at the moment of its completion, without the least ceremony or remorse.” #QuotsyJune18

“Kit was a shock-headed, shambling, #awkward lad with an uncommonly wide mouth, very red cheeks, a turned-up nose, and certainly the most comical expression of face I ever saw." #QuotsyMay18

Quilp is the ultimate #villain, preying on the weak and the poor. #litsyclassics @Sarah83

“She told him all—that they had no friend or relative—that she had fled with the old man, to save him from a madhouse and all the miseries he dreaded—that she was flying now, to save him from himself—and that she sought an #asylum in some remote and primitive place, where the temptation before which he fell would never enter, and her late sorrows and distresses could have no place.” #QuotsyApril18

I am a moody reader and I was craving for a classic, preferably Dickens. I am glad I picked it up.

Which was the last classic you read?

Even though I didn't like this story, I do love Dickens' writing, especially in descriptions like this one. #Drift #QuotsyJan18

#bookmail

Feeling the Charles Dickens love this season. Also this is one of my #Litsyclassics books to read. 👍🏼

Any Philly Littens familiar with this statue of #LittleNell and Dickens? According to Wikipedia it was one of the most famous American statues of the late 19th Century. #DickensianDecember #Philadelphia @jenniferw88

#bookdrunkard #classics #dickens

Ich weiß, ich bin ein wenig spät, aber @Kalalalatja wollte einen brauen Bücherstapel. Hier ist er... 😉

I know, I'm a bit a late but @Kalalalatja wanted a brown stack, so here we go... 😉

#bookcolortag

So maybe @DeborahSmall @ScorpioBookDreams @Bambolina_81 or @scripturient wants to show an orange stack? 😉

Little Nell's grandfather would have served her better if, instead of trying to raise money for her by gambling had said to himself, I'm #myownworstenemy. #90sinJuly @Robothugs @Cinfhen

A #foliofriday themed post for #startswithmno #jubilantjuly
#FolioFreaks

#grabthekleenex #splashintosummerreads @Tiffy_Reads