December Book Club: A Christmas Carol

Our December book will be Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Since its publication in 1843, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has been widely popular and critically praised. It has been adapted many times, for stage, film, tv, as cartoons, as special holiday episodes of sitcoms. This December, let’s read the original together!

As with our last few books, A Christmas Carol is short enough to read quickly—it is a novella rather than a novel, and I once got together with friends and read the entire book aloud in an evening.

A Christmas Carol is in the public domain, and you can find a free e-book copy here, and probably a cheap paper copy at most bookstores, especially during December. Audible has an audiobook copy, and so does LibriVox, which is a non-profit organization where public domain books are read aloud by volunteers.

Happy reading!

November Book Club: The Time Machine

Our November book club book will be The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells.

The Time Machine is an 1895 classic of science fiction by H. G. Wells that is credited with popularizing the very concept of using a machine to travel through time.

This is another short book that I think you will be able to fit into even a busy schedule without too much effort. I’m excited to hear what people make of this book!

The Time Machine is in the public domain, and you can find a free e-book copy here, and probably a cheap paper copy at most bookstores. Audible has an audiobook copy, and so does LibraVox, which is a non-profit organization where public domain books are read aloud by volunteers.

Happy reading!

October Book Club: The Picture of Dorian Gray

For October our book club book will be The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an 1891 gothic novel by Oscar Wilde. This is Wilde’s only novel—he spent more of his career writing plays—and it was very controversial on its publication. The controversy was, doubtless, partly fuelled by its author’s image; Wilde had an—unjust—reputation for being immoral.

The premise of The Picture of Dorian Gray is so well known now that I’m not going to summarize the plot at all here. If you don’t know the central idea of the book then you’ll find out soon after you start reading, and if you do know it then you don’t need me to tell it to you. I will say here that unlike is reputation for immorality, Wilde’s reputation for wit and his skill with wordplay is very just and well deserved.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is in the public domain, and you can find a free e-book copy here, and probably a cheap paper copy at most bookstores. Audible has an audiobook copy, and so does LibraVox, which is a non-profit organization where public domain books are read aloud by volunteers.

I think you’ll enjoy this book. Happy reading!

September Book Club: A Game of Thrones

For September our book club book will be A Game of Thrones, the first novel in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series.

A Game of Thrones was popular from the time it was first published in 1996, but it—and the whole series—had a resurgence in popularity following the HBO series. You've probably heard of it.

This is a much longer book than our August book was, so we'll have a one or two benchmarks and check-ins throughout September, but feel free to read at your own pace and join us for our discussion at the end of the month!

You can find A Game of Thrones as an audio book through audible, or likely through your public library, and you can find it as an e-book here.

Happy reading!

August Book Club: Carmilla

For August our book will be Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.

Carmilla is an early gothic vampire story, predating Dracula by about 25 years. Although never quite as popular as Dracula, Carmilla is nevertheless both fun and fascinating. It’s often printed, so it should not be difficult to get ahold of, and the text is in the public domain so I will link to a free e-book version here before the book club begins.

Carmilla is also quite short—much shorter than Dracula—and is really best classified as a novella. You will likely be able to read the entire book in a sitting.

Clockworks Academy's Book Club!

Join the Clockworks Academy Book Club! This is a free book club with monthly meetings over Zoom (or some similar videoconferencing software), and an ongoing discussion channel on the Clockworks Academy Discord server!

You can sign up and read with us every month, or also feel welcome to drop in and out if a particular book for a particular month sounds interesting to you.

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FAQ

How much does it cost to join this book club?
Nothing! It’s a club for talking about books! It’s free and everyone is welcome!

If I sign up have I committed to being in this book club forever, or what?
Every time we read a new book there will be a chance to sign up again. If you don’t sign up you’ll be deregistered from the book club, but you can always sign up again, even a few weeks into the book.

What will this involve?
If you sign up then I’ll give you an invite to the Clockworks Academy Discord server where you can talk about the book as much or as little as you want to throughout the month. Near the end of the month we’ll schedule a live meeting over Zoom or some similar software and have a semi-structured conversation about the book. It won’t be a class or a lecture, just a chat.

How regular will live meetings be?
We’ll generally meet once a month, and usually talk about the whole book then. If there’s a change to that schedule we’ll announce it then.

Sounds good! How do I sign up?

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Sign Up!