EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Hello all! This discussion is for this month's Classics read: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

Please **NO SPOILERS**. For the spoiler-filled discussion, please head over to the book club thread HERE.

Happy reading!
Kasey

This was on two of my challenge lists for this year so I am glad we are doing it!

Hopefully I will have a chance to get started over the weekend.

Wanted to point out something I hadn't really realized, but this isn't one single story. It is a collection of them. I thought that was interesting and will change my approach to reading it.

I have read this before but it's been a while, so I have an audio copy of the book and plan on starting it soon.

Sarah wrote: "This was on two of my challenge lists for this year so I am glad we are doing it!

Hopefully I will have a chance to get started over the weekend.

Wanted to point out something I hadn't really rea..."

Yea I found that out this year too. I only have the first one though. Good luck to me finding the second. It's been really hard to find unedited Rudyard Kipling works they have mostly been "kiddiefied" for modern children. I had to such a hard time finding an unedited version of The Just So Stories I bought one from 1920. It's still missing the Tabu Tale but at least it has the added color illustrations and original woodcut illustrations.

I have a strange fondness for imperialism. I really like Kipling, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. I admire how he writes poetry with his fiction (kind of like Tolkien). And his works are varied a lot.

I tried checking this one out of my library, but the version they had was severely abridged to make it more child friendly I suppose. The library did not have the actual version listed as the club selection so I ordered it on Amazon and it seems to be taking forever. So I am still oh so impatiently waiting for it to arrive.

free on-line access to this text through the Gutenberg project:
The Jungle Book

There are several free variations on Amazon too. That's where I got mine.

There's free ones?! I paid 80p for mine.. Equivalent to a dollar I guess. Ah well, I'm enjoying it anyway! I'll look for free copies for next months book.

Melanie wrote: "free on-line access to this text through the Gutenberg project:
The Jungle Book"

That is awesome it is available online. I just hate reading a book online. I am a book snob in that I prefer the feel of an actual book in my hands. I just never really took to the e-readers very well.

Sarah wrote: "Wanted to point out something I hadn't really realized, but this isn't one single story. It is a collection of them. I thought that was interesting and will change my approach to reading it. "

Just picked this book up from the library and I see what you mean. I hadn't realized it was formatted as short stories and I've read some Kipling before but I'm not sure he did this in any of his other books. The Man Who Would Be King is one of my all time favorites so The Jungle Book has a lot to live up to.

Leesa wrote: "There's free ones?! I paid 80p for mine.. Equivalent to a dollar I guess. Ah well, I'm enjoying it anyway! I'll look for free copies for next months book."

Sometimes you have to hunt for them, but for a large percentage of things old enough to be in the public domain you'll be able to find free versions. The question is always how good a copy it is.

Lena wrote: "I tried checking this one out of my library, but the version they had was severely abridged to make it more child friendly I suppose. The library did not have the actual version listed as the club ..."

That was I was saying it was really really hard to find an unabridged one. I bought a used copy. It's from the Puffin Series of unabridged kids books. I just took out the second book to from the library. The only unabridged version they had was old looks like they stamped it in the 50's apparently so that's what I am reading after this one.

I know Wikipedia is not super realiable but I guess there was a short story prequel to this too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jun...
http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/Kipl...

Got my ebook version from my library. Kipling is a very charming writer.

I'm about half 3/4 through. The main tale of Mowgli ends and the story sort expands to other jungle animals. I don't remember all of these, or sometimes I remember just a random moment in the middle of the tale. Memories are funny sometimes.

Finally going to get started on this tonight.

I'm officially waving the white flag with Watership Down for awhile. I seriously just can't. So on to more fun (hopefully) books.

about to start this. Sarah - I got about 1/3 of the way through Watership Down and stopped, haven't picked it back up again in years. Aka.... feel your pain.

Oh, oh! I haven't read this!!!! Yay I might read it now then!

The link above is probably a computer virus; don't open it.

Kaseadillla wrote: "about to start this. Sarah - I got about 1/3 of the way through Watership Down and stopped, haven't picked it back up again in years. Aka.... feel your pain."

I was hoping to get that one done this year as I classics group was reading it and I currently own it. Sigh we'll see I guess.

I am really not enjoying the reading of The Jungle Book at all. I am one of those who feels the need to see books through til the end so I will persevere, but overall I guess this book isn't really my "cup of tea".

What is it about the jungle book that your not enjoying Lena? I wasn't a fan of the poems but enjoyed the stories and I liked that there was some I wasn't familiar with already too.

Kaseadillla wrote: "about to start this. Sarah - I got about 1/3 of the way through Watership Down and stopped, haven't picked it back up again in years. Aka.... feel your pain."

I tried. I tried really hard. And soooo many people keep telling me how wonderful it is. Ugg.

Luella, that's why I was reading it. My classics group did it.

Lena wrote: "I am really not enjoying the reading of The Jungle Book at all. I am one of those who feels the need to see books through til the end so I will persevere, but overall I guess this book..."

That's a bummer :(

Leesa wrote: "What is it about the jungle book that your not enjoying Lena? I wasn't a fan of the poems but enjoyed the stories and I liked that there was some I wasn't familiar with already too."

I am not even sure...I would say it is Kipling's writing "style", but I have liked other "classic" writers and had no problems with their style. Maybe I should have stuck with the "annotated" children's version I originally checked out from the library. lol. I guess I am just not really connecting with the characters. I like the wolf family, but beyond that I haven't been overly fond of any of the characters including Mowgli.

I know what you mean actually. There wasn't a lot of depth to the characters, I put that down to being a children's novel.
The Joy Luck Club, the modern classic for the month on the other hand was completely different so I enjoyed reading the two books together.
I don't think I can do two every month though!

Leesa wrote: "I know what you mean actually. There wasn't a lot of depth to the characters, I put that down to being a children's novel.
The Joy Luck Club, the modern classic for the month on the other hand was..."

I read The Joy Luck Club several years ago and I rarely ever re-read books so I didn't read it again. At the same time it was so long ago I didn't really feel I could contribute much to the conversation. It has been that way so far with the modern classics. Although some on the polls are books I haven't read (and I vote for one I haven't read) so far the ones selected by the majority are ones I've read.

Hopefully there will be a new one up for up soon Lena!
Although I've been reading ever since I was young I'm a bit of a book novice to classics and usually take a while to finish a book so I'm enjoying this group as its forcing me to read books quickly and pick books I wouldn't ordinarily go for too :)

I knowww I'm wicked late, but just started this. I had no idea it was short stories? Just reading this thread and seems like others were surprised too. I don't really remember the movie at all (except for the Bare Necessities song) so it's all new at this point.

Kaseadillla wrote: "I knowww I'm wicked late, but just started this. I had no idea it was short stories? Just reading this thread and seems like others were surprised too. I don't really remember the movie at all (exc..."

Until I went to read this, I didn't know it either.
It seems to me like 90% of the movie (at least the animated Disney one) comes from just the one story. I've never seen any of the other versions of it.

same, only seen the Disney one. wonder if any of the other movies are worth a watch?

Kaseadillla wrote: "same, only seen the Disney one. wonder if any of the other movies are worth a watch?"

I'm not sure but I remember watching the one that came out in 1995 or so many times. I new version just came out this or last year as well.

I was flashing on the Disney movie I haven't watched it in years.

There was an article in Parade that had comparisons to the new Jungle Book movie and the animated one that was pretty interesting.

Lena wrote: "Leesa wrote: "I know what you mean actually. There wasn't a lot of depth to the characters, I put that down to being a children's novel.
The Joy Luck Club, the modern classic for the month on the ..."

I find this interesting as I have read most of the Classics the group has chosen those far. I'm happy with that though. I have been catching up with classics for two years now, its the modern ones that I'm severely lacking in the popular/new classics and that is what mostly attracted me to this group. :)

Did anyone read the sequel? I'm wrapping it up now and I don't enjoy it quite as much as I had enjoyed the first one.

Is it bad that I didn't even know there WAS a sequel? Haha

Didn't read it, no. But picking up the other conversation... I keep seeing movie-on-demand adds for the jungle book - has anyone seen the new one?!

Kaseadillla wrote: "Is it bad that I didn't even know there WAS a sequel? Haha

Didn't read it, no. But picking up the other conversation... I keep seeing movie-on-demand adds for the jungle book - has anyone seen the..."

I haven't seen it yet, but my husband just purchased the blu-ray so I will likely watch it sometime in the near future.

I actually enjoyed the new one more so than the animated version! I totally didn't think I would but I preferred the changes they made. I realised when we read the book that it was actually more similar to the stories from it.

Leesa wrote: "I actually enjoyed the new one more so than the animated version! I totally didn't think I would but I preferred the changes they made. I realised when we read the book that it was actually more si..."

I'm curious to watch it because I saw a spread about it in that Parade magazine. I remember watching a live version in the 90's but they Mowgli really old for that one.