2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

Pages: 552 pages

Length: 1 month (August)

Participants: Rachael, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I will be starting this tomorrow

I will try to do so.

I'll be reading this quite quickly because it's one of my picks for the readathon. I will stick check in throughout the month though.

Just got to the end of the First Day. (view spoiler)[There is a mix of mystery (has a monk committed suicide?) and history of a monastery/religion (interesting learning about their books). There's a line in chapter 1 about "lingering over the marginalia" and that gives you an idea about what the book is going to be like: long, detailed and wordy. I wish the Latin and other languages were translated more often (hide spoiler)]

Rachael wrote: "I'll be reading this quite quickly because it's one of my picks for the readathon. I will stick check in throughout the month though.

No problem. I will be reading it during the 10 days of the readathon, but maybe not as quickly as you. I've also finished Day 1. (view spoiler)[This book reminds me of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with its long and detailed descriptions, which I find challenging because it's not a writing style I enjoy. It's funny, though, because this is a reread for me, and I remember thinking it was so good. Either my tastes have changed, or I will find the next chapters much better. For now, I can't say we've learned much about what happened. I find Guillaume's conclusion that the monk committed suicide to be very premature, and I'm not sure what he based it on. (hide spoiler)]

Second Day. (view spoiler)[This next section is better. We now have several linked mysteries to solve: two dead bodies, missing manuscripts and a missing monk against a backdrop of fighting against heresy. The section in the library/labyrinth was really good - I didn't realise how elaborate architecture could have been in the 14th century. I also wonder how much of the scrolls and books that monks worked on during this period have been lost since... (hide spoiler)]

I've finished the book for the Readathon. I was so exhausted at the end of each day, that I completely forgot about my buddy reads. I wont take any for the next readathon!
I did not liked this book as much as the first time I read it. Too many descriptions and disgression. (view spoiler)[ But I still find the idea of all this happening because of a book that talks about laughing quite interesting. (hide spoiler)]

I liked this book. To me, I thought it was a bit obvious whodunnit or maybe Umberto Eco put the hints in deliberately to make the Reader figure it out?