2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Cider House Rules by John Irving.

Pages: 1064 pages

Length: 2 months (September and October)

Participants: Beth, 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 }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Hi Beth, I should start this book around September 12th. I am bringing it on vacation.

Hi Lorraine! I just finished this yesterday. I really enjoyed this story. Dr. Larch is a wonderful, wounded character, and the whole world of St Cloud's is beautifully told and developed. Michael Caine played this character in the movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124315), which I've seen multiple times.

There were so many themes touched on in this book, and yet I never felt that slowed down the story. Homer Wells is an exceptional character, and I enjoyed how he developed into an adult and was given the chance to move away from the orphanage, (view spoiler)[even though at the end he would return (hide spoiler)].

I'll be thinking about this one for a long time, and I will be watching the movie soon!

I've read Chapter 1. Hope to read at least one chapter a day. Looking forward to it as your comments make it sound very interesting.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts! A chapter a day is a great goal... I need to be better about doing that, especially with chonky books like this!

We are at the airport. On our way to Italy for a month. So if I can do a chapter a day, it will be wonderful! 🤣🤣