Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

Caroline and I will be reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for our August PIFM buddy read. Anyone is welcome to join in our discussion. We are starting on 8/12/2011.

I've read this book and I absolutely love it! I have it on my keeper shelf two feet from me and plan to read it again soon. It's not a one-time read. After finishing it, I had to read all about Oscar Wilde, which proved quite interestign in itself.

Enjoy!
Mary Campisi
www.marycampisi.com

Thanks Mary! I've just started and am really excited to be reading it! How you doing Lacy? Thanks for setting up the thread! x x

Thanks Mary!
Your welcome Caroline.
I've only read a few pages so far, but I'm going to read some more before bed. Keep me posted on what you think!

Well, I'm reading this on my kindle and it says that I'm 19% finished. It doesn't say page numbers! Anyway, I like it so far. Not much has happened besides meeting the characters, but I really like the flow of the dialogue. The concept is interesting as well. I want to know how old Dorian Gray is, because he behaves very young and it seems out of character. Then again it can be the result of his vanity and naivete. What do you think?

I'm up to 14% on my kindle, I'm enjoying it to so far too, I don't really know much about this book at all. My brother was talking about Dorian Grey a few weeks ago and I became really intrigued and wanted to read it...
Can you imagine guys talking to each other in this way now? Lol!...
I like you love the flow of the writing it's so easy to read and follow, sometimes with older text I gey rather lost and confused, which is why I haven't read many classics!!... Dorian does appear to be rather mature in his speach but immature in his behaviour, I certainly agree with you on that! x x

32%

I cannot imagine guys talking to each other this way at all! I was starting to think that Dorian and Lord Henry were...well lets just say that I was surprised when a girl became involved. Then I realised that that was silly because it would have been to risque for that time.
I find Lord Henry to be annoyingly cynical, but I don't mind it so much because he is well-spoken. I like reading his musings even when he is being ignorant!
I'm not sure how I feel about Sibyl and her family yet.
Very eccentric characters! I hope something more dramatic happens soon!

21%

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that thought they were too!!.... I must say the Henry has a rather low opinion of women! Do you think these were Oscar Wildes views?.. I guess it would be easy for him to air them as one of his characters and get away with it! I see what Mary means now by her being intrigued with him, he was
obviously very cynical too! For an author a blank page is a blank canvas! They must have these views to and feed from them to write a masterpiece?? Hope that makes sense? x x

It makes sense! It has to be either their own views or they made the character to resemble someone that they know. Henry views are so in depth that I am thinking that you are right. It makes me want to research Oscar Wilde!

I do have to say that reading stories like this make me appreciate the present times. I can't even imagine living back then, when woman were just a means to an end. A dowry and increased social status or sexual release. The options were abysmal. At least it seems that way, because I very much value choice and independence.

I am going to wait to hear from you again, because I already gave something away and I don't want to spoil the story for you!

Oh my!! Lord Henry really doesn't have a high opinion of women does he?!.. I must admit that aside from wanting to give him a slap! the book is getting more exciting with the picture changing! I'm at about 48% at the moment! Sorry for being rather slow x x

Your ahead of me now, so don't worry about it. I'll get caught up tonight and comment in the morning! I'm glad that it gets more exciting soon. I'm still liking it though.

Yeah, Lord Henry is a brat!

Oops! Sorry! From now on I'll use a spoiler before I write anything! x x

Don't worry about it! I'm only at 41% now because yesterday was a busy day. I'm still enjoying the story. The changing painting is a really cool idea. Dorian is kind of on my shit list right now though. I was surprised at how cold and mean he was to that girl Sibyl. That behavior definitely shows his immaturity...love does not come at go like that!

I read a really short but interesting biography on Oscar Wilde here: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/b...

I think that reading this correlates with some of our earlier comments. It is interesting, but the end of his life was really tragic. I think so anyway.

The evening after reading this, my family and I played trivial pursuit and I got an Oscar Wilde question!

I'm at 69% now. This is a good story, I am still surprised at how Dorian Gray has turned out. I felt some of the descriptions on his latest interests and of the book he read were a little dragged out. If it wasn't so well written my eyes would have been going cross eyed!

I just finished the part where Basil confronts Dorian about the rumors.

Are you still enjoying the read?

I must agree with you on the dragging out of his interests! I was begining to lose the will to carry on reading! But it has certainly picked up again! His a rather naughty boy osn't he but for some reason It doesn't surprise me! I am around 82% at the moment and loving it:-)!! Just going to read your link:-) x x

Oh wow! How interesting and sad Oscar Wildes life was! We were right about there being an insintuation that Dorian is gay?! Perhaps it was a kind of autobiography with a few added extras?! x x x x

It does sound like their was a correlation between his life and his characters.
I'm at 82% now and I plan on trying to finish the story today. I am very surprised at how good this story is. It is funny that Dorian didn't surprise you, because he shocked the hell out of me!! I did not anticipate the story going in this direction!
I like it though, it is very sinister and fascinating.

Hi Lacy! I've now finished the book! But will wait for you too finish to discuss futher!!H x x

I finished! I loved the ending! This book was fool of surprises. What did you think?

I really enjoyed this buddy read. The classics can be difficult sometimes without knowing someone who has read it. Let me know if you ever need a buddy for another one!

I'm glad you liked it!! I found the middle part abit drawn out but the rest was great! And an insight to the mind and life of Oscar Wilde... Thank you for reading with me and I'd love to do another classic buddy read with you again x x

Your welcome and anytime. I have a ton of them on my TBR list. I'll message you when I'm ready to jump back into the classic realm!

Thanks again.

Look forward to it!! x x