Reading the Classics #1: Charles Dickens

Have you ever thought 'I really ought to read more of the classics?' I do all the time, so this is going to be the first of series of swaps to get us doing just that.

Each swap will ask you to read one book which you haven't read from a specific author. If you have read everything that author has written, then you can go back and re-read your favourite, but the idea is to read those classics which we might not have read before. Once you have read the book, you need to write a letter to your partner answering the following questions.

• What was the story about? Did you know the story before you read it?
• Did you like the book? What did you like about it?
• What, if anything, did you dislike or find difficult about it?
• Why do you think this author/book is a classic?
• Would you read any more by this author?
• Have you seen any films/TV series/other adaptations of this book? If so, how did they compare?
• How is this book relevant today, if at all?

I have a list of authors to use, but if there are any authors in particular you'd like to read, just let me know. We can look at British, European, Australian or any other classics and we can also look at more modern classics as time goes on.

For this first swap, we are going to start with Charles Dickens. You can see his bibliography here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens

As the classics tend not to be quick or easy to read, I will give you 4 weeks from end of sign up to get this swap out, but of course, you can start reading straight away.