Yup! I read it in high school when the movie version came out, because of course I had to read it before seeing it in class. 
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Ooh that reminds me I need to finish the regular Lord of the Rings still! It’s taken me forever to start The Return of the King, but now may be the time…
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@Catherine, do you have a link for the audio book? I have P&P physical and ebook, I think I should spring for audio as well…
I’ve always been a fantasy reader, right now I’m craving Dark Age/Arthurian stuff, but I’m really picky about what I’ll actually read.
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I listen through Libby! If you haven’t used it before, it’s an app that connects you to your local library for audio and ebooks, so everything is free! It does depend on availability, but my library at least had a bunch of copies of this edition I think because they featured it as part of a “Literary Hugs” promotion. It’s the Tantor Unabridged Classics edition read by Josephine Bailey.
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Yup! And as one might expect, it’s quite different from the musical(s) and movie(s). It’s essentially a French pulp novel of the time.
I guess I started to realize that there’s a universal story behind all of those different interpretations, and none of them captures it entirely. You can sort of take the strong, resonant parts from Tim Rice’s libretto, add in some of the spookier parts of the novel (like the Persian and the Rosy Hours of Mazendran), and sprinkle with some of the other pieces, and come up with a fascinating, difficult cupcake of a core narrative.
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And the lasso! Erik was a spooky cowboy.
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I highly, highly recommend The Last Days of New Paris by China Meivelle. It’s an alternate history novel where devils and manifstations (manifs) of surrealist art roam paris. Its so so good and kind of subverts the gothic trope of the authors forward to frame it as a real text. I cant stop thinking about it. My version is also now very pretty because Ive printed off all the surrealist art mentioned and put it in the book.
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I adore China Miéville. Perdido Street Station is on my list for all-time amazing reads (once I got into it).
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City and The City has got to be one of my absolute favourites (AN: really should watch the series). Peridido is insanely hard to get through, I keep trying and failing its gonna be one of my holiday reads I think.
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The City and The City is the best book I can put down at will. It’s great, I just haven’t finished it.
Perdido is a bit like the city itself: part is visceral horror, part is Good Omens-like dark comedy, part is just plain weird, part is insanely conceptual, I stalled out, but then got to a certain point and it “caught” like a fire.
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Can you remember roughly what point that was in the narrative? I might make it my next read and then make myself get to that point
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Hmm. I got hooked around the crisis engine. Using crisis as a source of energy for perpetual motion? I’m in. But that’s also the sort of thing that gets me going. I loved it. And then the visit to the Devil was another point.
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By the way hearts, thank you so much for saying that your listening to this podcast.
Ive always felt very strongly that there are very few stories that feel like fairytale anymore and this has the perfect tone.
I lay down lazing in the sun on my living room floor and listened to the first episode and it was absolutely magical. The old womans accent also reminded me of home 
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I am so VERY glad to read this @violetlily!! I’ve been working with Kay for several years, and know she’s been putting her whole heart & soul into writing this for many many years. She’s so happy to be able to share it with others.
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Been listening to The Sorcerer’s Stone on audiobook lately (which is my first actual re-read of the books in years), and MAN I forgot how delicious all the Great Hall spreads sounded!! I know there are lots of opinions on JKR and the direction the world has taken in recent years, but there’s something still so magical and comforting for me about these books and I’m glad I’m revisiting. 
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As a complement to this, I recommend Harry Potter abd the sacred text. They treat it like a bible study. Its funny but also has a lot of heart which I find immensly endearing in a podcast and the guy has a book coming out about the power of ritual. It’s really good.
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ooh I’ll check it out!!
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I’ve got 60 pages left of the book I’m reading and my feelings are…mixed. I’ve enjoyed the story but the translation is clunky and there’s some decisions I don’t quite agree with. BUT! Tomorrow starts the special stay at home edition of The Reading Rush, and I’ll be re-reading Howl’s Moving Castle and I’m so excited!!!
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I finally finished the Sacred Hunt duology by Michelle West. The one thing that annoys me about automated reading trackers: they only count omnibus editions as one book, instead of the two/three/four that it actually is.
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After over a year waiting for it to be my turn in the holds queue for the ebook of The Way of Kings at my library, I missed my spot because it sent the download email to the wrong address. So I broke down and bought all three Stormlight books as a bundle.
My Kobo says I have 92 hours of reading to go. 
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