Overall Reactions to "Shadow of the Wind"

You've read the pages.  You've felt the anticipation, the unease, the fear.  Now tell us your overall reaction to Shadow of the Wind.  We are dying to know what you think.

a little about the author

Photo taken from www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon was born in Barcelona in 1964 and has lived in Los Angeles since 1993.  He worked as a script writer as he developed his writing career.  Shadow of the Wind is his first adult novel (he has six total published to date) and was first published in Spain.  Amazingly enough, Shadow of the Wind is the second most published novel in Spain's history (the first being Miquel de Cervantes' Don Quijote).  His work has been published in 45 countries and 30 languages.  His books have sold more than 15 million copies.

Besides being a talented writer, Zafon is also a composer and performer.  Zafon wrote a soundtrack to Shadow of the Wind that matches the dark tone and ominous feel of his most successful work.  You can listen and/or download the music from Zafon's website.

When asked why he writes, Zafon said, "I write because I really have no other choice. This is what I do. This is what I am."  We are so glad that he continues to write because his compelling stories and ability to craft beautiful language is incredible.

[For more information on the author, visit my sources: http://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ruiz_Zaf%C3%B3n (don't judge me for using wikipedia please).]

Finally, We Begin!

Hello Readers-

I really should have thought about starting the book club the month of finals, traveling for the holidays, etc, etc.  Either way, I hope you are enjoyed (or enjoyed) the book so far.  The format for discussing the book will be as follows-
*Discussion questions about the current book will be posted on the blog in separate posts.
*Comments will the way for people to answer those questions and contribute to the overall discussion.  *Any questions that you would like to have discussed should be emailed to pickwickreaders@gmail.com.
*For all future books, questions will appear about three weeks into the month to give us a chance to focus on one book at a time.  Since I was a bit behind this month, we will be overlapping the announcement of January's book with our discussion of December's book. 

We would love to have you contribute in any way so please submit any discussion questions that you have and comment once the questions are posted.  If you have any questions about how we are doing this whole online book club thing, please feel free to email pickwickreaders@gmail.com or jaclyn.hutchins@gmail.com.

Happy Reading and Happy (almost) New Year!

a disclaimer or two...

Greetings Pickwick Readers--  We are a couple weeks from beginning our "Shadow" discussions.  As I have talked to a few of you who have started the book, the general feedback is positive.  Love that!  I do feel though like I need to offer a couple disclaimers just in case you are dissatisfied with the book - whether for content or for the overall story.

Disclaimer No. 1 - Megan, Anna, and I have not read the book.  We chose from a list of well respected or highly recommended books.  This means that we do not know the scandalous details (if there are any).  If the content isn't what you hoped, please know we were not intentionally encouraging saucy reads.  For those of you who are bodice-ripper readers and are hoping for us to encourage scandocious reads, this probably isn't the place.

Disclaimer No. 2 - Again, because we haven't read the book, we don't know how the overall story turns out.  We hope it's wonderful, inspiring, fascinating, and everything in-between.

Hope you are enjoying or planning to "The Shadow of the Wind" so far. If you haven't started yet, it's not too late!

ps. I am only about 80 pages in, and this is definitely a book lovers book.  I also have discovered that it is probably not a snippet book - by that I mean, I have enjoyed it more when I have set down for a thirty minute reading session versus reading for a few minutes before I go to bed.  Either way, happy reading!