Dickensalong 2023 : The Old Curiosity Shop

[Piggywaspushed]

Come along and join me in this year's Dickens readalong.

We have chosen The Old Curiosity Shop which was originally published by Dickens across 88 weeks in his won periodical.

Obviously 88 weeks is a bit much for our modern concentration spans and multitasking minds , so I propose an 8 month read. There are 73 chapters in total, not split into volumes or books (thanks for this Dickens!!) but I found little stars every few chapters so think these indicate breaks:

January - Chapters 1- 8
February - Chapters 9- 16
March - Chapters 17 - 26
April - Chapters 27 - 36
May - Chapters 37 - 45
June - Chapters 46-53
July - Chapters 54 - 63
August - 64 - end

I hope that's all OK. It's not as long as some of the others we have done so 8 instalments seems to work.

All welcome - old curiosities, and new!

Thanks Piggy - looking forward to this! I will dig out my copy and get going soon.

Pokes the door, and says, want to, but haven't stuck to one yet!

Maybe this will be the time!!

Place marking. Maybe 2023 will be the year for us @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.

Thanks for this, Piggy! Sensible to split it up as it suits you, since apparently Dickens fudged the publication anyway by not actually setting out to write it as a separate novel - it started as part of a series of vaguely-connected stories in 'Master Humphrey's Clock' and only turned into a separate novel of its own after several weekly episodes (though he pretended later that was what he’d always meant to do 🫤).

I'm really annoyed that there is a typo in the OP. But it wouldn't be a Piggy post without one!

Thanks for the extra info Terpsichore ! It was all a bit convoluted but it would appear the public were so enchanted with Little Nell, they demanded more.

I'm rolling up as an old curiosity :) I'm very happy we're going with this one and I got a copy on Kindle. Thank you for setting this up, Piggy.

Marking my place. @EineReiseDurchDieZeit my Kindle tells me I gave up at 60% the last time I tried to read this so I am hopeful I will manage better than I did with Hard Times (where I gave up at 21%).

Thank you Piggy. The breakdown looks great.

Found you! I’m an early-middle-aged curiosity.

Place-marking will give it a go.

Oh piggy, will I manage this as well as the AK readalong??

Of course! I am trying both. This may be foolhardy but only one way to find out...

Ordering my copy forthwith...

Thanks Piggy. I am going to try this as well as AK too. Just hope my brain can cope!

I may have to make notes!!

I will try this (along with AK too), I need a push to read Dickens.

A few of us did TWIW and W&P. I think the very slightly different format of readalong helps to manage.

Going to give this a go. Tried a couple of years ago and didn't get very far, hopefully do better this year.

I’m feeling quietly relieved that our book club read Anna Karenina as a Christmas ’long read’ a couple of years ago, so I’ll let myself off the hook with that one. I enjoyed it, though. I don’t think it’s quite as much of a commitment as W & P (which I haven’t read!).

Looking forward to TOCS.

Following with my new username (was Rifling).

Place marking

Happy New Year curiosities!

Chapters 1- 8 for January !

Happy New Year everyone! I'm place-marking with my new username (formerly IsFuzzyBeagMise) and also to say I'm really looking forward to this. Many thanks, Piggy.

Marking place. I'd like to do a re read of this. I have a couple of copies but will possibly just read on my kindle.

Checking in for the readalong, thanks for setting up @Piggywaspushed .