Sunday 14 October 2012, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
At: The Counting House, ,

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It’s Halloween, it’s Edinburgh, what better book to read than The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde?

The history of the writing of Jekyll (Stevenson would have pronounced it ‘Jee-kill’) is a long-drawn out one since RLS left different versions of how it came to him – but it’s believed to have been from a dream which he then worked up over several weeks, changing his mind and enlarging the original version. No doubt some of it came from a nightmare. It’s been reported that RLS’s wife, Fanny Stevenson, got him to burn the first draft of the story, perhaps to keep him from tainting his recently established reputation as a bestselling children’s author, having published Treasure Island just a few years earlier.

The story is still working powerfully with modern critics, including those interested in RLS’s treatment of the unconscious and the subconscious, and his depiction of a society where women play so small a part as they do here – a few servants, an appalling housekeeper, harpies in the street avenging the little girl. There has been a good deal of writing about the possible readings of this story as homoerotic and that debate continues.

Download more book group notes here.

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• Family Friendly
• Skeptics between the Covers

Sunday 14 October 2012 - Monday 15 October 2012, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
At: Espresso Mondo , 116 Lothian Road,

Edinburgh Skeptics’ book group meets at at Espresso Mondo on the corner of Lothian Road and Morrison St. We read “books of interest to Skeptics”.  If you don’t like fiction because it’s made up, or if you are underwhelmed by Richard and Judy’s book of the month, this may be the book-club for you.

What books do we read?

We read fiction and non-fiction, the guiding rule is that the
books are of interest to a Sakeptical readership.

We also read books written from a Woo point of view, but we
reserve the right to critique with extreme sarcasm.

We avoid covering the same topic (eg religion, alt med,
parapsychology) twice in 3 months.

We avoid reading same author twice in 6 months.

We don’t read fiction twice in a row.

These are the books we’ve already read.

Who chooses the books, and when?

Anyone at a meeting can volunteer to choose a book, and we give
priority to new members and then to existing members who have not
already chosen a book. If you choose a book, then you should make
every effort to be at the meeting where your book is discussed.

Book are announced two months ahead to give everyone up to 8 weeks
to read the book; so you need to volunteer three months ahead to
give yourself time to make your choice and announce it at the next
meeting.

In practice, this means that if you are at the January meeting,
then you’ll find out what the March book will be, and you can
volunteer to choose the April book.

Practical considerations

Books should be low cost (certainly under a tenner) and available
(ie several for under a tenner incl p&p from Amazon resellers).

It’s a definite plus if they are available electonically or as
audio books.

They should be less than 300-400 pages.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you have already read the book
you choose.

Details

• Book Group
• Family Friendly