The Gilmore Girls Book Club: A Stars Hollow Community discussion

1984 was the winner of the poll for our June group read. Tamsin will be leading the discussion so look out below for her posts. In the meantime, feel free to start chatting about the book here.

Hi! Just dropping in to say hello. Really looking forward to leading this month- this is one of my favourite books, (one of the very few I actually own as a book!) but it's been a few years since I've read it so looking forward to getting stuck in.

Does anybody have any expectations- however high or low they may be?

What does the phrase 'Big Brother' mean to you around the world? I'm in the UK and this phrase has integrated itself into popular culture- especially TV, where people live out their lives under the scrutiny of the camera!

Looking forward to reading along with you all :)

Hi

This is my first time joining in - please be gentle .

I haven't read 1984 before now purely because i wasn't sure I'd like it but iv decided to take the plunge .

Look forward to hearing what everyone thinks xx

I love this book. It's the book I have read the most times. I feel like you can't read this book too many times, mainly because for every new time that you read it you find out something new.
I also believe that it's a book that everyone should read just because it opens your eyes as to how society is nowadays. It helps you realize things you might have not noticed because you are so used to it in your daily life.

I keep trying to get my sister to read it, because it is amazing.

I just finished 1984. I thought it was going to be depressing and boring but I was very wrong. I was sucked in immediately especially with the love story between Winston and Julia. The term Big Brother in the US is equal to oppression and government control. We are constantly monitored in the grocery store with frequent buyer cards to our daily cell phone use, cameras everywhere, social media, and the list goes on. When our humanity is stripped down we are capable of great atrocities. When our leaders say one thing and then turn around and say they never said that. When we don't help the old and the poor among us and when we fail to educate and keep people ignorant and wanting; that is Big Brother to me. Thanks for suggesting this book I enjoyed it and it is so very Gilmore.

I'm only a handful of pages in and it's not sucking me in like I'm used to novels doing. Does it get better? and when!?

I think the term "suck" is putting too much pressure on the book. It IS a terrific book, but I loved it for the writing style, and how it described that terrible dystopian world. It's a story that gives you a lot to talk about!

I've read 1984 during my English Studies at university. I loved the book for both its writing style and its gripping/suspenseful plot. I think the main themes of the book are, unfortunately, very relevant in our times. With terrorism seemingly on the rise, governments try to install Big Brother-like systems of surveillance for the sake of so-called 'safety' - and suddenly everybody might become a suspect. Also, the possible abuse of power and the rise of authoritarian leaders especially in the Western world is something which seems to make this book a very relevant piece of writing for us today - no wonder, sales have rocketed just recently.

I've never read this book before, but I was excited to read it. I live in the Netherlands and I've heard the term 'Big Brother is watching you' before, but I didn't know it was related to this book. I don't hear it a lot around me. But this book is such a eye-opener. It really made me think about society. And I also loved the love story between Winston and Julia!

I've been behind, so finally starting this today! I'm excited for this one, as I just realized the other day it's the same author as Animal Farm and I really enjoyed that one in high school.

Starting today. I haven't read this since high school, so I'm excited to read it now that I'm older and will understand it better.

I really enjoyed Animal Farm too. I have been reading 1984 now doing a couple sections a day and it is growing on me. I think the hardest thing is the jargon. Once you semi understand the terms it is more enjoyable. His job is very interesting. I'm still in the very early chapters of this book, but never have I read about such a different world. Getting more interesting!

This is one of my favourite books of all times. It is so relevant to contemporary society. Newspeak. Doublethink. Big Brother is the internet's algorithms. It's brilliant.

Anyone wanting something similar -- Brave New World by Aldeous Huxley.

About a third of the way through and just started it a couple days ago, I'm hooked! Really liking this one!

Who is O'Brien? (only on 2nd part)

Jessica wrote: "Who is O'Brien? (only on 2nd part)"

Patience... Soon you'll find out ;)

I'm so bad at waiting! (view spoiler)[ I'm also feeling nervous about Winston and Julia's relationship! Especially now that he's renting out the upstairs apartment from the man with the antique shop! (hide spoiler)]

LOL! I know the feeling :D All I'm saying is: (view spoiler)[those are the good times, when you'e oblivious of what's to come (hide spoiler)]

Jade SiL wrote: "LOL! I know the feeling :D All I'm saying is: [spoilers removed]"

That's my favorite part about ALLLLLL books :) I'm never the one to go to the back of the book and start reading, but I do have a tendency of looking at reviews and FORCING myself not to look at spoilers. Sometimes my will is not strong enough and I end up looking and then regretting my decisions :( LOL

Jessica wrote: "Who is O'Brien? (only on 2nd part)"
He is a head guy who works in the Ministry of Truth with Winstin

Key word: rats

On part 2 chapter 7... Literally one of the best passages I have ever read... (view spoiler)[... "From her breathing it was evident that she was going off to sleep again. He would have liked to continue talking about his mother. He did not suppose, from what he could remember of her, that she had been an unusual woman, still less an intelligent one; and yet she had possessed a kind of nobility, a kind of purity, simply because the standards that she obeyed were private ones. Her feelings were her own, and could not be altered from outside. It would not have occurred to her that an action which is ineffectual thereby becomes meaningless. If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. When the last of the chocolate was gone, his mother had clasped the child in her arms. It was no use, it changed nothing, it did not produce more chocolate, it did not avert the child's death or her own; but it seemed natural to her to do it. The refugee woman in the boat had also covered the little boy with her arm, which was no more use against the bullets than a sheet of paper. The terrible thing that the Party had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account, while at the same time robbing you of all power over the material world. When once you were in the grip of the Party, what you felt or did not feel, what you did or refrained from doing, made literally no difference. Whatever happened you vanished, and neither you nor your actions were ever heard of again. You were lifted clean out of the stream of history. And yet to the people of only two generations ago this would not have seemed all-important, because they were not attempting to alter history. They were governed by private loyalties which they did not question. What mattered were individual relationships, and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself. The proles, it suddenly occurred to him, had remained in this condition. They were not loyal to a party or a country or an idea, they were loyal to one another. For the first time in his life he did not despise the proles or think of them merely as an inert force which would one day spring to life and regenerate the world. The proles had stayed human. They had not become hardened inside. They had held on to the primitive emotions which he himself had to re-learn by conscious effort. And in thinking this he remembered, without apparent relevance, how a few weeks ago he had seen a severed hand lying on the pavement and had kicked it into the gutter as though it had been a cabbage-stalk."... (hide spoiler)]"

Jessica wrote: "On part 2 chapter 7... Literally one of the best passages I have ever read... [spoilers removed]""

It grew on you, didn't it? :D
(the novel, I mean)

Definitely in my top ten already and I haven't even finished. (view spoiler)[I know you can't tell me, but I have the sinking suspicion that both Julia and Winston will die. I wonder though...is O'Brien just testing him and is he really Big Brother?? It's like I believe he's luring those that are not straight conformers so that he can weed them out and murder them... I could be completely wrong, but that would make me so sad to know that there are no protestors to this horrible unfeeling world (that sounds like our world too ughhh ahhh :( ) (hide spoiler)]

I am really loving this book and just zipping through it (I started it late), but Part 2 Chapter 9 is taking me forever. Lol just can't get into this chapter for some reason.

Rosa!! I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM!!! As soon as Winston started reading "The book" my stride broke.

Yes!! Me too. I remember the only way I was able to get past that was by hearing it and not reading it. So I downloaded the audiobook but still, it was hard but, sadly, it IS a necessary chapter.

At least, I wasn't the only one, finally got through it! Woo! On to part 3 now! 😬

Yay! You're on the final stage now. Be safe ;)

I am also on the 3rd part! (view spoiler)[ So sad they took Winston and Julia!! :( (hide spoiler)]

Omg

I just finished, loved it so much! One of my favorites now!

Yay! Welcome to the club :D

I finished it as well. How sad :( Definitely a great book and a scary one as well.

Just now reading this and having to force myself to keep reading it. There are parts that keep me interested but so much of the book is a big effort to get through. I am finally in the last third of the book and feel like I am just waiting for it to be over. I am determined to finish it, but feel like I am the only one that has not enjoyed the book.........oh well, at least I’ll be able to check it off the list

1984 is our Quarter 2 re-read for 2021.

At the expense of creating a new thread we will use this one unless it becomes too daunting.

Personally I'm excited. This one has been on my TBR list for a LONG time.

Amazing, this book also has been on my TBR list for a while, so I’ll be joining for this quarter :) (I’ve heard a lot of good comments about this book, so I’m exited but thrilled at the same time haha)

I read this years ago and Im joining in for the reread. I loved it and maybe I will get more out of it.

I've just begun 1984, and it's an absolute gripper

So. I may or may not be on the complete opposite side of this book than most of the posts here on this page. I didn’t like the book. It was so hard to get through. I put it down and came back to it many times.

I understand why others would like it. It just didn’t peek my interest. It was the first book I read of the Rory Gilmore challenge!

A masterpiece!

i read this on school and i can tell that is one of the most significant books to the pop culture of nowadays. is really good.