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[workingthenumbers]

[Numbers has rewritten this post dozens of times before he's landed on something he feels is vague enough to slip under the radar for those watching, but is coded to those who were at the dinner party.]

I enjoyed last week's dinner party. I remember people talking about organizing a club or activity of some sort, and I'd like to suggest making a book club. I've been trying to catch up on my reading, anyways.

[Never mind the fact that Numbers would rather die than read for fun.]

Personally, I've been reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But does anyone have any book suggestions? Preferably, something that can garner some interesting literary discussion and analysis.

Comments

[tedandroses]

I feel like when I mentioned something like a discussion group last week it was handwaved as boring but you know what: as a lover of literature I'll concede gracefully. a book club sounds wonderful, especially with so little to do at the moment.

If you like sci fi, H.G. Wells might be up your alley. War of the Worlds is absolutely worth a discussion or ten. If you want to stay with Stevenson, Kidnapped! is a classic.

[tedandroses]

Oh, but I would really like to hear your thoughts on Dr. Jekyll (...), if you don't mind. Famous for a reason.

[workingthenumbers]

I think he's a shithead. He's as much as Mr. Hyde as he is Dr. Jekyll. People were going to find out about his two-faced bullshit one way or another. But people are so willing to take surface-level shit at face value, that they don't care about what's going on behind the scenes.

[He's really toeing the line here. He decides to cut himself short.]

I'll be able to explain more the next time I see you.

[Which will probably be soon, given that he visits the Smith household with some regularity.]

[tedandroses]

[That gets a little alarmingly close to uncoded and Teddy has to reread it, pretending they don’t know anything but the book, to reassure themself it wasn’t as overt as it felt.]

Hmm, if I understand you, I think I might agree...

But I’d like to hear what you meant. You know — I accidentally made about an army’s worth of pot roast if you want to come by for dinner. Gotta make sure you boys eat.

[Which is funnier, Teddy fussing all appropriately homemaker-ily over ‘you boys’ or the fact that it’s kind of true? She doesn’t actually know.]