Awesome post! When I first started blogging about books, some time ago now, the online book world was a community of readers and writers, real conversations occurred, now it seems to be about shameless self promotion. What amazes me is that people who indulge in this kind of promotion think it works, maybe it does but mostly it just makes me switch off and avoid that author and their books.
My recent post "Oh... what a lot of parties."

I can relate to the struggle to get into an older book, I think seeing the movie does kind of make it harder. Funny you should post on this one, I am thinking about trying to read some of the great children's classics that I missed reading as a child or ones I just feel like re-reading, for me the one that seems to stand out is Tom's Midnight Garden don't know I came to not read that one. I wonder if there are any challenges out there for children's classics?

Extremely well said, Royal commission announced but it does appear to be wide ranging and not just focussed on the catholic church.
My recent post Dodger