How do you feel about the books you were made to read?

Oh. Thaks for the explanation.

It was a good one.

You're welcome.

Gus, The Jungle changed my life. I stopped eating beef and pork (I'd already stopped eating chicken). Brrr.

I thought Adam Bede was well-done, despite being a melodrama of a very obvious nature--that was what her Early Victorian audience wanted. Silas Marner, if suffering from some of the same faults, is her most "economical" novel, in terms of brevity and careful construction of the prose to that end. I couldn't get through Daniel Deronda, but enjoyed Middlemarch. The Mill on the Floss was gag-me-with-a-spoon material.

Note to (carnivorous) self: do not read The Jungle.

Read it, George. I'll check back in a couple of weeks and see how you liked it.

What? And place myself at risk for vegetarianism?

That won't be an option either. Not after you see what they do to the poor carrots.

Loved "To Kill a Mockingbird," didn't much like "A Separate Piece" Loved most of the Shakespeare I've ever read except "Julius Caesar" I also loved a book that we had to read for my Literary Analysis and Interpretation class my freshman year in College (okay, not high school) called "The God of Small Things" The descriptive language is brilliant, and the story of a Pariah and an upper-caste woman falling in love in Post-Colonial India is absolutely heart-wrenchingly sad, yet beautiful.

Better hope kickycan doesn't find out about this, danielle.

Things could get ugly.

It's "A Separate Peace" by the way. We wouldn't want our fellow members mistakenly buying a porn magazine now, would we.

I've liked most all of the books mentioned here, including Silas Marner. I did not get too far in school; most of my reading is self directed. I don't relate to the "books you were made to read" header at all.

I hear you, edgar.

Leaving school was a liberation for me. I had always read history (since 1957), and that wasn't spoiled, as history teachers drone on from a standard text, full of holes and shot through with inaccuarcy and state-sanctioned versions of events. My historical reading, of primary sources, and reliable, well-documented secondary sources, was therefore unaffected by stupid reading assignments.

But when i was no longer bedeviled by literature classes, i was free to pursue my own tastes. I'm of a somewhat obsessive character, so when i find something i like, i go all out. I read all of Dickens (except Copperfield), all of Austen, all Eliot, all of Thomas Hardy, all of Jules Verne, all of William Faulkner, about ten different versions of the Arthurian cycle, all of Shakespeare for the second and third times, respectively, the King James Bible in its entirety for the second time, all of Kenneth Roberts, all of the Samuel Clemens i could find (Lots of his stuff was in essay form and a good deal appeared in newspapers--other works of his were banned outright. His wife and daughter became devotées of Christian Science, and both died in agonizing pain. He published a book entitled Christian Science in which he raked Mary Baker Eddy over the coals, and derided, as few other authors are capable, the entire movement to scorn. The Christian right was very powerful a century ago as it is now. The book was withdrawn, and thousands of copies were quietly destroyed. It was out of print for more than 75 years, and has only re-appeared within the last 15 years.) . . .

I read "all" of lots of authors, and all the while have kept reading new historical works, and re-reading the classic ones . . .

I took to ignoring the rest of the class and read library books instead of paying attention. Oddly, I was allowed to get away with it. I dropped out at the end of the tenth grade, needing to work, and they didn't want me back anyway.

One book that i absolutely loved reading was Lord of the Flies, which i read freshman year. It probably helped that my teacher was well versed in the underlying themes and symbolism. Likewise, most of the Shakespeare we read in school was very enjoyable.

One thing that greatly disturbs me no matter how many times i think about it is the idea that George Orwell's 1981 was taken out of the curriculum. My older sisters and my parents all had to read it in high school where as it was left out of my high school experience and i read it on my own. I think it is a necessary book to read while growing up and was highly disappointed that the privilege of reading it with an instructor was denied me.

I loved Pygmalian. My daughter studied it in high school and hated it. "Nothing ever happens," she said. I wanted to argue with her, but thought better of the notion, and let it go.

I don't like Lord of the Flies, the book. I read it in grade 11.
I also don't like The Outsider/L'estrange by Albert Camus; I think it's kinda pointless and I don't agree with the philosophy.

The books that I liked reading in school was The Giver, Forbidden City, The Outsiders, I am David, The Chrysalids (somewhat, the author wrote it well, I didn't like the ending though).

Books that I think are alright: The Pigman, The Day When No pigs would Die (these two books with pig in the title are pretty sad), The Catcher in the Rye.

I don't know if i forgot any books right now. Anyways, I liked I am David the best.

I liked, to some degree, all the assigned books--this positive relationship is very probably due to the extraordinary number of lively, well-informed, and encouraging teachers at my school.

However, I wasn't really moved by books (IVANHOE was okay, but was I inspired to become a knight?), until I began browsing for paperbacks of my own. When I was 14, I found Randall Jarrell's ANCHOR BOOK OF STORIES (which got me fascinated with Kafka and Blake--and, more importantly, opened a rich world of poetry beyond "Hiawatha"!) and ON THE ROAD (which was where lots of 1950's teenagers wanted to be!). Although I find Kerouac a bit much these days, I am still grateful for his having written a book about people IN MOTION at a time in my life I felt most locked-in by repetition and consequent boredom.

Although I read slowly because I am slightly dyslexic, I have never resented laboring through the lengthy 19th-century novels my school promoted. They gave me a vocabulary by which I could appreciate all sorts of good books I found on my own--like the OTHER Dickens novels, mentioned above, and like the novels of W.G. Sebald today.

Champaign, eh? U of I?


Have you read The Inheritors? You might like it.