Best and Worst

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Best and Worst Required reading

#26 mrxak

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 01:42 AM

dude3, on Apr 18 2007, 10:56 PM, said:

Best: Lord of the Flies

I didn't care for how densely it was written, but the concept and commentary on human nature are too juicy to pass up.

Worst: The Great Gatsby

A bunch of rich douchebags sit around being jerks to each other and then some of them die. Who gives a s###?

Lord of the Flies was a good book when I read it on my own. Then I had to read it in 9th grade english. It pretty much ruined the book.

I had to read The Great Gatsby in the same class as The Scarlet Letter :/.

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#27 Mackilroy

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 01:44 AM

I quite enjoyed The Great Gatsby.

What are you looking at me for like that?

At last he came to a door, with these words in glowing emeralds: THE END OF THE WORLD. He did not hesitate. He opened the door and stepped through.

#28 mrxak

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 01:45 AM

It was probably the best book I had to read that year, but that says almost nothing. Still though, it wasn't terrible.

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#29 dude3

Ehhhhh...no?

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 03:08 AM

Pufer, on Apr 20 2007, 12:59 AM, said:

I absolutely hate books that are written as large scale metaphors. "What do Piggy's glasses symbolize?" They represent glasses and, even if they don't, I absolutely could not care less under any circumstances, ever.

Yes, but they're little kids. And they kill each other. It doesn't have to be "Piggy represents academia and Roger represents the military" or however else it gets interpreted. It works on a literal level.

"For a writing to be a writing it must continue to 'act' and to be readable even when what is called the author of the writing no longer answers for what he has written..."

Jacques Derrida, "Signature Event Context"

#30 mrxak

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 02:17 PM

dude3, on Apr 20 2007, 04:08 AM, said:

My teacher brought in lots of sex and religion. She uh, she actually got fired after that year...

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#31 Pufer

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 04:33 PM

My junior year honors english teacher didn't have us do anything. Literally. We just sat around playing calculator tetris, paper football, sexually harassing each other, and occasionally she'd give us a word search or something completely meaningless like that to do. She decided that we had to read something for us to do a first semester final on, so we read The Great Gatsby and wrote an essay on it that she didn't bother looking at. The second semester final consisted of us watching the newly released on video Pearl Harbor. It was the greatest class ever.

However, one particular member of the class decided that she just really had to do something because her valuable high school experience was dwindling away or some other such nonsense and had her parents constantly complain to the school about the teacher who lost her job as a result. I mean, what type of idiot complains about a class where you don't do anything?

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#32 moonunit4eva

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 06:48 PM

Someone who doesn't know anyone in the class?

I had a retard of a government teacher who made us watch The Daily Show and Bill Mahr and Lewis Black. Jesus Christ I wanted to shoot this guy. I don't care if you're a flaming liberal, whatever.. but don't make me waste an entire year just watching these dumb tv shows. UGH!!! I hate that guy..

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#33 Mispeled

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 10:44 PM

In my freshmen English class we're currently finishing up discussion and such of Lord of the Flies. The interesting thing is that it hasn't been part of the curriculum at my school for about 4 years, and my English teacher says that she's never taught it to a class this year and deliberately chose it for our class for a specific reason. I guess we're just that bad.

It's a good book, but I agree with Pufer that some of the symbolism that my teacher has spoon-fed us is ridiculous. The overall theme of the story – how easy it is for a group that started out as civilized as it gets (rich British kids) to revert to savageness – is very real stuff. Coming up with symbolism for occurances like littluns getting diarrhea from eating bad fruit is just a bit overboard (I'm not joking. It made for a very interesting/infuriating class discussion.).

Having said that, here's my list:

Good: Of Mice and Men, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, Ender's Game
Cute Talking Animals: Mossflower
Meh: Things Fall Apart

This post has been edited by Mispeled: 20 April 2007 - 10:48 PM

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#34 Veritus Dartarion

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 11:47 PM

Best: Crime and Punishment, the Odyssey, Slaughterhouse-5, As I Lay Dying, Dante's Inferno, To Kill A Mockingbird.

As I Lay Dying deserves special notice, as it's the book you're least like to have read.

Worst: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Bean Trees, and the aforementioned Yellow Raft in Blue Water. These form some kind of trinity of crappy english books. Unfortunately, we read all of them the same year, too. I also couldn't stand the short story Billy Budd.

As for overblown symbolism, in 8th grade we had a running joke that every single object or event in Dances with Wolves represented rebirth. Since then, it hasn't been too bad, fortunately.

daowei, on Apr 18 2007, 11:58 AM, said:

best was one of the following: The Sun Also Rises, Heart of Darkness, All the Pretty Horses, or All Quiet on the Western Front.
the worst was either Jane Eyre or The Handmaiden.

I just finished my 1st Hemingway- For Whom the Bell Tolls. I think I'm going to have to read everything else the man wrote now.

This post has been edited by Veritus Dartarion: 20 April 2007 - 11:52 PM

INTELLECT: By convention there is sweetness, by convention bitterness, by convention color, in reality only atoms and the void.

SENSES: Foolish intellect! Do you seek to overthrow us, while it is from us that you take your evidence?

#35 Pufer

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 12:15 AM

Veritus Dartarion, on Apr 20 2007, 10:47 PM, said:

As for overblown symbolism, in 8th grade we had a running joke that every single object or event in Dances with Wolves represented rebirth. Since then, it hasn't been too bad, fortunately.

Nice

-Pufer

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." -The Buddha

#36 moonunit4eva

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 12:17 AM

Veritus Dartarion, on Apr 20 2007, 08:47 PM, said:

The Old Man and the Sea is one of my all-time favorites. But I don't know many who thought it was any good. But I love it.

Oh.. Has anyone read My Antonîa? I thought it was horrible.

Whatever happens..happens.

#37 mrxak

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 12:52 AM

I enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea, but it's one of those books that's best not to think too much about.

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#38 dude3

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 02:44 AM

Mispeled, on Apr 20 2007, 11:44 PM, said:

Good: Of Mice and Men, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, Ender's Game
Cute Talking Animals: Mossflower
Meh: Things Fall Apart

I second Of Mice and Men. I would also like to add that "Tell me about the rabbits..." makes for excellent joke material, every time, all the time.

However, Fahrenheit 451 had the most disappointing ending of any book I've ever read. Here it is:

EVERYTHING BLOWS UP

Even Montag waking up suddenly and realizing it was just a dream only to reach into his pajama pocket and find a charred scrap of paper would have been better than planes dropping bombs all over the place. What a cop-out.

This post has been edited by dude3: 21 April 2007 - 02:45 AM

#39 CrazyChick

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 03:10 AM

gray_shirt_ninja, on Apr 19 2007, 05:55 AM, said:

Best book in high school English? That's so constraining! I haven't even finished high school yet!

I have the same problem. I've barely started, and my teacher hasn't made us read anything yet. Although I saw 'Hatchet' on her desk.
I'll have to do primary/intermediate instead.
Best: 'Hatchet', although we were reading about ten pages a day, and I could read three pages faster than everyone else could read one. Recipe for terminal boredom.
Worst: 'A Dolphin in the Bay'. Nothing actually happened! There was next to no plot! And a recorder doesn't sound like that!

-Rant over. Have a nice day.

And the winner of the text only entry goes to CrazyChick for "Watch for B&B on bridge." Encountering the B&B anywhere is dangerous enough. Throwing a bridge into the recipe is an equation for disaster. - Ragashingo

#40 Solid

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 07:13 PM

CrazyChick, on Apr 21 2007, 04:10 AM, said:

I thought you were in middle school

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#41 moonunit4eva

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 01:12 AM

It's probably best that she's not.

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#42 CrazyChick

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 01:18 AM

What is middle school? I'm a New Zealander, don't blame me for not getting Americanisms. Is that years 7&8 or years 9-13? And which years are your high schools? Or is your middle school like our high school? Or...

Now I'm confused.

#43 moonunit4eva

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 01:23 AM

Middle school is generally 7th and 8th. But occasionally it will be 6-8. High school is 9-12. Although sometimes, there will be the occasional 8-12. It's weird. As a general rule middle school is 7-8 and high school is 9-12.

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#44 CrazyChick

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 01:51 AM

So middle school is intermediate? I see.
So I was middle school, but now I'm high school. And term starts tomorrow and it's REALLY NOT COOL!

#45 mrxak

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 10:07 AM

Every middle school I've heard of is 6-8. We don't have a 13, but we do have a kindergarten, so 12 is really the 13th year of school.

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#46 Mispeled

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 11:59 AM

Grades 7-9 are often referred to as Junior High.

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#47 moonunit4eva

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 12:24 PM

Really? That's weird..

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#48 mrxak

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 12:55 PM

Mispeled, on Apr 22 2007, 12:59 PM, said:

Grades 7-9 are often referred to as Junior High.

Yeah, there's that too.

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In the light of morning the sun climbs upon the shoulder of the sky / I yearn for the tender darkness.

#49 Sundered Angel

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 10:53 PM

Hmmmmm. Honestly, I've forgotten by now what I was required to read vs what I just read.

Good Stuff:
Once Were Warriors - Like Dickens, Alan Duff shows us what life is life on the darker side of society. Only this is society now, not society then.
Democracy in America - It's almost painful to read, but Tocqueville's ruminations on what will propel America to greatness are almost prophetic - a shame that the very things he so greatly esteems are being slowly wiped out by modern politics.

Bad Stuff:
Lolita - Seriously, any novel for which the annotations take more pages than the novel itself is a novel that is too densely written. Sure, Nabakov writes great literature, but his work inspires the perpetual sense that you're "missing out" on key concepts.
anything by John Dunne - Why this self-indulgent, misogynistic prick is still part of the literary canon is beyond me. Steer clear, unless you want your moral philosophy corrupted by the ultimate Dead White Man.

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