Tell me about your favorite and least favorite books that you read in schoo

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about your favorite and least favorite books that you read in schoo

thrakkorzog: Nov 16, 2007

Cobra Commander posted:

East of Eden is the best book, except for the lovely religious scene, and I'll fight anyone, Not because their opinion differs, but because I will fight anyone. That book for whatever reason resonates well with me, and I want to reread it over and over. The worst book I think I ever had to read for school was The Great Gatsby. gently caress off Gatsby and gently caress off Eyes of God billboard, gently caress you.

A Farewell to Arms. So Ernest Hemingway and nurse drink a lot and have sex during world wars. They're not exactly relatable people to 17 year olds.

If you want better anti-war books, All Quiet on the Western Front was freshman reading material. That got across the whole War is Hell angle. If you want more stories. I would suggest Slaughterhouse 5 or Catch-22, they would be better reads for the more modernist folks.

And the Great Gatsby sucked balls back when I was in high school. I had nothing in common with 1920's gangster excess. My grandparents were picking cotton while they were partying. Who the gently caress thinks I should sympathize with any of those rich assholes?

Now the Grapes of Wrath, that's a good read. OK, It's a bit maudlin at the end.

thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Nov 21, 2016

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thrakkorzog: Nov 16, 2007

Choco1980 posted:

In Grade School, like every single year we'd read in class nothing but those teen boy wilderness survival books like My Side of the Mountain or Red Dog or whatever, and I always, ALWAYS hated them personally. I realize they are supposed to engage boys into loving reading, but they're dull as dirt to me. I had my 6th grade teacher get mad at me that I was a voracious reader, but only read like, sci fi, fantasy, and horror. This is still true today that I find fantastic adventure and action more interesting.

In 9th grade, I remember surprisingly enjoying Great Expectations, but then in 10th grade I continued into the "smart kids" track and went into American Lit...and pretty much the entirety of the course syllabus was survivalist or puritan writing. Like, "Last of the Mohicans" was the only interesting to me book on the list. So I very quickly dropped and transferred to the lower impact English track, which was more fun, involving like more creative writing and a class on learning vocabulary roots and origins which was super interesting. My only regret is after the American year you would go into Euro lit which had a lot more interesting books to read, which was frustrating. I did have a journalism class where we read Fahrenheit 451 and The Jungle, which were rad. In the latter's case, we were each like assigned a couple chapters to read and summarize for the class, but after I read mine I was like "wow, this book is really good" and then went back and read the whole thing myself.

There's no shame in not liking "The Last of the Mohicans" The plot doesn't make a lick of sense. And you have Mark Twain on your side.

And I consider Fahrenheit 451 as one of Bradbury's lesser works. I prefer Bradbury's The Illustrated Man or The Martian Chronicles. They're much more interesting stories. But they don't get taught at colleges any more.

thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Dec 6, 2016

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 11:22

thrakkorzog: Nov 16, 2007

galagazombie posted:

The best Macbeth adaption is Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood/Spider-Web Castle. I will tolerate no disagreements.

Well I think Ran should get an honorable mention, since it is basically just King Lear with Samurai and awesome visuals.

I joke, but Korosowa made some awesome epics, If it weren't for Kurosawa we wouldn't have the the magnificent seven or Star Wars,

thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Dec 6, 2016

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 14:37

thrakkorzog: Nov 16, 2007

DavidAlltheTime posted:

I'm a high school English teacher, so this is a fun thread to read.
I have 'book clubs' in my grade 11 class, and right now they're reading:
Into Thin Air
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Oryx & Crake
Three Day Road
Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time

I loved Hatchet when I read it in grade 5. It was the first novel to pull me away from endlessly reading Superfudge and Otis Spofford over and over again.
In highschool we read the Chrysalids, which I really enjoyed.
I did not enjoy Shakespeare. They're plays, not meant to be clumsily read by high school students.

My old HS English teacher put is into groups where we would have to play Shakespearean characters. It made Shakespeare come alive, or at least halfway interesting.

We would randomly assign someone a role because he vaguely filled the role of Romeo.

Nobody wants to to play Romeo those days. All the cool kids want to be Iago, or Aaron the Moor.

thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Dec 19, 2016

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 14:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about your favorite and least favorite books that you read in schoo