books books books

[Deleted]

we did an abridged version of the Odyssey. i dont think anyone covered Ulysses tho.

and that bit you mention about Moby Dick actually reminds me of when i revisited Jaws at the beginning of quarantine. so much of that book is a lot of unnecessary marine biology tidbits and a love triangle that has not aged well at all lol


i remember only the 'advanced' class covered The Catcher in the Rye and the rest of us were left to believe that it was some incredibly long, challenging, and impossible to understand text.

[dij22]

TKAM is widely assigned in 8th grade now, though I feel like it was a standard 9th grade text for a long time.

FWIW the novels our 9th graders read this year were Of Mice and Men, The Hate U Give, and Night

[Deleted]

It's not like Streamwood/Elgin HS were terrific by comparison, but I remember working with very out of date text books and talking to friends about their assigned reading and wondering wtf I had to read excerpts from The Catechism instead. I'm glad my wife agrees with me that our kids won't be attending a Catholic school. I'm sure there are good ones, but some people I've talked to had similar experiences at different schools.

There was one teacher who had a good reputation for how he handled English/Lit, but he retired the year before I was supposed to be in his class. Ended up getting the gym teacher moonlighting in English instead.

[alady]

Catholic school kids were always really good at arithmetic.

[Deleted]

Not me!

I can't add or subtract but I can tell you why I'm going to hell.

[teekoh]

lol same

[nanatod]

Jul 14, 2020 10:40:28 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

We read...Invisible Man... in various HS English classes.  

Giving Ulysses a shot now. I’m 60 pages in and it’s... a challenge

sometime after college or law school (don't remember which), I finally succeeded in reading Ulysses, after giving it up a few times.  Irish jew Stephen Daedelus's day in the novel, bloomsday, falls on my birthday.

ralph ellison is in the trapper keeper.   I had read invisible man in high school, and when ellison came to speak at my college's lecture series I just had to go.  After the mid day lecture, he dined at the dorm area's 's cafeteria style dining hall (across the street from the main campus where he talked) with the college's association of black students, and me.  He could have dined with us at a nicer cafeteria on the main campus.  Lunch was as usual, thin overcooked hamburgers, and sloppy joe sandwiches.  I took a lot of pictures with my camera that I didn't use very often, but I haven't seen those pics in about a decade.

[neader]

I read To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, In Cold Blood, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Things They Carried, Things Fall Apart, Heart of Darkness, The Crucible, Moby Dick, and I'm sure there were others I don't remember.

Edit: A Raisin in the Sun, Death of a Salesman

[irvred]

From memory, my high school reading included: Dante’s Inferno, Crime & Punishment, Of Mice & Men, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Crucible, Johnny Got His Gun, The Stranger, Zorba the Greek, The English Patient, Atonement, To Kill a Mockingbird, Oryx & Crake, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities... definitely forgetting quite a few but I don’t recall any POC narratives, although we did take like three days to read Persepolis?

Just read Moby Dick this year and loved it. Surprisingly funny.

[thebosma]

Trying to go from memory here but: Tom Sawyer, Romeo and Juliet, an abridged Odyssey, Pride and Prejudice, A Separate Peace, Miracle Worker, To Kill a Mockingbird, Red Badge of Courage, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Our Town, Glass Menagerie, Julius Caesar, Frankenstein, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Death of a Salesman, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, Antigone, A Doll's House, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, Lolita,(I got to pick one to read and write a report on for AP)

I am very bad at reading and enjoying fiction now unfortunately.

[clouddead]

The best thing I read in high school was A Modest Proposal.

[Deleted]

We watched Excalibur in high school. That was memorable.

[Deleted]

gotta say, between how many of y'all have your English curriculum memorized and that thread where everyone wouldn't shut up about their SAT scores,

i'm getting a very clear picture of what this board was like in high school.

[zircona1]

I took an Honors English course one year in high school, I remember we read The Great Gatsby and Huckleberry Finn. I didn't like either of those books at the time, but I reread them in college courses and changed my mind on both of them.

I was assigned Heart of Darkness in three different college courses. It's boring crap, and I never changed my mind on it.

[neader]

Yeah Heart of Darkness is still my least favorite book I've ever read. Didn't help that we had to read it all in one weekend.

edit: hmm, just looked it up and it's only about half as long as I thought it was.

[Tweet]

Huck Finn, 1984, Animal Farm, The Grapes of Wrath, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The Invisible Man, Julius Caesar (I read for Cassiuss), The Sun Also Rises, Scarlett Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird....

....are all books from High School that I've kept and may or may not have actually read

[Tweet]

I finished this yesterday afternoon. The narrative took a minute to kick in. The facts and the shock took no time at all. The last 3rd reads like a novel and the historical documents cited are fascinating. Should be mandatory reading for everyone on here

[clouddead]

ok I ordered it

[Deleted]

[Tweet]

That should also be mandatory reading for this entire job

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

This is terrific. First book I've read in a while that is hard to put down.

[claypoolfan]

Has anyone read Chris Frantz’s book from earlier this year? Trying to figure out if it’s worth the $30.

[c1916]

Signed copy waiting for me in the UK. If they every let US citizens back in, I'll let you know.

[Deleted]

Jul 29, 2020 9:39:47 GMT -6 @wretched said:

I just read all of them for the first time last year and I'm already thinking about starting over. A Feast For Crows was probably my favorite. Very excited that I probably won't have to wait a ridiculously long time for the next one.

[Pale Hose]

Aug 15, 2020 18:22:26 GMT -6 @sethcantpickanamefu said:

Jul 29, 2020 9:39:47 GMT -6 @wretched said:

I just read all of them for the first time last year and I'm already thinking about starting over. A Feast For Crows was probably my favorite. Very excited that I probably won't have to wait a ridiculously long time for the next one.

Define "ridiculously long time".

[Tweet]

Bit odd to me we're starting trials and imprisonment of the filthy rich with George RR Martin but *grabs pitchfork* gotta make the most of these situations you know?

[Deleted]

Not nearly as long as everyone else had to wait heh (unless it's never).

[Pale Hose]

FTR I believe that both The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring will be published someday, I'm just not sure it will happen within GRRM's lifetime, especially for the latter.

[sleeping]

Hey, if anyone wanted one of the autographed copies of the Bad Religion "band autobiography" Do Want You Want that's sold out on their website, barnesandnoble.com has them for cover price ($28). Select the "signed" option before you put it in your cart.