ALL ABOUT CLASSIC NOVELS, classic novels you love and hate.. Options

[nothing_plus_thi...]

with all this talk of dickens, i'm astonished that no one has mentioned Great Expectations.

i read it during my freshman year of high school. while reading it, i despised it. i've always resented having to analyse books to death (lord of the flies, any shakespeare, dickens, etc.) but, by the time i read the last few pages, i was in love. the characters are absolutely vibrant and easy to get attached to. the story is just plain classic and dickens wrote beautifully. although it does require some patience.

i was also a bit surprised to see such negative feedback about the Things They Carried. i read that during my senior year and was quite in love with it for a time, prior to having to write an enormous essay on it. but, then again, i'm a sucker for political/war related materials. they are always interesting and full of emotions, and people driven to extremes. very psychological and intriguing.

one of my absolute favourites is Steppenwolf by hermann hesse. i've read it three times now and have found new notes to make each time. it's an amazing novel, plain and simple. hesse was an incredible author.

also, i adored reading On the Road by kerouac.

but, to fall in line with most of you, i've adored being sucked into books/stories such as To Kill a Mockingbird, anything by Orwell (including his short stories), and Gatsby. but, i've never been a fan of shakespeare. i can't explain why, exactly, but...i've honestly never been able to really get into any of it. and i've also never been able to pick up any jane austen or emily bronte and enjoy it. i suppose they're just not my cup of tea.

[*FreeStickers*]

To Kill a Mockingbird was a good story, but the goodness was sucked out by IB Summer Reading.

Edit:
IB...MYP...same thing. Sort of.

[*Statues/Shadows*]

^That's what happened with me too. Well, pre-IB summer reading, rather, but still.

[HappyHeart]

- Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha
- John Steinbeck's works

[*FreeStickers*]

- Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha
- John Steinbeck's works

Steinbeck?! How in the hell...? How old are you?

[Rachel]

Steinbeck?! How in the hell...? How old are you?

She's a youngin.
Birthday 20 February 1992

[*Statues/Shadows*]

Err. I read Steinbeck in 6th and 7th grade.

[*FreeStickers*]

Err. I read Steinbeck in 6th and 7th grade.

Yeah. I was asking, because the only people I know who actually ENJOY Steinbeck's works, other than Of Mice and Men, are old. And English teachers. Maybe it's just the people I know. *shrug*

[nothing_plus_thi...]

i enjoyed In Dubious Battle. along with Working by studs terkel (and another of his ; American Dreams -- Lost and Found).

another book i absolutely adore is A People's History of the United States by howard zinn.

[*Statues/Shadows*]

Yeah. I was asking, because the only people I know who actually ENJOY Steinbeck's works, other than Of Mice and Men, are old. And English teachers. Maybe it's just the people I know. *shrug*

Oh, well then I see what you mean. I didn't like of Mice and Men at all, but hey, I was 11. I think I liked The Pearl, though.

[Rachel]

Mice of Men was a tad depressing!

[anniepiee]

^ indeed it was.

i've started on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

i really enjoyed Anne Frank- Diary of a young girl. bit surprised no one has mentioned it. maybe it's not a classic.

to Kill a mocking Bird
Catcher in the Rye

starting Othello in English class, i'd be enjoying it if i didn't have a creepy student teacher.. -.-

[nothing_plus_thi...]

heh. when my honors english class read othello, our teacher insisted on reading the entire thing outloud to us.

he had the most monotonous, hilarious voice ever.
and he smelled like flowers and formaldehyde.
and he looked like a chicken.

that's the only reaosn i enjoyed othello. ahah.

[anniepiee]

that's better than mine.
she seems to me like a 50 yearold virgin university student druggie. honestly.
and she's way past paranoid. any little move you do in class, she would creep over and tap you to make sure you're paying attention.

[d00kie]

the pearl wasnt the best book i have ever read i mean the symbolism protrayed a nice moral yet i felt the story dragged but i must say cyrano debergerac is one of my favorites

[*Libertie*]

Just about everything mentioned in here was assigned to me at some point in school. I always hated assigned reading.

I enjoyed Heart of Darkness, however, as well as To Kill a Mockingbird and a few others.

My current reading assignment is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. If you haven't gotten a chance to read that yet, I definitely recommend it. I actually enjoyed it. But you may end up reading it anyway in one of your college writing classes.

[sillakilla220]

i enjoy steinbeck thoroughly. The end of mice and men when dude got his brains blown out was crazy! awesome read

[*Statues/Shadows*]

I started The Bell Jar today and am really enjoying it.

[*Phoenixx*]

Most definitely Catcher in the Rye.

I'm reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac and adore it.

Someone ruined the ending of Of Mice & Men but it was still great all the same.
As my former English teacher would note, "It's not the ending that makes the difference but how you get there."

[*reflection*]

Only thing I even remotely liked in The Tale of Two Cities is Syndey Carton, who I think is a kickass character.

Sydney Carton makes the book great.
a tale of two cities sucks in the beginning but the ending is amazing.

[sillakilla220]

i also liked the great gatsby when that bitch got ran over - that shit was dope

[Teesa]

Well I love all of these books/plays minus The Things They Carried.

Now, I thought it was an interesting book, but I just didn't really like it. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and I just wasn't meshing well with it.

Hmm, I see. Yeah, I just liked it because I didn't really understand what happened in the Vietnam War, so that book helped me understand more about what the soldiers went through, even though the author wasn't a soldier himself.

[aicilah999]

reading these books...(good books )
Pride&&Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
Animal Farm
Night
Taming of The Shrew
Fahrenheit 451

[nothing_plus_thi...]

Hmm, I see. Yeah, I just liked it because I didn't really understand what happened in the Vietnam War, so that book helped me understand more about what the soldiers went through, even though the author wasn't a soldier himself.

yes he was.
the book is "mostly fiction". "true war stories". they were true in the sense that that was how the soldiers were FEELING, but the actual events may not have been accurate. but, he was there to experience it, regardless of how much the line between fact and fiction is blurred.

Though The Things They Carried is mainly fiction, Tim O'Brien did fight in Vietnam, and he has been telling "true war stories" since he returned from the war. His stories come from his own experiences, and his desire to blur the lines between reality and fiction, between created character and living person. He believes that stories are born from real events, and therefore are forever linked to them.

O'Brien was against the war, but reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" Americal division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968, an event which figures prominently in In the Lake of the Woods.. He was assigned to 3rd Platoon, A Co., 5th Batt. 46th Inf., as an infantry foot soldier. O'Brien's tour of duty was 1969-70.

[*RiC3xBoy*]

Yeah, O'Brien was a soldier himself. The characters in the Things They Carry are fake, but the book basically shares his experiences. Ironically enough, there is a character in the book named Tim Obrien.