High School Literature

[Ziggamafu]

[i]Sophie's World[/i], by Jostein Gaarder.

Because it uses a fictional story to tell the history of Western philosophy, summarizing the thoughts of important figures down through the generations.

[Ziggamafu]

oops, double post

Edited June 16, 2010 by Ziggamafu

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Luigi' date='16 June 2010 - 12:36 AM' timestamp='1276663013' post='2129725']
It was the best of assignments, it was the worst of assignments..... (many pages intervene).... 'Tis a far better thing you read than I have ever read.
[/quote]


[quote name='Terra Firma' date='16 June 2010 - 12:39 AM' timestamp='1276663186' post='2129730']
I honestly can't think of any assigned books in high school that I really loved reading, short of Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar). Not sure why I liked them, but I did.

I had to read a lot of Hemingway (which I hate), and "Gulliver's Travels," which I also hated.

I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 7th grade and loved it, and I always read our anthologies for class from cover to cover within the first two weeks of class. But I look at my shelves now, and I don't see any of the books I was assigned to read, so I must not have been that profoundly influenced by them. All the books I really love I read in college or later.
[/quote]
We read To Kill a Mockingbird in 7th grade, too... and then again in Contemporary American Lit in HS. I love that book... it's really my favorite.


[quote name='notardillacid' date='16 June 2010 - 12:40 AM' timestamp='1276663252' post='2129731']
I slmost killedd myself when I read "The Old Man and the Sea"
[/quote]

I hated The Old Man and the Sea with every fiber of my being. Ruined any chance of me liking anything by Hemingway.


[quote name='Luigi' date='16 June 2010 - 12:55 AM' timestamp='1276664132' post='2129742']
Teachers all over the nation make high schoolers - especially males - read that, thinking that it's about fishing (Yeah... boys like to fish.... this is about fishing... they'll love this...) It's not. It's about solitary writers who pursue the big, beautiful, majestic, but oh so elusive great American novel, applying all their knowledge, skill, and patience, working with one young assistant (editor) who admires them and brings them coffee; they physically suffer to produce their work, and as soon as they hook it and reel it in, the sharks - I mean the critics - tear it to shreds until there's nothing left but the skeleton and the tail. And they gets up the next morning and do it again.

The whole thing is an extended metaphor for being an author. Writers write about what they know, which is writing.
[/quote]
I thought that was what Moby D[i][/i]ick was a metephor of...

[HisChildForever]

I would pick up [i]The Great Gatsby[/i] again. The problem is that all the assignments and quizzes ruined (for the most part) my enjoyment of the books and plays we were assigned. A good example is [i]To Kill a Mockingbird[/i] - my English class never read it but I remember the other English class groaning about it. I read it on my own that summer or the summer after and I loved it. I truly think it was because I was not hindered by taking notes throughout each chapter.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='Resurrexi' date='16 June 2010 - 12:36 AM' timestamp='1276662986' post='2129724']
Seriously? IMO, it was an okay but not so great novel.
[/quote]
[quote name='Resurrexi' date='16 June 2010 - 12:39 AM' timestamp='1276663176' post='2129728']
So far, my favorite works that have been required reading for high school have been [i]Merchant of Venice[/i], [i]Our Town[/i], and [i]Brave New World[/i].
[/quote]
[quote name='Resurrexi' date='16 June 2010 - 12:53 AM' timestamp='1276664003' post='2129741']
I forgot to mention [i]The Importance of Being Earnest[/i].
[/quote]

I'm a little weirded out by how similar our tastes in literature are...



[quote name='HisChildForever' date='16 June 2010 - 11:14 AM' timestamp='1276701273' post='2129838']
I would pick up [i]The Great Gatsby[/i] again. The problem is that all the assignments and quizzes ruined (for the most part) my enjoyment of the books and plays we were assigned. A good example is [i]To Kill a Mockingbird[/i] - my English class never read it but I remember the other English class groaning about it. I read it on my own that summer or the summer after and I loved it. I truly think it was because I was not hindered by taking notes throughout each chapter.
[/quote]
That is the one reason I loved AP Lit more than any other English class I ever took (well, except possibly Euro Lit which was taught by the same teacher). The teacher hated correcting papers, so he assigned the bare minimum for any sort of questions. Sometimes we had to write papers, but it was never answering questions that supposedly test for comprehension, but are really just checking if you're paying attention to every pointless detail when you read. We had discussions insead, and he was literally a facilitator, only speaking up when we needed help understanding something or get back on track talking about the book. Every other English class I have ever had made me hate whatever we were reading.

[let_go_let_God]

I didn't get to read many books in high school that I liked but here's a list of books I did like from high school and a couple from college.

The Pearl Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men Steinbeck
The Hobbit and the whole Lord of the Rings Trilogy (All in High School)Tolken
The Outsiders Josey Wales
1984 Wells

The Catcher in the Rye Salinger
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Kesey
Sound and the Fury Faulkner
Sirens of Titan Vonnegut

God bless-
LGLG

[rhetoricfemme]

My favorite required reading was:

[i]Lord of the Flies[/i], by William Golding
[i]Things Fall Apart[/i], by Chinua Achebe
[i]Of Mice and Men[/i], by John Steinbeck.

[Brother Adam]

Greek Mythology
Aristotle
Canterbury Tales

were among my favorites

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='rhetoricfemme' date='16 June 2010 - 02:09 PM' timestamp='1276711792' post='2129931']
[i]Things Fall Apart[/i], by Chinua Achebe
[i]Of Mice and Men[/i], by John Steinbeck.
[/quote]

[fides quarens intellectum]

For assigned literature in high school, i think i'd go with [i]Fahrenheit 451[/i] as my favorite.

[ThePenciledOne]

[quote name='fides quarens intellectum' date='16 June 2010 - 07:03 PM' timestamp='1276725834' post='2130098']
For assigned literature in high school, i think i'd go with [i]Fahrenheit 451[/i] as my favorite.
[/quote]

Just read that is past semester.

Made Ray Bradbury one of my new favorite authors!

[CatherineM]

I had a class in Science Fiction/Fantasy in highschool. My favorite lit class by far. My favorite book was the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. It was written in short story form, adding up to an entire book. I liked how the stories were spread over time. In American Lit. it was Centennial by James Mitchner, and in English Lit. Canterbury Tales. I think I like books with lots of 3 dimensional characters. So many books have characters that are only 2 dimensional.

[Theologian in Training]

We weren't assigned many that were memorable, but I remember Edgar Allen Poe being the turning point in my literary discovery. I still love "The Raven."

When I realized how deprived of the classics I truly was, I picked up my dad's old 25 cent copy of "Catcher in the Rye." It was good. I also read his "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac.

Wow, I realize how little I remember from HS. Thanks for taking me down the vacant memory lane.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Theologian in Training' date='17 June 2010 - 09:13 AM' timestamp='1276780403' post='2130444']I picked up my dad's old 25 cent copy of "Catcher in the Rye." It was good. I also read his "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac.
[/quote]
Hippie

[Geras16]

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley