Journal FortKnox's Journal: Book Meme (this is real short) 23
I never learned to read!
Honestly, the crap they threw in front of me in highschool was RARELY absorbed. Some british poetry in the 12th grade was pretty rememberable (John Donne, etc..), but the only things I walked away from school with some retention:
The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism. Yay... meh
Great Gadspy or whatever: Eh, wasn't tough to read, but didn't go nuts over it.
The Divine Comedy - Dante: Some people read the Inferno, which I enjoyed... the Pergatorium was just like Inferno, except no fire and an extremely dim sense of hope... Paradiso was boring as hell (I really truely hope heaven isn't that boring)
MacBeth - that famous british playwright dude: The only Shakespeare I really enjoyed reading.
And that's all I got outta high school. Yup, that was it. I'm not an avid reader, and engineers only had to take english 101 and 102, so I didn't have to read crap for school, either.
After graduating, though, I started picking up books again:
The Forever War - Joseph Haldeman. First scifi I read. Really enjoyed it, too. He really dealt with the whole travelling through 'space causes hundreds of years to pass' thing well.
Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman. Thought I'd try the sequel since I enjoyed the first so much. Was good, although it ended quickly and abruptly.
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy Yeah, I didn't read this till I was in my mid 20s (and haven't read the other 4 yet)
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas (that's doo mas, Em, not Dumbass). Loved the movie, so I gave the book a try. Holy crap was that a fantastic story. You don't truely know revenge until you've read this book. I may pick up another Dumas. Really liked his style.
Contact - Carl Sagan. Well, give me a day or two... almost done.
LotR - Started reading the trilogy after the first movie. Finished before the last one. I read slow, sue me :-P
That's it. I have such a short list compaired to everyone else that I could write something about each book. Rather sad, isn't it? To defend myself, I really enjoy reading anthologies of scifi shortstories, and that's what I usually read.
Oh, and one other thing, I've been collecting classic stories to read to Joey when he gets old enough to understand them and remember them. Like Gulliver's Travels, the whole CS Lewis Narnia books, etc... I figured I'm a little too old to not know classics, but at least Joey will be well learned before going to school and is 'forced' to read them.
Honestly, the crap they threw in front of me in highschool was RARELY absorbed. Some british poetry in the 12th grade was pretty rememberable (John Donne, etc..), but the only things I walked away from school with some retention:
The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism. Yay... meh
Great Gadspy or whatever: Eh, wasn't tough to read, but didn't go nuts over it.
The Divine Comedy - Dante: Some people read the Inferno, which I enjoyed... the Pergatorium was just like Inferno, except no fire and an extremely dim sense of hope... Paradiso was boring as hell (I really truely hope heaven isn't that boring)
MacBeth - that famous british playwright dude: The only Shakespeare I really enjoyed reading.
And that's all I got outta high school. Yup, that was it. I'm not an avid reader, and engineers only had to take english 101 and 102, so I didn't have to read crap for school, either.
After graduating, though, I started picking up books again:
The Forever War - Joseph Haldeman. First scifi I read. Really enjoyed it, too. He really dealt with the whole travelling through 'space causes hundreds of years to pass' thing well.
Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman. Thought I'd try the sequel since I enjoyed the first so much. Was good, although it ended quickly and abruptly.
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy Yeah, I didn't read this till I was in my mid 20s (and haven't read the other 4 yet)
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas (that's doo mas, Em, not Dumbass). Loved the movie, so I gave the book a try. Holy crap was that a fantastic story. You don't truely know revenge until you've read this book. I may pick up another Dumas. Really liked his style.
Contact - Carl Sagan. Well, give me a day or two... almost done.
LotR - Started reading the trilogy after the first movie. Finished before the last one. I read slow, sue me
That's it. I have such a short list compaired to everyone else that I could write something about each book. Rather sad, isn't it? To defend myself, I really enjoy reading anthologies of scifi shortstories, and that's what I usually read.
Oh, and one other thing, I've been collecting classic stories to read to Joey when he gets old enough to understand them and remember them. Like Gulliver's Travels, the whole CS Lewis Narnia books, etc... I figured I'm a little too old to not know classics, but at least Joey will be well learned before going to school and is 'forced' to read them.
Hmmm (Score:2)
I'm usually a sci-fi guy - but I enjoyed this and thought you might have somewhat similar tastes.
do yourself a favour (Score:2)
And i like Dumas, he's my mum's favourite. She got me hooked.
Re:do yourself a favour (Score:2)
I was just telling STB that my son is already a nerd. I try roughhousing and playing with a mini football with him, and in about 2 minutes, he's grabbing one of his books (each room he plays in has a bookshelf full of his books) and sits in my lap and asks me to read it ("read wocket! read wocket!" Fav book is "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" by Dr.S... a
Re:do yourself a favour (Score:2)
oke, oke. maybe not. But i had to speak up for it. DOn't you want your kid to be one of the child prodigies everyone's jealous of?
Re:do yourself a favour (Score:2)
Holy Crap (Score:1)
I've read HHGTTG about 5 or 6 times. First time was in sixth grade. Have read the others at least 3 times (except for the last, which I have only read once).
If'n you're gonna list Forever War, I feel Ender's Game should be listed.
'The Count of Monte Cristo' goes under 'how to'. (Thanks to 'Shawshank Redemption'. Not sure if that line appears in 'Rita Hayworth and...' BTW, the featured pinup should have been a page from 'Life' magazine that has been chr [skylighters.org]
Re:Holy Crap (Score:2)
So do I have the job.... (Score:1)
The name's Due mas.
Now that's thickheaded!
On a more serious note:
I have an intense dislike of Shakespeare. Not for anything ole Willie did, I mean hell, he's just telling stories about incest, rape, murder, suicide, gang wars, carving flesh from people, etc. Nothing wrong with that.
However my english teachers in high school had an absolute hard on (and they both were chicks, one taught 9th and 11th, the other 10 and 12th grade english) for his prose.
Willie: For wouldst though
Re:So do I have the job.... (Score:1)
It appears Willie isn't the only thing sucking in class today, eh Teach?
Shakespeare (Score:2)
Problem may have been that you had to read it. Shakespeare's plays were never meant to be read, they were meant to be seen. (Imagine reading a script for GoodFellas. Whoo-hah, real thrilling.)
That's the mistake English teachers the world over make (including mine). They make you read the d
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Shakespeare (Score:1)
We needed variety and didn't get it.
Besides, as Freud once said, man, sometimes Shakespeare is just a story, not a way of life*.
*He didn't actually say this that I am aware of, but hey, I figure he's dead and won't mind.
Re:Shakespeare (Score:2)
Of course it's good to read it -- sometimes it's hard to get what words are being said, so it's helpful to follow along with the text. But what I meant was teachers teaching Shakespeare's plays without showing the plays. I had three different English teachers do that, and know of quite a few other
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Re:Shakespeare (Score:2)
I'll half agree. I think there is value in reading them in order to see the root of all the interpretations. The foundation upon which they are based. Every interpretation you see will be different. Some good, some bad. By reading and understanding the original, you get to make up your own interpretation in your head. You don't have it handed to you on a platter. Is Hamlet real
Re:So do I have the job.... (Score:2)
Turning point for me, when I realized that I Was allowed to actually think for myself regarding this stuff, came freshman year of college reading Hamlet and I read something like "Thrift, Horatio! The thrice baked funeral meats did coldly furnish forth the w
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Re:So do I have the job.... (Score:2)
Nobody ever "gets" Taming of the Shrew in high school because if any high school kid ever stopped and thought about "What, with my tongue in your tail?" really meant the teacher would never restore order to the classroom. :)
On a related note, I remember reading "Stopping by woods..." by Frost in college. Teacher asks, "What's it about?" All hands go up, because we all laerned this in high school. He says, "It's not about suicide." All hands go
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Re:So do I have the job.... (Score:2)
I prefered the Shawshank version of that joke.
That British Dude (Score:2)
It's kinda neat to suddenly discover that you can actually
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Re:AOL! (Score:2)
The first three were really good, the fourth was just okay and the rest sucked.