A Whale of a Time

UPDATE

Bree's Book List

Sometimes the books they tell you to read in high school are good and sometimes they are such a snooz! I'm not the biggest fan of The Great Gatsby, I think This Side of Paradise is a more interesting Fitzgerald choice. Other good ones that should be on the lists more often: Lolita by Nabokov, The Count of Monte Christo by Dumas, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, the Town and the City by Jack Kerouac, Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I finished Gone with the Wind not too long ago and it was great!! I'm now reading a biography on Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman, and am hoping to get to The Magus by John Fowles and The Waves by Virginia Woolfe.

Thank you, Bree!




man cannot see the depths of the ocean

I've never read Moby Dick, and to be honest with you, I'm not that interested. Somewhere along the way I feel that I've failed at reading the classics. I'm a horrible reader, but I love vividly wild tales. I remember very few, The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, Shakespeare, Secret Garden, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, The Red Badge of Courage, and of course The Catcher in the Rye (you may appreciate this article from NY TIMES, Get a Life Holden Caulfield). There are others, I know, because Sycamore High School had standards (I'm third generation, after all). I bet if Bree was writing this, she'd be able to list countless books!

Maybe I should start reading more... any suggestions? Where to start?


“The Catcher in the Rye,” published in 1951, is still a staple of the high school curriculum, beloved by many teachers who read and reread it in their own youth. The trouble is today’s teenagers. Teachers say young readers just don’t like Holden as much as they used to. What once seemed like courageous truth-telling now strikes many of them as “weird,” “whiny” and “immature.”

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes the books they tell you to read in high school are good and sometimes they are such a snooz! I'm not the biggest fan of The Great Gatsby, I think This Side of Paradise is a more interesting Fitzgerald choice. Other good ones that should be on the lists more often: Lolita by Nabokov, The Count of Monte Christo by Dumas, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, the Town and the City by Jack Kerouac, Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I finished Gone with the Wind not too long ago and it was great!! I'm now reading a biography on Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman, and am hoping to get to The Magus by John Fowles and The Waves by Virginia Woolfe.

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  2. I love the stuff in this post! So fun! And as for rereading those high school texts... you didn't mention Hemingway. Don't do any of the Hemingway usually assigned but revisit or read "A Movable Feast." It's so heartbreaking, trust me.

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