What Do you Read

[moonmaster]

I can't wait to read 1984 this year in English.

At the moment were reading "Pride and Prejudice".

I can't stand it.

It's like "The Bachelor" with big words. I can't believe that people think that Jane Austen is great literature. She doesn't even write women well. All they do is sit around and talk about how much they want to be nailed by rich men that they just met. It's unbearable.

I was in the closet with Wade Wilson.

Ooo, I've played that game.

 

[Random]

I was in the closet with Wade Wilson.

Always thought you two would make a cute couple, well not as much cute as entertaining

 

[Planet-man]

I can't wait to read 1984 this year in English.

Moony + 1984 is gonna be a sight to behold.

At the moment were reading "Pride and Prejudice".

I can't stand it.

It's like "The Bachelor" with big words. I can't believe that people think that Jane Austen is great literature. She doesn't even write women well. All they do is sit around and talk about how much they want to be nailed by rich men that they just met. It's unbearable.

I haven't any right to criticise books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

~ Mark "Mother****ing" Twain

 

[moonmaster]

I haven't any right to criticise books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

~ Mark "Mother****ing" Twain

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Joe Kalicki]

The 1984 movie isn't very good, but there is a lot of nudity and really hairy bushes.

 

[moonmaster]

The 1984 movie isn't very good, but there is a lot of nudity and really hairy bushes.

So...Plants factor predominately into the films plot?

 

[Planet-man]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

He's got some other really harsh ones bashing her too, but that was far and away the most UC-appropriate one.

Mark Twain is one of the greatest people of all time.

Also 1984 is definitely doubleplusgood. I know they made a movie based on it in 1984... anyone know if the movie was any good?

The 1984 movie isn't very good, but there is a lot of nudity and really hairy bushes.

(very minor spoilers)

Joe's right, although John Hurt was a really good choice for Winston(even though I picture him quite differently).

There's some really cool stuff about the filming, especially with the dates, for example the scene at the beginning where Winston starts writing the diary on April 4th, 1984 was actually filmed on April 4th, 1984.

A lot of the problems though are for very obvious reasons, mainly that about 90% of the book is Winston's stream of consciousness, and that's very hard to convey. Also, they don't really elaborate on telescreens or what they do at all, which leaves the movie without that crucial atmosphere of constant surveillance that makes the book work so well.

I have an amazing alternate ending to the story that I've been working on in my head for a year or so and would love to turn into an animated short in the style of Random's flash cartoons.

 

[Lynx]

Moony + 1984 is gonna be a sight to behold.



I haven't any right to criticise books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

~ Mark "Mother****ing" Twain

I love Mark Twain.

But, I actually enjoyed Pride and Prejudice.

In other news, I'm reading A Game of Thrones, the first book of A Song of Fire and Ice. It is GOOD.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

I'll admit, the first one is good of that series, but soon it peters off into no where land, and stays there for the majority of the next two books. I couldn't even get through the third one, nothing was happening

 

[ShaggyMarco]

The concept of summer reading lists always confused me. I understand what they're trying to achieve. I just can't understand why kids actually read the crap they're told to read over the summer.

The school where I teach has taken summer reading to the next level.

Every adult in the building (teachers, administrators, councilors) picks a book they like. The only limitations: it must have a plot, and it must not have been made into a movie in the last 5 years.

They then advertise their book to the student body however they can.

Students all sign up for the book of their choice.

If a teacher's book does not get enough sign-ups, then they must read a book that someone else chose that got too many sign-ups.

Kids read that book over the summer.

They come back and are given a discussion guide to fill out and bring to a special discussion celebration of reading that lasts for 2 hours. This 2-hour discussion party includes a test, discussion, and whatever book-themed activities the sponser wants to run. They all have food and drink and a very laid-back atmosphere. Students are graded on participation in discussion, filling in their pre-discussion guide, and on their multiple-choice reading quiz. That grade accounts for 2.5% of their Language Arts grade.

It shows kids that adults like to read, and the books they like to read are actually pretty cool. It also makes reading less like a chore and more like fun, which it is.

 

[ShaggyMarco]

I skipped select parts of Fellowship and only gave up on RotK after the Ring was destroyed when Tolkien decided to tack on all the aftermath crap with the leftover Orcs taking over the Shire or whatever. What an anti-climax. I was so happy when Jackson ended the story where it should've ended.

Except the BOOKS LotR are not about destroying the One Ring. Yes, that happens, but the books are about four young men going off to war only to return home to a country that no longer resembles what they thought they left behind. It asks the eternal question: did I change or did home change?

The movies, however, are about the destruction of the One Ring. And they do that very well.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

Except the BOOKS LotR are not about destroying the One Ring. Yes, that happens, but the books are about four young men going off to war only to return home to a country that no longer resembles what they thought they left behind. It asks the eternal question: did I change or did home change?

Thank you, I've been trying to tell him that for years

 

[Planet-man]

Except the BOOKS LotR are not about destroying the One Ring. Yes, that happens, but the books are about four young men going off to war only to return home to a country that no longer resembles what they thought they left behind. It asks the eternal question: did I change or did home change?

The problem is that the way the books go it seemed like they were about destroying the One Ring so I can get into that, but then felt betrayed and ripped off when the other stuff ended up happening, because the concept doesn't appeal to me in that type of story.

I suppose it's a case of the movies misrepresenting the books, but that's the way it went.

Also, that school reading thing is pretty cool. I hope the teachers pick good books.

Too bad about the no-movies-in-the-past-five-years rule, though. I Am Legend would've been a great choice. I might suggest The Time Machine, personally. It's a terrific story that most kids wouldn't think to read on their own and it's been just over five years since the last movie of it.

Thank you, I've been trying to tell him that for years

Fascist.

 

[ShaggyMarco]

The teachers (of which I am one) tend to pick interesting books from a wide variety of genres. There tends to pretty much be something for everyone. The last two years I have been unable to get enough kids to sign up for my book selections, and the first year I was at this school they had already signed up, so I have yet to do a book I selected, but all three have been pretty good.

My first year I did "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer. This is a great non-fiction book about a doomed trip up Everest.

My second and third years I tried to get kids to sign up for "The Winter King" by Bernard Cornwell. No go.

I ended up sponsoring "Dracula"by Bram Stoker the second year. The conversation went really well with the juniors and sophomores in the class, but most of the sexual metaphor went clear over the heads of the freshmen in the group.

The third year I was placed on the Freshman-only fantasy book, primarily targeted at girls, but with a few boys in the group, "Stravaganza, City of Masks" by Mary Hoffman. I really enjoyed this book and bought the rest of the series. The whole series is good, but the second book is truly amazing. A good YA lit selection for anyone who likes fantasy, and an even better book selection for anyone interested in Renaissance Italy, especially the Medici family. The basic premise of the first book is that a kid with cancer learns to cope when he discovers a magical notebook that lets him teleport to a city called Bellezza, in the nation of Talia--a Renaissance counterpoint to Venice, Italy. He gets caught up in the intrigue of the city and suffers complications in his own modern life. Sounds a bit silly, but is actually worth it.

 

[Seldes Katne]

The school where I teach has taken summer reading to the next level.

Every adult in the building (teachers, administrators, councilors) picks a book they like. The only limitations: it must have a plot, and it must not have been made into a movie in the last 5 years.

They then advertise their book to the student body however they can.

Students all sign up for the book of their choice.

If a teacher's book does not get enough sign-ups, then they must read a book that someone else chose that got too many sign-ups.

Kids read that book over the summer.

This is a splendid idea, and I'm going to ste-- I mean, borrow it to pitch to our local school district. This year my library has entered a (long-overdue) partnership with the public school, and I'm now doing outreach programs for them about twice a month. We've been looking at a couple of ideas for a joint summer reading program, and this might work for us.

The third year I was placed on the Freshman-only fantasy book, primarily targeted at girls, but with a few boys in the group, "Stravaganza, City of Masks" by Mary Hoffman. I really enjoyed this book and bought the rest of the series. The whole series is good, but the second book is truly amazing.

Thanks, ShaggyMarco. We have Hoffman's series here at the library, but I haven't read it. Now I have a great excuse to make the extra effort.

 

[moonmaster]

I ended up sponsoring "Dracula"by Bram Stoker the second year. The conversation went really well with the juniors and sophomores in the class, but most of the sexual metaphor went clear over the heads of the freshmen in the group.

Yeah, I suppose I've always picked up on the sexual overtones within the vampire myth, but I've only just recently realized that Dracula seems to be a fairly prudish Victorian commentary on sexuality that basically equates to "sex = death". It's just difficult to pick up on at first. Like the "child destroys the mother" theme that really seems to be what Frankenstein is about.

 

[moonmaster]

I started reading 1984 today.

:rockon:

 

[Planet-man]

It's like watching two soulmates go on their first date!

 

[ProjectX2]

I'm gonna go on a Victorian literature binge shortly. Any definite suggestions, other than the obvious Wells and Verne?

 

[Seldes Katne]

Arthur Conan Doyle. Read his Professor Challenger stories (The Lost World, The Poison Belt, The Land of Mist, The Disintegration Machine, and When the Earth Screamed) if you get tired of Sherlock Holmes.