Jinjer 31: Books, Books, and More Books

[Shadoewolf]

In one English lit class we read Lords of Discipline by Conroy, that was a decent book. Changed high schools and it was Scarlet Letter, Gatsby, Midsummer night's dream and a small section of Poe. I don't do classics.

[Justmurrayed]

I LOVE books. Like love BUT I have a deep, dark secret ANY book from high school onward I never read. I always did the Sparks notes version or had friends tell me about the book. Now that I'm older I want to go back and read some of the books I was assigned like The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm and Catcher in the Rye but I haven't managed too because there are other great books I want to read. 

[BlessaYourHeart]

6 hours ago, nickelodeon said:

There haven't been a lot of poets on people's book lists so far - I rec Emily Dickinson, Anne Carson, Frank O'Hara, Audre Lorde, and Richard Siken.

I never really think of poets as books I like per say. I rarely have an anthology of just one poet. Usually there's 3-4 in an anthology. 

As for favourites, I love Robert Frost and Robert Hayden. 

Frosts 'The Road not Taken' and 'Stopping by Woods' are two of my all time favourite poems. 

I love Robert Hayden's 'Those Winter Sunday's' as well. 

Most of the time when I read poetry I find that I may like one poem by a poet and dislike another. I have a lot of favourite poems but few favourite poets. 

Where I come from you pretty much have to like Seamus Heaney as he was only born down the road. It's like blasphemy if you don't like one of his poems. I like some of his poems, others I don't care for, but I won't admit that to anyone around here! 

[louisa05]

17 minutes ago, BlessaYourHeart said:

 

As for favourites, I love Robert Frost 

 

"Birches" and "Mending Wall" are my favorites. I love Frost. I would throw Frost into courses whenever I could, along with two Nebraska poets, William Kloefkhorn and Ted Koozer. Kloefkhorn was a friend and teacher and amazing and hilarious person. I had the great joy of camping the Lewis & Clark trail with him on graduate class/trips for teachers. 

[Ais]

@BlessaYourHeart it's 21 years since we were forced to dissect "...my father the digger..." for English literature and the thought of it still makes me rage. It's quite similar to how most people feel about Shakespeare, in that being forced to appreciate it at 15/16 has turned me against it forever. I really should give it another go after all this time, it's not often that someone of that Calibre exists in both your county and your lifetime but the scars just run too deep lol

[melon]

9 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Lord of the Flies was awful. The only thing I hated reading more than that in school was The Scarlet Letter. 

I had to read Lord of the Flies.I still remember it,vividly.I watched both movies.

I had to read Julius Caesar,I thought it was boring.It's ironic.My father was a Classics professor,he taught Ancient Greek and Latin,and loved Classics.He enjoyed reading them in their original language.I read most of the Classics I did because I was required to.Oh,and I cannot forget.I took a 6 week course,in high school,Independent Reading.I thought it would be an easy good grade.We were given a list of books to choose from...Classics.I was not thrilled,but my father was.

[BlessaYourHeart]

2 hours ago, louisa05 said:

"Birches" and "Mending Wall" are my favorites. I love Frost. I would throw Frost into courses whenever I could, along with two Nebraska poets, William Kloefkhorn and Ted Koozer. Kloefkhorn was a friend and teacher and amazing and hilarious person. I had the great joy of camping the Lewis & Clark trail with him on graduate class/trips for teachers. 

I got to study a whole anthology of Robert Frost poems for my A-Level English Literature and I was in my element! I loved it and excelled because I was just enjoying every moment of it! I try to work Frost into units now when I teach as best I can, I use 'October' when I do seasonal poems and fit others in where ever I can! 

2 hours ago, Ais said:

@BlessaYourHeart it's 21 years since we were forced to dissect "...my father the digger..." for English literature and the thought of it still makes me rage. It's quite similar to how most people feel about Shakespeare, in that being forced to appreciate it at 15/16 has turned me against it forever. I really should give it another go after all this time, it's not often that someone of that Calibre exists in both your county and your lifetime but the scars just run too deep lol

I, thankfully, was never subjected to having to study Heaney in school! The other class did Heaney and Hardy but my class did Frost and Browning, I was very very glad! Although, I did have to do 'Blackberry Picking' my Heaney  in first year of uni and it  was dragged out for 3 weeks of 2 2 hour lectures a week. It was exhausting! I haven't looked at it since!

[Snowless]

3 hours ago, Justmurrayed said:

Now that I'm older I want to go back and read some of the books I was assigned like The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm and Catcher in the Rye but I haven't managed too because there are other great books I want to read. 

I am totally in the same boat!  I love to read, but I hated reading books for English class, and my grades in high school English suffered for it.  I actually have gone back and read some of those books on my own and actually quite enjoyed it.  The Great Gatsby was one of those books, and I’ve also read The Awakening as part of that effort, and I’m currently working on Native Son (which I actually read through in high school, but I haven’t read it since).  I have a whole bunch of books from my high school years that are awaiting a first read or reread.

Strangely enough, we never studied The Catcher in the Rye when I was in high school, but I did read it on my own years later and was a little confused by it at face value.  With some supplemental material, I may reread it to try and understand it a little better.  I haven’t read Animal Farm since high school and don’t own a copy, but I’d love to read both that one and Nineteen Eighty-Four again.

You should totally go and reread those books you were referring to (and any others from your high school years).  You will not regret it!

[SadieJane]

Wow after catching up on the thread, I realize I read filth. I do very much love classic female brit writers. lol A good regency book makes me happy.

[Percy]

J D Robb, Ken Follett, Diana Galbadon, Jean Auell, Marian Keyes and Liane MoritIty.  All very different authors, easy pick ups and put downs and I don't have to concentrate too much.

I like a paper book on the plane and a e-book at home.  I don't have any room for any more books at home.  I like the random book shelves you find in Sydney and Melbourne where you can drop a book off and pick a book up for free.

[StacyW]

8 hours ago, Exposedknees said:

I kind of enjoy the psychology of it....I heard that they're making an all female movie version of LOTF.  I don't see how that will work since women rarely sodomize things and would probably be more collaborative in a survivor situation.

 

I always thought the book "John Dollar" by Marianne Wiggins was like a female Lord of the Flies. It was disturbing but very absorbing.

[SuffolkNWhat]

3 hours ago, BlessaYourHeart said:

 

I, thankfully, was never subjected to having to study Heaney in school! The other class did Heaney and Hardy but my class did Frost and Browning, I was very very glad! Although, I did have to do 'Blackberry Picking' my Heaney  in first year of uni and it  was dragged out for 3 weeks of 2 2 hour lectures a week. It was exhausting! I haven't looked at it since!

I had to endure (and yes that is the right word) Heaney from Year 8 right up to degree level. I loathe the man, give me that pen I'll stab you with it 

[Ais]

5 hours ago, SuffolkNWhat said:

I had to endure (and yes that is the right word) Heaney from Year 8 right up to degree level. I loathe the man, give me that pen I'll stab you with it 

Yep! Endure is the right word, torture is another. One poem dissected word by word, four classes a week for an entire term and then revised for weeks before the GCSE exam. The line about the squat pen resting as snug as a gun inspired a murderous rage in me more than once lol English Literature, at least in the format of GCSE preparation almost killed my love of reading forever

[AprilQuilt]

22 hours ago, TheOneAndOnly said:

My inner raging book nerd is forcing me to remind everyone that Lord of the Flies was inspired by novel The Coral Island by R M Ballantyne. 

Nobody ever mentions the other book which quite profoundly influenced it - A High Wind in Jamaica. It might be titled The Innocent Voyage in America.

It was written in the late 20s and is broadly about a group of children accidentally captured by pirates. It is chilling and insightful and so, so beautifully written. Its final scene is really closely mirrored by Lord of the Flies. One of my all-time favourite novels, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Personally I loved LOTF even having had to study it for GCSE. But then I was a total teacher's pet.

[Palimpsest]

4 minutes ago, AprilQuilt said:

Personally I loved LOTF even having had to study it for GCSE. But then I was a total teacher's pet.

I had LOTF and My Family and Other Animals for O level.  I still like them both.  Portrait of a Lady at for A level I still hate and I never got into Frost.

People hate Heaney?  OK.  So might I if I had been forced to read him.

[Kleine Vampirin]

Thread drift on poetry and Duggars turned up Mr Larkin from my school day English literature memories: 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad'.

[SapphireSlytherin]

High Wind in Jamaica is in the public domain! I've just downloaded it - thanks for the recommendation!

[calimojo]

23 hours ago, TheOneAndOnly said:

My inner raging book nerd is forcing me to remind everyone that Lord of the Flies was inspired by novel The Coral Island by R M Ballantyne. 

It was more an the anti-Coral Island though. That book may have inspired Lord of the Flies, but the message is very different.  ( and remember The Coral Island was in turn inspired by Defoe's Robinson Crusoe).  TCI is a decidedly more optimistic take on cooperation and ingenuity in the face of desperate circumstances.  

[Thorns]

16 hours ago, SadieJane said:

Wow after catching up on the thread, I realize I read filth. I do very much love classic female brit writers. lol A good regency book makes me happy.

So do I  Any recommodations? 

[Lurky]

I really wish that before even starting to lit-crit poetry at school, I'd read each poem out loud a couple of times, or even better, heard someone else read it. Diving straight into analysis ruined poems for me.

For my GCSE and A Level English Lit, I got all my set texts out of the library as audio books, on the basis I could listen to them on my walkman (how that dates me!) and when I was in bed, and it made the Shakespeare much better, and made me appreciate the Chaucer.  If anyone is studying/has kids studying English Lit and isn't doing this already, I really recommend it, especially as there are so many good audio e-books these days.

(I swear Chaucer was just done in school to freak out the teachers.  "Sir, what does Marriage Tackle mean?"  but listening to it read by an actor was a completely different experience to the interminable lessons goinf round the classroom with everyone reading a couple of lines)

[nausicaa]

1 hour ago, AprilQuilt said:

Nobody ever mentions the other book which quite profoundly influenced it - A High Wind in Jamaica. It might be titled The Innocent Voyage in America.

It was written in the late 20s and is broadly about a group of children accidentally captured by pirates. It is chilling and insightful and so, so beautifully written. Its final scene is really closely mirrored by Lord of the Flies. One of my all-time favourite novels, I HIGHLY recommend it.

I was just about to recommend A High Wind in Jamaica! I adore/am disturbed by that final scene. Granted, I also love Lord of the Flies. 

I actually read the former because I eventually want to work my way through the entire MLA Top 100 Novels of the Twentieth Century. Anyone else do this? Where my nerds at? 

[AprilQuilt]

1 hour ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

High Wind in Jamaica is in the public domain! I've just downloaded it - thanks for the recommendation!

I hope you enjoy it! And don't end up on a forum one day moaning about the deadly book some weirdo recommended...

[NeverBeenKissed]

A HUGE thank you to whoever it was that posted The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I binged the whole series over the weekend! 

[justoneoftwo]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Madame Bovary, One of my favorites!

[Exposedknees]

Since we are still on books. Has anyone read the new Ken Follett in the Kingsbridge series; A Column of Fire?