Jinjer 31: Books, Books, and More Books

[Palimpsest]

16 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Life is way too short and there are way too many really good books to be read

So what are some "good" books you can recommend?

Jinger wants to know.

[Carm_88]

1 hour ago, FleeJanaFree said:

While we're on my favorite thread drift (and I formally vote book drifts become the new Nail Polish subject changers while we're at it) any suggestions to get me to appreciate the classics? I read non stop, honest to God hours a day recreationally.

I don't like the classics as much as I should either. I love Jane Austen, I love Tolkien, I can appreciate the Bronte sisters but I have been reading David Copperfield for a year and a half. I normally read a book every couple of days and I cannot get through many of the classics. I think you just have to find an author that you do enjoy. I'm trying audiobooks to see if it's easier. 

[FleeJanaFree]

13 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

So what are some "good" books you can recommend?

Jinger wants to know.

My GoodReads favorite books include 

-Harry Potter, duh

-to kill a mockingbird

-the help

-19 minutes

-the pact

-Bad Feminist

-j.k. Rowling's Strike series

-the Pearl that broke its shell

-the handmaids tale

-unbroken

-the perks of being a wallflower

-and the mountains echoed 

-the story teller

-Gone girl

-Anne frank remembered (by one of her Helpers, who actually hid another person in her own home!)

conscience and courage 

if you can't tell from my list titles, I have a thing for fighting injustices, mysteries, plot twists, and world war II storylines.

shall we start a FJ book Club?

 

 

 

[tabitha2]

In my wild(ha!) youth I  went through a period when I wanted to be quite something ( or at least be seen as such)and valiantly attempted to read Candide because I was obsessed with musical  and Dantes Inferno because of the poetry and A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. Other than the Inferno I could not even with them. Oddly enough I read The Good Earth twice which is no afternoon read either.I think the subject was just more interesting to me.

[SassyPants]

I'm going to visit my daughter next month. She is really into the classics and found the The baby lit series, so I bought the following to take to my 3 YO GD who loves books and having others read to her.

 

[GotCaughtDancing]

@FleeJanaFree

My take on liking the classics is when you are subjected to them as a young person with lots of discussion they get you to atleast think about different things, times, subtext etc., and how they may or may  not differ from today, I think that makes reading them and looking at them in a different light bearable. If you enjoyed them then, it makes them easier to reread later on in life as you have a certain appreciation for them.  Trying to start on these books  in adulthood can be challenging because they don't hold the same whimsy or different outlook you had as a younger person , you know before you adult, realize how life works and turn cynical lol. This is just my thoughts on it.

I've tried again and again to like Jane Austen and just can't do it. My friend on the other hand re-reads her yearly.   

[Rachel333]

How do you tell the story of Anna Karenina to toddlers? 

[SapphireSlytherin]

1 hour ago, GotCaughtDancing said:

My take on liking the classics is when you are subjected to them as a young person with lots of discussion they get you to atleast think about different things, times, subtext etc., and how they may or may  not differ from today, I think that makes reading them and looking at them in a different light bearable.

My parents (also voracious readers) even bought me the card game Authors when I was very young. To this day, I can tell you which author wrote a specific set of four classics - but I can't read them! Well, most of them.

 

2 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

So what are some "good" books you can recommend?

Since tastes in literature (and trash!) are so varied, I can simply list what I like. Some people may love the same things, others may hate them.

Classics I loved:

To Kill a Mockingbird

Mark Twain - any/all

Gone With the Wind

1984

Diary of Anne Frank (I have a huge list of WWII teen-focused books that I've read)

Animal Farm

Brave New World

Tale of Two Cities

E.B. White:  Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan

********

Classics I regret wasting my time reading:

The Great Gatsby

The Old Man and the Sea

Little Women

The Secret Garden

Charles & the Chocolate Factory

********

Books/Authors I can read over and over and over and over:

Harry Potter (duh!)

Little House series

Clive Cussler (before he started "collaborating" with other "authors")

Stephen King (The Stand is my all-time favorite)

John Grisham (early books - aside:  I've met him several times and he's easy on the eyes)

Edgar Allan Poe

*******

Popular books/authors that I despise:

James Patterson

Gone Girl 

Roald Dahl

50 Shades (I made it through 2.5 pages before I threw it across the room)

Kurt Vonnegut

Dean Koontz

 

*****

This is one of those topics that's so much fun to discuss with friends, around a bonfire or in a pub - for hours on end.  It seems as though I always forget to add a book/author to a certain category until someone else mentions a book... haha

[Palimpsest]

25 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

How do you tell the story of Anna Karenina to toddlers? 

She lived, she lusted, she died.  Beware of railroad tracks.

[Carm_88]

32 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

How do you tell the story of Anna Karenina to toddlers? 

She throws herself on the train tracks in the first place and saves everyone 800 pages.  

[KnittingOwl]

1 hour ago, Rachel333 said:

How do you tell the story of Anna Karenina to toddlers? 

I was wondering the same thing!! 

The moral of the story: don't play on railroad tracks. 

[2manyKidzzz]

Thomas The Tank Engine with a sad ending.

[JesusCampSongs]

SPOILER ALERT god you guys I was really going to read Anna Karenina one day but you have RUINT IT. 

(seriously, though, after suffering through Crime and Punishment my last year of high school I'm still disinclined to read long-ass Russian novels.)

[16strong]

5 minutes ago, JesusCampSongs said:

SPOILER ALERT god you guys I was really going to read Anna Karenina one day but you have RUINT IT. 

(seriously, though, after suffering through Crime and Punishment my last year of high school I'm still disinclined to read long-ass Russian novels.)

Try short-ass Russian. Chekhov's short stories are amazing. Kind of bohemian, beautifully and simply written as if you were there, and fantastically witty endings. Or tragic and witty. Or sometimes just thoughtful.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

13 minutes ago, JesusCampSongs said:

(seriously, though, after suffering through Crime and Punishment my last year of high school I'm still disinclined to read long-ass Russian novels.)

I kind of liked Crime and Punishment when I was 17, but I've never bothered to reread it. On the other hand, I got to the middle of The Brothers Karamozov twice. Both times I got bogged down in around the same spot, lost interest, and couldn't remember enough to start reading at the same spot. I doubt I'll ever pick it up again. 

[tabitha2]

Children's classics I read: 

All the Anne's more than once and the other Montgomery works as well.

The Little Women trilogy more than once  

Five little Peppers series 

Box car Children's most of them

Uptown Girls

Little house all of them more than once 

Charlottes Web

 

Ones I never read:

Heidie 

The OZ books

Peter Pan

Black stallion

Nancy Drew

 

Classics:

Gone with the wind

Jane Erie

Most of Jane Austins

Good Earth and Sequels

Most Dickens 

Connecticut Yankee   

 

Never Read:

Any Tolstoy 

Any Jules Verne

 

 

Other Books adapted to movies:

Ghost and Mrs Muir

Cheaper by the Dozens and Sequels 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shadoewolf]

I loved the Babysitters Club as a kid, and almost everything Judy Blume. The Little House and Anne books.  I read some Danielle Steele and VC Andrews as a teen and now I devour Nora Roberts/JD Robb, and Sandra Brown, but more on their murder mystery end of the spectrum. Hubby has EVERY Robert Jordan book down in the basement and goes back to them every few years. My oldest liked the Warriors series by Erin Hunter and my 13 year old is reading the Monster High series. Trying to find a series our 9 year old son will like.

[nausicaa]

1 hour ago, 16strong said:

Try short-ass Russian. Chekhov's short stories are amazing. Kind of bohemian, beautifully and simply written as if you were there, and fantastically witty endings. Or tragic and witty. Or sometimes just thoughtful.

I always feel like such a simpleton, because I do not get Chekhov's stories at.all. Just don't understand what the point is or why the writing is considered good. 

I haven't been brave enough yet to tackle Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, because if I can't even get through Chekhov, what hope do I have?

[SportsgalAnnie]

The " Dear America" Series

The " Royal Diaries" Series

The "Alex Rider" Series

"Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"

"The Help"

"BossyPants" 

[nickelodeon]

1 hour ago, 16strong said:

Try short-ass Russian. Chekhov's short stories are amazing. Kind of bohemian, beautifully and simply written as if you were there, and fantastically witty endings. Or tragic and witty. Or sometimes just thoughtful.

Dostoevsky also has a lot of short stories and novellas, including the remarkable Notes From the Underground, if you're interested in reading him but are daunted by the length of Karamazov or Crime & Punishment.

[LuckyShot]

I was totally put off the classics by my high school literature class. My teacher was a pretentious jerk and made my favorite subject miserable for me. I have read the Cliffs Notes on most of them though. I wrote my diploma essay on The Grapes of Wrath and I had never finished the book. Somehow I managed to get the top mark in my whole province that year and had my essay featured as an examplary essay. I did like the books we read in Junior High, The Outsiders (I went out and found every S.E. Hinton book available after that, loved them all), Holes, To Kill A Mockingbird, Where the Red Fern Grows, lots of good ones.

I've considered trying to read some more classics now that I'm an adult, but I don't have unlimited time to read so I don't really want to spend time reading books I don't like. I mostly read non-fiction now. My favorite authors are Bill Bryson and Will Ferguson. I'm reading John Cleese's autobiography right now and really enjoying it.

[metheglyn]

6 hours ago, justoneoftwo said:

If she actually said physics was why thats great.  It also sounds like she talked back some.  But don't they have cup holders?  This all seems so illogical.  

It was actually in the cupholder when it spilled. While driving, Jeremy tried to take a drink from a paper coffee cup through one of the sipper lids, burned his mouth and called it lava, not coffee. He handed it to Jinger and had her take the top off to cool after putting it in the cupholder between the two front seats. Jinger keep saying it was going to spill, and that she was going to put the lid back on when turning, while Jeremy said it wouldn't.

Right before it happened he said "Watch. It's not going to spill on you babe, okay? Even though we're turning." She tried to cover it, he said to leave it. She did, but watched it super skeptically, evidently not convinced. They went left around a corner and it spilled onto Jinger's seat, getting on her skirt. Since she was watching it, she immediately boosted herself up towards the door away from the coffee. She stared at it for a moment, then threw her head back laughing. Jeremy started laughing incredulously himself and reached over to grab the cup.

After a brief TH, Jinger got out of the car to wipe off her skirt and the seat, and Jeremy said "Babe, how did you know it was going to spill?" Jinger replied, "Because. The law of physics." 

She then got back in after deciding her skirt was dry, and told Jeremy that while the stain would be fine, the car was going to be sticky for a month. He'd just started drinking his coffee and essentially had a spit-take. He looked pretty embarrassed and acknowledged that he had told her it wouldn't spill but was wrong. They kissed, and the show moved on the next scene.

I don't think she got hurt despite the "lava" coffee, since she was already watching it when it happened and got right out of the way. It looks like it was just her skirt that got wet, not her leg, but she was making it clear to him that she'd been right to be skeptical and he was wrong, and he *seemed* to recognize that.

[16strong]

45 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

I always feel like such a simpleton, because I do not get Chekhov's stories at.all. Just don't understand what the point is or why the writing is considered good. 

I haven't been brave enough yet to tackle Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, because if I can't even get through Chekhov, what hope do I have?

His short stories rock my world because although they are essentially slice-of-life vignettes, they still have a lot to say about the human condition. To me, they're the literary version of fine art. You are stepping into a vivid yet subtle painting and just enjoying the atmosphere and the little details, but you can also interpret the stories on a broader scale. His descriptives and scenery are unparalleled. Despite the fact that the stories are set in the 19th c., I find them relateable because they focus on basic human impulses, and describe everything so simply. Kind of timeless. Just my (fangirl self's) opinion, lol.

[MarbleRainbow]

1 hour ago, Shadoewolf said:

Trying to find a series our 9 year old son will like.

My younger brother (8 years younger than me) just did not like reading for the longest time. He liked being read TO but wouldn't read on his own. What really got him excited and hooked on reading was the Geronimo Stilton series. It's about a mouse who's a reporter and the fun thing is certain words in each story will help show what the word means. So for example, in one book the word 'thunderstorm' might have a dark cloud and lightning behind it. My Mom would reward him with new books in the series for the longest time, he just loved them. I believe they were written as a way to get young boys interested in reading. They remind me a little bit of comics, with the words being really dynamic. 

[JordynDarby5]

1 hour ago, SportsgalAnnie said:

The " Dear America" Series

The " Royal Diaries" Series

I loved Dear America and Royal Diaries series. So many times I finished reading one of those books and go research or find more books on the time period, subject or princess I just read about. I also found out there was a Dear Canada series that branched off from it and was able to find many of those books and read them. It was so much fun about reading Canadian history.