Books that do and don't suck

[Barciad]

For Historical Fiction within the Roman Genre, I would recommend getting Robert Harris's 'Imperium'. However, I would avoid at all costs Conn Iggulden's 'Emperor' Series.
Currently I'm reading James Clavell's 'Shogun'. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the definitive 'Westerner trapped in the Far East' adventure story.

 

[JanatUrlich]

In English Lit I'm reading poetry anthologies by Philip Larkin and Carol Ann Duffy and they suck maaaajor donkey balls

But in English Language I'm reading Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs by various female authors and if you can get over the PURE FEMINISM then it's actually a pretty good read.

Also, I read 1984 and Animal Farm for recreational purposes and they were boring as fuck. Still way better than Larkin and Duffy though

Ok im going to pick this apart piece by piece as I will probably be banned if i try to sum it up all once.
1. Philip Larkin is not crap
2. Philip Larkin is NOT crap
3. Carol Ann Duffy is now poet laureate and while I dont like her personally, this clearly means she is not crap.
4. 1984 and animal farm are accepted and as masterpieces around the world and have been since they came out (incidently if you find them crap you probably dont understand them which means you should either read up on Russian history or stop critiscising things you dont understand.
Ok end of rant, oh and because I know this is coming I AM AWARE that this is an OPINION which you have a RIGHT to, im ok with that. The opinions however are just wrong

1. Philip Larkin is a pretentious, chauvinist dickhead who needed to get his head out of his arse and stop trying so goddamn hard to be cutting edge.
2. Carol Ann Duffy may well be poet laureate, but there was a lot of uproar over this fact which clearly shows that many people do believe she is crap.
3. 1984 and Animal Farm are definitely masterpieces of political propaganda, but 1984 is written semi-decently while Animal Farm reads like it was written by a twelve year old. The sentences are ridiculously simple and short while the actual plot progression leaves a lot to be desired. And I just found 1984 to be boring. Of course I understand that Russian History you judgemental prick. I'm also studying A Level history and the whole reason I read the book was because my teacher suggested it as decent reading. And when I told him my opinion on the book, he agreed and said he'd only asked me to read it for the subtext.
4. Get the fuck off my opinion

 

[JanatUrlich]

-snip-

Yeah yeah I'm doing second year A-levels. I'm doing English language and literature and yeah, I'm looking at poetry anthologies in my literature class. In my language class we're looking at an anthology of women's journalism. It's extremely strange XD

Our GCSE stuff was shite too. We had to do Carol Ann Duffy then too so I am totally Carol Ann Duffy'd out!

Fucking Carol Anne Duffy. And Simon Armitage. Jesus Christ.

Lol yesssss

And is your second name actually Barr by the way? THAT'D BE THE SECOND COINCIDENCE WITH MY LAST NAME IN A WEEK.

 

[Danik93]

everything from Lian Hearn

 

[Micklet]

Pride and Predjusticed...and Zombies. Its my book of the year, though read P&P first to fully enjoy it.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

Ok, so in English Class at my school we have required reading books, pretty standard, but the books we have to read suck more than monica lewinsky.

right now we have Watership Down, the Scarlet Letter, and Autobiography of a Face.

I suggested 1984,Animal Farm, We, and a few other books, but the teachers and administration said the books were not appropriate for high schoolers.

So, fellow escapists, what required reading do you have for classes do you have that suck or doesn't suck, and what good and bad books have you read recently?

I'm surprised at the hate for Watership Down, I love that book. But I'm even more surprised they said "No" to 1984 and Animal Farm. The latter was required reading at my school, and the former I was able to pick up from the school library.

As far as books I'd recommend: All Quiet on the Western Front, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Crucible were my favorite reads in high school.

I didn't particularly like Catcher in the Rye, though. I get that it's considered a classic and all, and some parts of it were appealing, but I was just thoroughly unimpressed with it.

 

[SultanP]

The teachers and administration is a bunch of sissies. We HAD to reach Animal Farm in my first year of high school.

 

[WildManBill]

Lord of the flies.
That book definatly attracted flies, it was sh*t.

Mr. Was.
That book was awsome.

 

[Silvertongue]

Some of the books we've been required to read have been "Catch 22" and "Look Me in the Eye", the latter about an electrical engineer and car restorer who built exploding guitars for the band KISS and struggled with Aspergers (a high functioning form of Autism) all his life. Both books were equally awesome.

We also read Stephen King's "The Gunslinger", book one of The Dark Tower series, by my suggestion. Basically we're a very, very different school in every facet of the way we operate.

 

[Megacherv]

The Weegies vs. Edinbuggers/Edingbuggers vs. Weegies series, and the Flanimals series. Love those books.

Glasgow vs Edinborough? I don't understand that rivalry.

I got called a weegie when I went to Edinborough, but I'm Australian.

It's difficult to understand if you're not Scottish, but my grandad's Scottish so I've been taught the Scottish humour.

 

[bcponpcp27]

Animal Farm

Weird, we read that in 8th grade at my school. Good books I read were Animal Farm, The Hobbit, and then nothing until right now, Into the Wild. I read it months in advance it was so good. Seriously, most of the books in English suck even if you like (or love in my case) to read.

 

[4fromK]

favourite books in recent memory:
the long hard road out of hell - marylin manson's autobiography (actually quite interesting)

Fear and loathing in las vegas - hunter S thompson (favourite book ever!)

the man who was thursday - G K chesterton (really bizzare, good read)

 

[Shoes]

Its been said before but it warrants a thousandth repetition:
1984.

By far best book I've ever read

 

[Blow_Pop]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
unless you are willing to give ALL your students equal attention to answering questions about the book and you actually understand the book.
In high school, my Humanities teacher had us read this and would barely explain anything and the only students who got questions answered were those with an "A" or a "B" in the class. Seem fair to anyone here? And she didn't even understand the book.....Its not a book for high school, more for college

 

[TylerC]

Watership Down is an awesome book, I read it in 6th grade.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

This thread teaches me a lot about how different people see books.

But 1984 banned? Isn't that the definition of irony? Though Farenheit 451 would perhaps be more suitable.

Watership Down is a cracking book though. Play Fallout 3 and then look at Watership Down with bright eyes.

Fear and loathing in las vegas - hunter S thompson (favourite book ever!)

We can't slow down, this is bat country!

Do you think the film got the book downpat?

 

[Skeleton Jelly]

Sadly 1984 got ruined for me before I could finish it, but it was amazing.

Animal Farm is also very good, and World War Z is FANTASTIC! I am currently reading Johnny Got His Gun, and I recommend it to anyone who ever wants to enlist in the armed forces. Actually everyone should read it! It could possibly be my favorite book.

As for terrible, we were forced to read Life of Pi in ELA. Fucking shit it was terrible. The teacher kept trying to convince us the author was good, but not a single person in my class liked that book.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Pride and Predjusticed...and Zombies. Its my book of the year, though read P&P first to fully enjoy it.

If you liked that, try The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Imagine Back to the Future meets Jane Eyre.


For books I like, uhh...I've got 4 bookcases full...I work in a bookshop

I still think Watchmen, Maus and Good Omens should be required reading for adolescence though. Those three will cover most things you'll need as an adult. Don't forget the classics, but they're the contemporary ones. Lovecraft/Poe really needs the mindset to get into.

 

[funguy2121]

I notice a lot of mentions of Orwell, Huxley, and even some Zamyatin. To those interested in dystopian lit, there's actually a rich tradition of utopian writing that engages the same ideas. I recommend Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward," if you can get your hands on a copy.

At the time, it was described as "Christian Socialism," but don't let that put you off - you can still enjoy it if you're decidedly neither. It's theological only in the sense of a humanistic moral philosophy by way of More, and its socialism has less to do with the hard-line of "The Communist Manifesto" than the gently utopic Marxism of "The German Ideology."

The book hails from that brief time in America when socialism was still a robust intellectual proposition, instead of a smear-tactic bogeyman.

To the readers of Aldous Huxley, I'd recommend his brother Julian as well, who was a father of humanism of the sort that Kurt Vonnegut espoused. His essays collected in "New Bottles for New Wine" are a fascinating look at what humanism could have become. So it goes.

I'm glad Salinger is still being read, though those of you in the States might have trouble finding "For Esme with Love and Squalor" by that name - it was published there (and here, up Narth) as "Nine Stories." The opening story, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" still breaks my heart.

Wouldn't Dostoyevski be considered a proponent of Christian Socialism? It never stopped me from reading his works...