What are you reading?

[FIFARay007]

One of the biggest problem in schools today I think is the fact that teachers make kids read books that they can't really understand or appreciate at the time. I know when I was in high school I read a lot of "classics" which at the time I thought were utter crap. Granted there were a few books that I remember liking, but some, I'm sure if I reread them today, I'd have a better appreciation of them.

Watership Down, John Updike. Maybe it was just because it was too long or because I was a frosh in high school, but this social commentary on society using bunnies sucked ass.

Now I'm going back and rereading 1984, but I know I liked that even back then, I'm just thinking I'll get more out of it. Also worth a reread on my part are Catch 22 and Catcher in the Rye.

[BusbyBabes]

One of the biggest problem in schools today I think is the fact that teachers make kids read books that they can't really understand or appreciate at the time. I know when I was in high school I read a lot of "classics" which at the time I thought were utter crap. Granted there were a few books that I remember liking, but some, I'm sure if I reread them today, I'd have a better appreciation of them.

Watership Down, John Updike. Maybe it was just because it was too long or because I was a frosh in high school, but this social commentary on society using bunnies sucked ass.

Now I'm going back and rereading 1984, but I know I liked that even back then, I'm just thinking I'll get more out of it. Also worth a reread on my part are Catch 22 and Catcher in the Rye.

I read the classics in my free time rather than at school because I studied Buddy and Kes as well as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Henry V in my English class. I definately do appreciate the poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon more although I did enjoy studing them at the time.

FAO Rakim the book A Christmas Carol is a very short story and actually very easy to read unlike other Dicken's novels. It would very dissapointing if you were put off English literature because of David Copperfield. I read half that book before I gave up and I have read many hard and long novels.I know what it is like to plod through boring books as I do that now in my studies.:D I did Wordsworth for a year and it was sheer hell!:eek: Give me any novels/poems before The Prelude!

[cr7torossi]

My nine-year old sister has read A Christmas carol, surely you can?:D

I have read abridged versions of almost all the English classics, if that counts for anything;)

[JC7rox]

I read the classics in my free time rather than at school because I studied Buddy and Kes as well as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Henry V in my English class. I definately do appreciate the poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon more although I did enjoy studing them at the time.

FAO Rakim the book A Christmas Carol is a very short story and actually very easy to read unlike other Dicken's novels. It would very dissapointing if you were put off English literature because of David Copperfield. I read half that book before I gave up and I have read many hard and long novels.I know what it is like to plod through boring books as I do that now in my studies.:D I did Wordsworth for a year and it was sheer hell!:eek: Give me any novels/poems before The Prelude!

William Wordsworth is such a ham, though. That guy was so full of himself it shines in his poetry. Ever notice that the most interesting poems in Lyrical Ballads is the stuff that was done by Sammy Coleridge? And he literally wrote what, like 3 pieces?:D I've always love "Rime of the Ancyent Mariner" and "Kubla Khan" along with some of the other, more shoddy stuff like "Christabel." Sammy T was just off his rocker and that was a beautiful thing for literature.

William Blake is excellent, though. If you want to look back at that stuff, my favorite Romantic writers are Blake, Coleridge, and Shelley. Is there a similar thread here?

But I am a lover of all things Milton. That fukcer was an O.G. Although I've yet to read any biography on him (Barbara Lewalski's bio on Milton is sitting next to my DVD player, though), just reading his stuff has fascinated me. From the pamphlets "..on Divorce" to his Samson Agonistes, I have been enveloped by this guy's lit. My favorite piece of literature is Paradise Lost! I feel that is a must read for anyone concerned with any kind of literature. And, he had a heavy effect on a lot of those Romantic guys I mentioned above, especially Blake.

And this stuff is not Old English. Unless we're talking Beowulf and Julian of Norwich (Canterbury Tales is being discussed), than it is not Old English.

[Rakim_22]

I read the classics in my free time rather than at school because I studied Buddy and Kes as well as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Henry V in my English class. I definately do appreciate the poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon more although I did enjoy studing them at the time.

FAO Rakim the book A Christmas Carol is a very short story and actually very easy to read unlike other Dicken's novels. It would very dissapointing if you were put off English literature because of David Copperfield. I read half that book before I gave up and I have read many hard and long novels.I know what it is like to plod through boring books as I do that now in my studies.:D I did Wordsworth for a year and it was sheer hell! Give me any novels/poems before The Prelude!

I haven't read David Copperfield before. I was just commenting on the fact that he was a magician.
My nine-year old sister has read A Christmas carol, surely you can?:D

Don't patronize me like that. :D

I can read but I choose not to. This might come as a surprise but this is basically the mentality of most "American" teens. Its actually quite a shame but..yeah.

[holytoledo]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601144.html

A good read. A journo from the Washington Post travels to one of the most remote places in the U.S., an Eskimo village in the Bering Strait.

It's a pretty depressing place.

[BusbyBabes]

Don't patronize me like that. :D

I can read but I choose not to. This might come as a surprise but this is basically the mentality of most "American" teens. Its actually quite a shame but..yeah.

Hell I am only joking anyway...:D

[Sapphire]

Ever notice that the most interesting poems in Lyrical Ballads is the stuff that was done by Sammy Coleridge? And he literally wrote what, like 3 pieces?:D I've always love "Rime of the Ancyent Mariner" and "Kubla Khan" along with some of the other, more shoddy stuff like "Christabel." Sammy T was just off his rocker and that was a beautiful thing for literature.

William Blake is excellent, though. If you want to look back at that stuff, my favorite Romantic writers are Blake, Coleridge, and Shelley. Is there a similar thread here?Agreed. Coleridge>>>>>>>> Wordsworth. And my favorite thing about Coleridge is you can read The Mariner to the tune of Gilligan's island:

It is an ancient mariner
And he stoppeth one of three
"By thy cold grey beard and thy glittering eye
Now wherefore stoppest thou me?" :D

I've never really gotten into Blake, but he seems like he'd be worth the effort. Shelley is my favorite Romantic writer by a mile. His theorhetorical writings are so interesting and don't reek of pretension like those of some of his contemporaries do.

[BusbyBabes]

Agreed. Coleridge>>>>>>>> Wordsworth. And my favorite thing about Coleridge is you can read The Mariner to the tune of Gilligan's island:

It is an ancient mariner
And he stoppeth one of three
"By thy cold grey beard and thy glittering eye
Now wherefore stoppest thou me?" :D

I've never really gotten into Blake, but he seems like he'd be worth the effort. Shelley is my favorite Romantic writer by a mile. His theorhetorical writings are so interesting and don't reek of pretension like those of some of his contemporaries do.

I have never read Blake or Coleridge really as I am not really into peotry but have you read the poems written by Byron? He was such a strange character and his very questionable relationship with his half-sister Augustus Leigh which was rumoured to have been incestuous (resulting in daughter) meant he had to leave England. I think he is the most interesting character from the Romantic period.

"My Sister ! my sweet Sister ! if a name

Dearer and purer were, it should be thine.

Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim

No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:

Go where I will, to me thou art the same ---

A loved regret which I would not resign.

There yet are two things in my destiny, ---

A world to roam through, and a home with thee."

[Rakim_22]

Hell I am only joking anyway...:D
I know you were joking. :D

[Achtung]

And this stuff is not Old English. Unless we're talking Beowulf and Julian of Norwich (Canterbury Tales is being discussed), than it is not Old English.

Wasn't The Canterbury Tales actually written in Middle English? Thought Old English was mostly before the Normans.

[JC7rox]

Wasn't The Canterbury Tales actually written in Middle English? Thought Old English was mostly before the Normans.

Something screams Wikipedia....:p, but yeah, I stand corrected.:D

[Achtung]

Something screams Wikipedia....:p, but yeah, I stand corrected.:D

Hey I did actually study English at one point, you know. ;) I remember the timeline clearly... Beowulf, then Canterbury, then Shakespeare, then Dickens.

[BusbyBabes]

Wasn't The Canterbury Tales actually written in Middle English? Thought Old English was mostly before the Normans.

Yes indeed it was written in the 14th century at the court of King Edward III

Example of middle English 12th-15th century The Miller's Tale

'A swerd and bokeler bar he by his syde.
. . .
A whit cote and a blew hood wered he.
A bagpipe wel koude he blow and sowne,
And therwithal he brought us out of towne.'

Example of old English-Anglo-Saxon-Norman so 500 AD-1150AD-Beowulf

Out of interest I have seen this on an old English language course which looks very interesting and there are similarities with english words today.
http://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/OEsteps/index.html


Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

I have read that a modern English speaker could understand the English spoken in 1450 with pratice and certainly up to about 1400 but by 1200 would really struggle to do so.

[israbeckham]

I finally got my "Moments" book from Ronaldo. It took 2 or 3 month to ship! And now when it finally got here the front cover was half ripped.:mad: But I dont even wanna deal with it because I'm still dealing with the stupid Giggs jersey I got on ebay.

Anyway:

Its not really a reading book, but more of a picture book:mad:
Its has some brilliant pics in it and is very very nice looking, but I expected a real book, not a scrapbook. It looks really interesting though.

[Numquam Moribimur]

I am reading this right now .....


http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/e9/e4/ef5c225b9da0a0af5f0c2110._AA240_.L.jpg

[israbeckham]

I am reading this right now .....


http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/e9/e4/ef5c225b9da0a0af5f0c2110._AA240_.L.jpg

Funny... I am Jewish. Go Nazi.
OMG yay!!

[prymetyme]

I read that to be educated about my families history. Very disgraceful and horribly racist. 100% horrible. Yet in terms of history, I find it quite interesting.

[holytoledo]

So were they Nazi's, or Jews, or what?

[sdotsom]

Reading a book called Shantaram. Also a collection of short stories by Robert Matheson, including "I am Legend".