Monday, January 12, 2009
Musing Mondays
How did you react to assigned reading when you were in school/university/college/etc? How do you think on these books now? What book were you 'forced' to read when you where in school that you've since reread and loved?
Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page.
I loved required reading! I've always loved to read and I enjoyed the books I read for school. There were a few dogs- Death Be Not Proud anyone? But there were many more that I loved. Jane Eyre. The Once and Future King. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. On and on. I love "classics" so school reading was generally right up my alley.
I've re-read Jane Eyre many times- it's one of my all-time favorites, and I've re-read John Steinbeck and others as well, but nothing comes to mind right now. Some of my favorite books are things that weren't assigned to me but that teachers suggested- things like All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren and The Idiot by Dostoevsky. I'd have to dig out some of my old reading journals to come up with more titles!
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12 comments:
Jane Eyre is my all time favorite book. I am an avid Bronte sisters reader, over and over again, and this one particular book speaks volumes to me for some reason.
After visiting the Bronte Parsonage on two occasions, in Haworth, England, the gravity of the environment was overpowering.
~~Lorri
I too enjoyed reading for classes. And I doubt I would have picked up Dostoevsky and some of the classics if they hadn't been assigned. I discovered some great books and authors through classes.
Sadly, I do not remember much of my required reading from high school. A few I do remember, I did not like - The Old Man and the Sea, Lord of the Flies, and The Scarlet Letter. I love books, but was turned off by most of the required reading in school.
Jane Eyre still is one of my favourite reads..
Here is mine
I'm a big lover of the classics, too! I was already into them during middle school, and every now and then we'd be assigned something during high school that I'd already read. Not many of my classmates understood my prerogative, though. Their loss!
The only required reading that I really did not like was Thomas Mann. Still can't really get into him, though I have tried!
Everyone got some good reads during high school. I feel deprived.
book reviews
I gave the three most difficult books that I was required to read. One of them I probably won't re-read unless I have a book discussion group.
I actually like E.M. Forster but am skeptical about Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner.
Oh...the professor of the class for which I had to read China Men is Maxine Hong-Kingston herself! So I had to read it in accord to the course calendar. Office hour really helped understand this book.
My sister is older than I am - over the summer I would read the books she had been assigned to read the year before.
I still havent read Jane Eyre.
I think my fav books that were assigned to me in grammar school were Diary of Anne Frank and Go Ask Alice.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
I have been rereading some of my high school and college books recently mostly because I had forgotten so much. Some of them like War and Peace (high school) I remembered one scene only and was delighted with the reread. Jane Eyre (high school) I had forgotten completely and found it a bit flat at least compared with my memory. Another book, Eater of Darkness (college) I found I had a completely erroneous memory of. In my case we are talking of forty or more years so I guess some distortion of memory is to be expected. My very favorites from back then have been read and reread so that I never forget anything.
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