Quote: blackdahlia1 @ August 1 2009, 4:39 PM BSTI love all of Dickens books. They are so descriptive of the period.
Yes, the famous menstruation scene in Little Dorrit...
Books that disappoint Page 6
I just don't like his style of writing!
I can't get involved or care about the characters.
But I do enjoy the screen adaptations and the Victorian-ness. 
You dirty scampette.
Quote: zooo @ August 1 2009, 4:42 PM BSTI just don't like his style of writing!
I can't get involved or care about the characters.
It's like we're twins or some-fin! Oh my God I've said that before. To you! I've been on here so much I'M MEETING MYSELF COMING BACK!!!!!!!
Quote: Kenneth @ August 1 2009, 3:06 PM BSTCould have fun with that Wilde question. The worst I got in a high school English exam was a Poetry Section, where the 'poem' was the Beatles' song She's Leaving Home (By John Lennon and Paul McCartney). The question was "What meaning due you think the poem's authors are trying to convey?" I had a field day, pointing out that the question was flawed because it is a song, not a poem. And there was only one author: McCartney, doing his typical Victorian melodramatic schmaltz; Lennon hated the song. After explaining Northern Songs' shared credits for the Beatles' frontmen, I ranted about how even a retarded spaniel could understand McCartney's simplistic lyrics, which should be seen within the context of the Sgt Pepper album as a whole. I concluded by writing that the teacher who set the poetry section of the exam was a stupid halfwit for not presenting students with a poem. Remarkably I was still given a mark of 15%.
Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2009, 3:12 PM BSTDon't know about that, I think school does more to turn kids off of books than to turn them on to them. The important thing is to get kids reading books, pretty much any books, and then let them make discoveries for themselves.
Definitely. 100%.
Quote: sootyj @ August 1 2009, 3:32 PM BSTthe move to stop teaching complete Shakespeare plays is long, long overdue.
Shakespeare has always left me cold. I could never (and still don't) understand the fascination he holds. I can't bear hearing Olde English. It makes my ears hurt.
Joseph Heller's Closing Time sequel to Catch-22 was a total disappointment.
Quote: chipolata @ August 1 2009, 10:13 AM BSTChekov's always left me cold. Maybe I haven't seen him done right.
An ice pick and plastic cable ties is the only way to do Chekov.
Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2009, 2:54 PM BSTGoerring said, "whenever I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my revolver".
Yes, but he was a hypocrite because he raped European museums and art collections for great works to use as settings for wanky Nazi transvestite debauchery.
Unless it was a subtle veiled threat to the Third Reich's culture minister?
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ August 1 2009, 3:04 PM BSTI had to read these at school and really, really enjoyed them. I remember getting to the end of 1984 and feeling utterly depressed. I wanted to do a sequel in which Chuck Norris and a gang of cyber ninjas attacked the Ministry of Truth and rescued Winston Smith.
Blasphemer.
I cried and cried at the end of 1984. But I'm so glad Orwell didn't do a happy version. The ending is possibly one of the greatest in all of literature. It is perfection.
It's the kind of book that could never get written today. The publisher would insist on an upbeat end.
Quote: zooo @ August 1 2009, 4:13 PM BSTThe world is a 1984 pastiche.
Agreed.
Quote: sootyj @ August 1 2009, 3:36 PM BSTI some times wander what my life would have been like if I'd followed onto an English degree.
wonder*
Quote: sootyj @ August 1 2009, 3:36 PM BSTI once one a school prize
won*
Quote: sootyj @ August 1 2009, 3:40 PM BSTI was thinking more a deeply embittered english teacher with a bottle of whiskey in his desk. Similar to my life now but with more holidays.
English*
Quote: sootyj @ August 1 2009, 3:57 PM BSTEveryone loves Lord of the Flies.
It's tedious.
Quote: zooo @ August 1 2009, 4:13 PM BSTThe world is a 1984 pastiche.
The Labour Party didn't grasp that Nineteen Eighty-Four is meant to be a warning, not a blueprint.
Quote: SlagA @ August 1 2009, 5:51 PM BSTJoseph Heller's Closing Time sequel to Catch-22 was a total disappointment.
Another on the long list of books I couldn't be arsed to finish.
I was expecting something very different from this book
I was told by my 6 year old daughter that I was wasting my time reading The Zombie Survival Guide because they aren't real. I do realize that while in a zombie attack, one really doesn't have time to stop and read for tips. Oh well, guess I'll just keep carrying my chainsaw.
Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 6:08 PM BSTThe Labour Party didn't grasp that Nineteen Eighty-Four is meant to be a warning, not a blueprint.
Loud standing ovation from me.
Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 6:08 PM BSTThe Labour Party didn't grasp that Nineteen Eighty-Four is meant to be a warning, not a blueprint.
In the same way Thatcher saw The Iron Dream as blue print.
Quote: AndreaLynne @ August 1 2009, 6:43 PM BSTI was told by my 6 year old daughter that I was wasting my time reading The Zombie Survival Guide because they aren't real. I do realize that while in a zombie attack, one really doesn't have time to stop and read for tips. Oh well, guess I'll just keep carrying my chainsaw.
The Zombie Survival Guide was written by Max Brooks - son of Mel Brooks. Trufax!
Quote: SlagA @ August 1 2009, 5:51 PM BSTJoseph Heller's Closing Time sequel to Catch-22 was a total disappointment.
Read Good As Gold instead, which is Heller's very funny satire on US politics and Jewishness.