Books/Stories They Make you Read at School

[Aixelsyd]

Old Man And the Sea, The Birds, Where the Red Furn Grows, Catcher in the Rye, do you love them?

Just because they say that these books are "Clasics" does that mean that everyone has to love them? Were there any books that you were forced to read as a child that you didn't like?

Complain here!

[Harriet]

Well it's not a classic, but I was forced to read The Other Side of Truth by Beverly...Naibo? I think that's her name. It was incredibly boring.

[Aixelsyd]

I feel that in school whey they make everyone read the same book they usually say, "this is what the book is about, these are the important characters, and this is what the book means" and I feel this is wrong. Everyone gets something different out of a book, and if you teach it in school, it just standardizes the way people look at books.

And there was also the fact that in school they made you feel like there is a wrong way to interpret a book, which there isn't. That's the beauty of books, four people can read a book and get something different out of it. The plot will be the same, and the characters, but everyone has to create these characters in their mind so they all come out different.

[Tess]

Some of my favourite books are those which I studied at school, this is because I had a wonderful English teacher who helped me in my understanding of the text thereby enabling me to make my own interpretations, this is vastly different than just telling a class what they should think.

[Harriet]

I read Animal Farm last year, and really didn't like having to read it as a class, I liked to go on ahead then when I got asked to read aloud I didn't know where we were......

[Sara]

It's mostly the plays I've done in literature that I hate. Brian Friel is the bane of my life.

But anyhoo. I hated The Color Purple when we did it in school.

[Aixelsyd]

I got out of having to read "The Grapes of Wrath" this year in High School by taking English at the local community college. So instead I got to read "Tell No One" by Harlan Coben, which I own and had already read. Everyone in the class had to read a different book and do a 6 page review on it and then we had class discussions.

[Seraphina]

It's mostly the plays I've done in literature that I hate. Brian Friel is the bane of my life.

But anyhoo. I hated The Color Purple when we did it in school.

i quite like brian friel, why do you hate him so much? i especially liked translations.

i had to read a book called Moonfleet at school. it was pretty rubbish.

[Sara]

i quite like brian friel, why do you hate him so much? i especially liked translations.


I thought his plays wasted good ideas and ran out of steam by the end. His attempts at comedy were awful, especially in Philadelphia Here I Come. And I thought some of the characters in his plays could be very two dimensional, for example Lancey in Translations.

I also spent two years in drama performing scenes from Philadephia about every week which probably drove me to hate all his plays. ;)

[Harriet]

It's odd how school can take a perfectly good play like 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and make it sound so incredibly boring...

[Aixelsyd]

Midsummer Night's Dream was one of the only things I read in school that wasn't ruined for me, maybe that was because my english teacher in a stalky, Monty Python loving, italian man.

[Seraphina]

I had to read Underground to Canada when I was in first year at school which was quite good - it's about 2 young black slaves escaping to Canada. But I remember I got in trouble once when we had to write an 'additional chapter' for it because the main character, Julilly, spoke in a classic black american way (ie 'I ain't got no bread' or something like that), and in my chapter when Julilly was speaking I wrote her speech like that as well, and my teacher actually scolded me for bad use of grammar and scribbled in red pen all over it?! I thought it would have been perfectly obvious what I was doing since the rest of my story was in perfect English...?! :mad:

Stupid teachers, eh?! :confused:

[Aixelsyd]

Whas the bad grammar just in the quotes and such?

[Dr. Strangelove]

MacBeth is much worse than a midsummer nights dream! At least it's all fairyfied and fantasy land, MacBeth is about a boring Scottish bloke who goes mad, and has a crazy wife.

[Sara]

I preferred Macbeth I must say. And it's not about a boring Scottish bloke who goes mad. It's about fear and paranoia, the destructive power of ambition, revenge, loyalty, and even kingship to name but a few of the themes. It's completely tragic how the thirst for power drove these good people to madness. A Midsummer Night's Dream has some beautiful language and imagery but the story is less interesting and a bit messy in my opinion.

[ckqd]

i'm currently reading a chinese book 400 pages long! *grumbles* They made us read "Animal Farm" for literature, which i pretty enjoy ;)

[Harriet]

MacBeth is much worse than a midsummer nights dream! At least it's all fairyfied and fantasy land, MacBeth is about a boring Scottish bloke who goes mad, and has a crazy wife.

I'm sorry Sara, but I'd have to say I agree with LittleBritain....Macbeth is ok, if you're into all the deep meanings etc but IMHO A Midsummer Night's Dream is much easier, lighter play to get...

[Dream Weaver]

Since when did easier and lighter mean better?

[Harriet]

It doesn't always, I just find a play easier to enjoy if I don't have to work hard to understand it. Especially if I'm already working hard to understand what they're saying.

[Purity]

I quite enjoyed MacBeth when I was at school :o

The other books I remember reading were William Goldings Lord of the Flies, John Windhams Day of The Triffids, and ST Coleridges Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner. I know the last is not a book, but it's almost long enough to count as such!

[Sara]

It doesn't always, I just find a play easier to enjoy if I don't have to work hard to understand it. Especially if I'm already working hard to understand what they're saying.

That could be why I prefer Macbeth. I've been studying Shakespeare for so long that I can understand the language straightaway and I don't have to work hard when reading the plays, so I focus on the story more.

There was a great quote from Blackadder on TV last night: "You'd laugh at a Shakespeare comedy Baldrick". Made me think of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

[nospacesallowed]

It's just so boring reading with evry1 else but then again at least ya learn sumink

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well MY brother hardly reads anything. Neither do his friends. i guess when they're older they won't be as clever as us. It's annoying hwo now that there is computer, playstation etc that no one can be bothered to read. I wonder if our grandkids will ever read?

[Harriet]

Yeah, my brother's read about one book in the past year. Oh well, their loss.

:)

[Revony]

I had to read To Kill A Mockingbird with I very much enjoyed...except when our teacher made us read as a class I got into an embarressing situation!
Miss:- "Carry on Danielle"
Me :- "Erm...pardon Miss?"
Miss:- "Carry on reading the paragraph."
Me:- "What page Miss?"
Miss:- "The class are on page 42 Danielle."
Me:- "Okay..." *turns to page 42 from page 58*
Me:- " What paragraph???"


you can guess the rest heehee :o

though I do remember reading a book from the Yr 5 book case when I was in Yr 3....I got very bored as a young child heehee

Ahh..the joys of stories :rolleyes:

[Minxminnie]

Oh, as an English teacher, I hate it when that happens!
It brings sharply into focus the fact that the pace of learning isn't always right. I have to stop myself being annoyed at the fast reader!
I couldn't do it - I'd find the other reading too distracting.

[lifelongreader]

I just finished Holes with my Year 8 class and they created a wiki <a href="http://stanleyyelnats.wikispaces.com">here</a> which was fun to do.

We didn't read it as such - just snippets in class, and then they did activities on it.

[katrina]

I have a few fast readers in my year 8 class who can be mile ahead of the rest of us, its a shame as they are the people I was really hoping to enagae with Chinese Cinderella as I thought it would stretch them.

[starlock]

For english lit we had to read 'To kill a mocking bird' by harper lee. It was intersting to see diffrent peoples reactions to haveing to read, i now some people who never read the book. I watched the film before reading the book, and it wouldnt have been a book i would have picked up on my own, but i was very amazed and can be honest and say that i loved it, and i think i loved it more beucase we went indepth into it and understand things said in the book in a larger context.

[ennui]

I loved everything we studied at school. And like nearly all of what I study now.
At school I was blessed with some very good English teachers. Being a natural bookworm helped too though.


I didn't like reading "Plague 99" by jean ure though-because it really gave me the creeps.

[ennui]

I had to read To Kill A Mockingbird with I very much enjoyed...except when our teacher made us read as a class I got into an embarressing situation!
Miss:- "Carry on Danielle"
Me :- "Erm...pardon Miss?"
Miss:- "Carry on reading the paragraph."
Me:- "What page Miss?"
Miss:- "The class are on page 42 Danielle."
Me:- "Okay..." *turns to page 42 from page 58*
Me:- " What paragraph???"


you can guess the rest heehee :o

though I do remember reading a book from the Yr 5 book case when I was in Yr 3....I got very bored as a young child heehee

Ahh..the joys of stories :rolleyes:
Oh that sounds like me. I used to get physically angry (used to-I am much more mature now lol.) listening to people read at snail pace-why did they make us read out loud? It's so unfair to weaker readers and frustrating for strong readers alike.

[Minxminnie]

why did they make us read out loud?
I can see the frustration, but reading aloud allows the class to experience the text together, and lets the teacher stop and ask questions, which are just so important.
I'm an English teacher, and I prefer teaching a short text, which you can read with the class, than a longer one which you need to let the kids read at their own pace, because of the shared experience.
I don't mind if the keen readers read on at home, as long as they don't spoil the end for those kids who enjoy sharing the text. I always tell them they'll get a lot out of reading it again in class if they have read on.

[Cootisms]

Had to do Of Mice & Men for GCSE which I really disliked. at least it was short though! In the summer between Year 10 & 11, we had a reading list, from which our coursework/exam books would be based. I read To Kill a Mockingbird & absolutely loved it, but the other English class ended up studying it, which I'm glad about now, as analysing books kills them for me!
Macbeth was my first ever Shakespeare (I joined the school in Year 10, after having been in the French/international system, where you do not study Shakespeare, but awful stuff like plays by Molière & Corneille and all the really dull French classics), which was pretty challenging, but I did quite enjoy it.
A-Level involved Translations by Brian Friel, which I thought was excellent. We did The Tempest too, and we put on a performance of it too-I ended up doing makeup for it, so got to watch it & it really made it clear to me that plays have to be seen to be understood, especially Shakespeare's! Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which I'd read for pleasure over the Summer I finished my GCSE's & loved which got left to be studied til the last minute & it was so painful to pick apart a book I'd previously loved-I couldn't even look at it for several years afterwards!
A-Levels were also my first experience of Austen and we studied Mansfield Park... I mean, out of all the interesting, witty & lively Austen heroines there are to choose from, who in their right minds would choose Fanny Price who is absolutely pathetic, IMHO. I despised the book & ended up buying the York notes for it instead of slowly dying of boredom! No, I didn't get a passing grade in my exam what did you expect? It took me many years to get over my Austen phobia!
I've never been good at analysing books, but I do adore reading anything & everything I get my hands on... I totally relate to everyone who raced through their reading schemes at school, as I used to do the same, when I was at an International school. I also used to have to beg to be allowed to take out more than the allocated number of library books! :D

[Minxminnie]

A-Levels were also my first experience of Austen and we studied Mansfield Park... I mean, out of all the interesting, witty & lively Austen heroines there are to choose from, who in their right minds would choose Fanny Price who is absolutely pathetic, IMHO.

I agree. I re-read Austen all the time, but I can't get through MP.

[Petra]

I found that my enjoyment of books at school all came down to the English teachers ability to reach out to the class and make it relevant. The one English teacher I had and liked was in year nine and the books that I read in that year have stayed dear to me- Macbeth, To Kill A Mockingbird and Animal Farm. Whereas the books I read with less engaging teachers have haunted em ever since-An Inspector Calls, A Streetcar names Desire and so many more that I cant even remember studying them at all.

[ottilie]

I don't remember many of the books I had to read for school (which speaks volumes!)

I had a fantastic English teacher in year 9 too (not the same school as bella!), we studied Animal Farm and I loved every minute of it.
Unfortunately, in my GCSE years I had a teacher I couldn't stand, and who managed to remove any joy from the process of reading. I know we did Silas Marner, Romeo and Juliet and the Prologue to the Caterbury Tales :grumble: , but that's about it. Glad I didn't read To Kill a Mockingbird with him, it would have tainted one of my favourite books!