Required Reading (in other words, the gamble that may bore you to death)

[Shiny Grimer]

Summer homework. The Evil. The Evil. I don't mind reading, but reading a bad book isn't fun. Particularly when it interrupts the reading of a good book. I've been assigned to read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Things Fall Apart'. I thought the latter would be great and the former terrible. It was the other way around.

TFA is so boring. Tribal life in Africa apparently consists of killing people, beating your wives, and planting yams. That's more or less up to where I read to. I have to write a chapter journal on this and then write a report on the similarities between the books. I know they both have something to do with race, hard work, and different cultures, but TFA is too boring for me to bother finding out other not-so-obvious points. Honestly, I hate writing about literature.

To Kill a Mockingbird is actually interesting and engaging. At the very least, different things occur throughout the book. The characters are interesting and don't show up for just one page/ get killed off before getting to know them (TFA is more or less a 'telling' book than a 'showing' book). In other words, TKaM is good, TFA is boring and disappointing.

I've also been required to read Kindred. It was interesting except that having to go back and analyze every chapter almost ruined it for me. I also had to read 'The View From Saturday', which was odd and some Shakespeare books which I understood. What are your experiences with forced reading?

 

[Icalasari]

Usually very good.

I have yet to be forced to read a book that I did not like

 

[Koji]

I had to read The Outsiders, which I hated, Hidden Talents, which I tolerated, but overall disliked, and Enders Game, the only novel study I actually enjoyed (hurr little boys being sent to destroy an alien race).

 

[Storm Earth and Fire]

While I haven't ever had to do required summer reading, required reading in general is very unfun. The only books I can remember recently that I liked is The Power of One. I generally read very different books from what is required, which is lame.

I didn't like To Kill a Mockingbird, I recall it being very dry for me.

To be honest, I didn't really like Ender's Game either. Most likely because of a predosposition against sci-fi novels. Again, my tastes in books is vastly different.

 

[Furretsu]

I had to read The Outsiders, which I hated

you have no soul

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

The books I've read so far haven't been too bad.

There was one called The Way to Rainy Mountain, which was more of a telling book than showing, so it was not really interesting. I mean, it wasn't totally boring either though, I could get through it just fine.

And The Right Stuff, which is very awesome. It's about astronauts and pilots, the author attempts to explain why they can go into aircraft and risk their lives. I mean, it was very long and there were a lot of words on per page, but it was interesting, to say the least. And the author actually put voice into his writing, which was my favourite part.

The Great Gatsby, hmm, was pretty cool.

This Boy's Life is a memoir about, guess what? A boy and his misadventures. It was so-so. The beginning was boring, the middle interesting (because he had an abusive stepfather and I found myself hating him and wondering how he would get away), and the end a bit of a let down.

Currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird a second time. I read it the first time without being required to, because everybody kept telling me how much of a classic it was. There's quite a bit I've forgotten, but it's even more awesome than I remember it. My favourite characters are Scout and Boo Radley. (I'm at the part where they're having Tom Robinson's trial.)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was not really great. The old-fashioned writing really threw me off. But good thing it was only 30 pages long.

And I had to read this one book, Alas, Babylon in school. It was so good that I asked the teacher if I could buy it from her (the books were hers), she's so nice, she let me have the book free of charge. It's about nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, how the USSR finally bombs the States. (Set during the Cold War, of course) The good thing about it though, is that it's really positive for that type of book. I thought I wasn't going to like it, since I usually hate books like that, but I did. The characters rebuild their lives. Though they aren't the same as before the bombing, they manage to survive.

The only book I've hated that I was forced to read was Lord of the Flies. Terrible, terrible, terrible writing. I hated the writing style SO much. And I didn't like it also because it was so negative. I did find it horrifyingly interesting though, I was on the edge of my seat as I read. But the ending was such a disapointment.

I've got others to read, but uh, I haven't read them yet. I've got to read The Scarlet Letter and a chapter from Centennial.

Mostly though, I either like everything I'm forced to read or am mildly interested in it. Which is a good thing, because I can get through most of that stuff relatively easily.

 

[Noctowl]

Underground to Canada...and To kill a mockingbird. I don't mind though, we don't have many books here, and I do love cuddling up with a book when the net doesn't work. ^.^ I read Of mice and men, which my brother is forced to read. But that's only cuz I was curious. Those books are all ok to read, really.

 

[opaltiger]

The Catcher in the Rye, The Stranger, and The Secret Sharer were all quite enjoyable. The others (The Big Sleep, Julius Caesar, Macbeth) at least weren't so terrible. I appear to have good luck with the literature we study, I don't know.

 

[Storm Earth and Fire]

you have no soul

I am inclined to agree with you.

 

[Flora]

I am in agreement with AuroraKing on The Outsiders. :D

We had/have to read Night by Elie Wiesel (already taken care of thanks to Summer Enrichment), Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (done) She Said Yes by Misty Bernall (awesome) and Chromosome 6 by Robin Cook (MAKE IT STOP!!!!).

 

[Flareth]

This summer my required book is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. It's sorta hard to understand.

 

[Icalasari]

you have no soul

Ouch, kind of harsh. That is pretty much also saying that most of my school has no soul (The Outsiders was not very popular...)

I never had to read over the summer. Here are all the books I have been forced to read that I can remember. I liked every last one of them

Hatchet
The Outsiders
To Kill a Mockingbird
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies

 

[Flora]

Everybody in my class loved it, I think. And only half of my classmates were violence-obsessed jerks. :D

 

[spaekle]

I had to read The Outsiders, which I hated

I had to read that one year. I thought it was a pretty good book, but it's not one I particularly remember when I think about good books I've read. :D;

TFA is so boring. Tribal life in Africa apparently consists of killing people, beating your wives, and planting yams. That's more or less up to where I read to.

Kinda reminds me of Cry, The Beloved Country. That one was just depressing. :(

This summer my required book is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

That was the school's drama production last year. I thought it was pretty good acted out, although they added some funny things of their own to cater to the people who didn't get what the actual play was about. It did involve them turning the butlers gay at the end, though. :B

Macbeth

... kicks ass. Probably my favorite reading unit of last year. :]

Other ones I've had (some summer reading, some not)

A Separate Peace - Good book. Liked it.
East of Eden - Had to read it this summer. Very long but quite good.
And Then There Were None - BWAHAHAHA great book. :D
A Day No Pigs Would Die - No.
The Coffin Quilt - NO.
Across Five Aprils - NOOOOOOO
Oedipus Rex - Yes.
Ethan Frome - It painted an image in my head of a city where it's always winter, and light now flurries are always falling, and everyone wears black coats all the time, and the streets are cobblestone with gas lamps and the horses are all gray and no one ever really smiles. :|
Of Mice and Men - Great. I should read more by Steinbeck.
"The Landlady" - Just a short story in our Literature book, but I've remembered it for this long. Awesome. <3 Although half my class didn't get what happened at the end. :\

That's all I can remember.

 

[Storm Earth and Fire]

Ouch, kind of harsh. That is pretty much also saying that most of my school has no soul (The Outsiders was not very popular...)

I recall at least three-quarters of my school at least finding it tolerable. (compared to other stuff they make us read.)

Some other things I have been required to read:

The Odyssey: Yes, yes, it's nice. But it's not my kind of read.
Of Mice and Men: I have to say, I rather like Steinbeck.
Animal Farm: I like Orwell, but this book doesn't cut it for me. 1984 please.
Fahrenheit 451: It's not too bad.

The short stories we read are pretty good, by contrast. I suppose I could appreciate these books better if they weren't required. I normally read more slowly than they expect us to, I suppose I'm just a leisurely reader.

 

[Icalasari]

Oh, right, add Animal Farm to my list :D

 

[surskitty]

the outsiders... you mean" but dally, you kill people with heaters" that outsiders=hatred...kinda. It makes me:angry:-ish.

I have no idea what you just said.


I tend to mainly be assigned decent books and I don't remember what I liked that was required reading. I do know that I was bored by To Kill a Mockingbird (seemed to have too many scenes that were HEY LET'S BASH YOU IN THE HEAD WITH SYMBOLISM and actually just seemed kind of long-winded), The Catcher in the Rye (mainly because Holden needs to stop whining), some really shitty book I had to read a few years ago whose title I cannot recall, The House on Mango Street (sometimes okay, sometimes not).... Some other things.

I know I've had to read The Outsiders, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, The Odyssey (although that's not a book: it's an epic poem).... A bunch of other things, too, but I can never remember what I read for school without being prompted.

 

[Keltena]

I have to read A Lesson Before Dying. My friend says it's boring, and my camp counselor says it's great, so... let's hope.

Last year I read To Kill A Mockingbird (<3) and Our Town... I don't really remember the years before that too well.

 

[Minish]

Most of the books I've been forced to read haven't been quite bad. Or maybe they have, and I just grew to like them. ^^'

Hmm... I guess the most recent would be Animal Farm. I liked it, but I'm not usually interested in books involving politics. Whether they involve talking pigs telling the story or not. xD

 

[Blaziking the God General]

Heh, The Hobbit and Beowulf. The Hobbit = awesomeness. I'm enjoying it. I finished a shortened version of Beowulf, and it was pretty good. It's really odd though - nearly everyone I talked to about the book said that they never had to read it until they were finishing High School / in college. Weird.