As many of us students may agree, most of the books our teachers assign for reading are dull as dirt and just no good (or at least that's been my experience). This is because they want us to read classics that are classics for the reason that no one wants to read them anymore because they're pretty darn boring. HOWEVER, my AP teacher has assigned our class Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, which is turning out to be amazing!!!! Trust me, i wasn't expecting this!! It's about a man who is fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War and trying to get home to the girl he left behind...and it's about her struggles in his absence.....
I'm not far, but so far, it's really great. Recommended!!!
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Cold Mountain is one of my very favorite books of all time--if my house was on fire, it is one of the books I would grab. Just wait--it just gets better and better. It is a terrific love story and so well researched--his language transports me back to that era! After you finish this book, check out Kaye Gibbons On the Occasion if My Last Afternoon. It is a great companion book to that--same time period and feel. Then read On Agate Hill, the book I am reading. Another good one of this genre that I loved is The Widow of the South--another touching story with excitement and unrequitted love. I will tell you that reading these books about the time period surrounding the Civil War makes me thank the good Lord I was born in this time period and I have grocery stores. Don't think I would have been a survivor back then!
I also enjoyed reading "Cold Mountain", but not all of our Teachers are assigning just Classics. Summer reading for Freshman could read "Ender's Game", "Speak" and During class this year have read "Sleeping Freshman Never Lie". Some 10th graders have been assigned "The "Life of Pi", "The Alchemist" and will be reading "The Kite Runner". Hon. 11th Grade Summer Reading had great choices, "Drowning Ruth, The Color of Water, Walking Across Egypt", etc. Some 12th graders will get to read " A Prayer for Owen Meany, Hollow Hills, A Handmaids Tale, The Hobbit".
LG--As soon as i get time in my ridiculous schedule to actually read for pleasure, i'll give these a shot!
MG2--Our freshman year, we read To Kill a Mockingbird. We've had to read Huck Finn and The Scarlet Letter in AP english. I much prefer the "regular books" to the classics.
I loved To Kill a Mockingbird, and must say I am sad you are down on all the classics. Some are boring and terrible, but some are terrific! There are several classic short stories I just love, that are quick reads--The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavares County by Mark Twain, The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (available online at http://eserver.org/fiction/occurrence-at-owl-creek.html,The Tale-tell Heart by Poe (actually, anything by Poe), and these novels, Catch-22, Little Women, The Secret Garden, My Antonia, The Great Gatsby (one of my very favorites), 1984, Dracula. There are some classics that are terrific in movie or mini-series format -- 2 PBS miniseries that are my favorites made from classic books are Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth), and The Forsythe Saga. I love in movie format The Count of Monte Cristo, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, The Man in the Iron Mask, Les Miserables (the play totally rocks), The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the list goes on. I hate that we have sucked the fun out of classics for you by assigning them, but don't write them off your list totally throughout your lifetime. I think some of the classics really can't be appreciated until you are older!
I have taught classics such as To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. Last year I decided I didn't want to teach Of Mice and Men to young people anymore because they didn't seem to have the same compassion for characters that students from the past have had. I also find an overwhelming majority of students who have no desired to look at the written word and enjoy it for its simple beauty. It pained me that such a wonderfully written book with its unique images and sensitive topics would be a book that no longer spoke to generations of young people. Then I decided that because I love the book and I believe the book has real value (globally, emotionally, historically, as well as thematically) that I had to continue to teach this book. What I find myself frustrated is that many students refuse to read and then the discussions (an extremely important part of any reading) are filled with inadequate or unreasonable assumptions. Not every classic will be a book you love but I hope that by the time you finish reading and discussing that you at least can identify, sympathize, recognize good writing, good characters, good structure. There is value in that and not every story has to be the one you save from the burning house but every class is a better springboard which will help you to soar in your own world.
I enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird as well, and our teacher didn't have us read Of Mice and Men, but some books are just...gah. I hear from many people how "great" these books are, and then i try and read them and just...can't get into it! My mother's friend bought me Jane Eyre, which was her favorite book, and I still can't get past her first week in the Manor place. I pretty much LOVE classics in movie form though. They're often my favorite (I live for LotR, and The Count of Monte Cristo is a huge favorite in my house). And i'm personally not fond of the kids that don't read, whether they like it or not--it's still an assignment.
But i did really despise The Scarlet Letter and Huck Finn. I tried, really i did. Somewhat interesting plot ideas...icky books. I also loved Little Women when i read it in 8th grade. The movie's good too.
How can you dislike Huck Finn--it is hilarious! Sometime remind me to tell you my story about one of our principals and the scene at the funeral "orgies" organized by the Duke and King.
Okay, now, we must all hear that story. That is too tempting! I don't get how anyone can not like Huck--it is soooo funny!
OK. Here's my Huck Finn story (which I could never tell had I not read the book, you notice). When Mr. O'Briant first became principal at the high school, back in the day, he was very, very stiff and formal. He was trying out the "never smile before Chrismas" student management technique. Now I love Mr. O'B and he's cool as all, but he was one sad looking principal. Anyway he always wore black suits and looked for all the world like a funeral director. Meantime, my English class was reading Huck Finn and we had just finished the part where the funeral director breaks up a fight between a rat and a dog in the basement under the funeral of Peter Wilkes. (Remember--when the noise begins during what the old King and Duke call "funeral orgies" for the old man, the funeral director slides along the wall, two walls acutally, and slides downstairs. There's a loud yelp and then silence. The funeral director then comes back upstairs and slides back down the two walls as if nothing happened.) At a basketball game, I observed Mr. O'Briant sliding down the entire wall from the door to the boys locker room (in the CCMS gym). I laughed and looked like a fool in the bleachers no doubt. He looked to me like a dead ringer (no pun intended) for the funeral director in Huck Finn. So there you go. It pays to read the classics--what fun you can have in life!
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