Random Thoughts

[Ksandra]

My school was one of those that said you had to read X amount of points and had a list of books from different genres with different point values.

Going into freshmen year I read The Sword of Shannara since the drawings looked cool and it was worth enough points that I only had to read that.

And thus, Sandy's journey into weebhood began.

[Ksandra]

NGL, I won't leave my career, but it is full on astounding how much pushback teachers get from both parents AND ADMINS over making kids read full novels. And I am not just talking about this summer due to Covid stuff.

Boss keeps pushing getting the kids to read short articles, then blames the English dept. when kids won't read longer passages in the state testing. I keep talking about reading stamina, but it's like fighting a tsunami. It's so sad.

[Zealot]

I read a bunch of fantasy novels including the Shannara books in grade/middle/high school but all I remember being made to read in school (in terms of full novels) was-

The Giver (garbage)
A Tale of Two Cities (worse than garbage)
Huckleberry Finn (awesome)
To Kill A Mockingbird (v good)

A Tale of Two Cities is such a bad book for real

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Zealot]

Meanwhile in that same time I read all of David Eddings, Terry Brooks, started Terry Goodkind (who started super strong and then became a weird objectivist in his writing) and George Martin, probably read a number of other one-offs from authors I didn't follow up on, and began Robert Jordan but his writing got so awful at the end that I quit before finishing.

I read the Hobbit and enjoyed it when I was younger, read Lord of the Rings as an adult and thought it was 99% pure garbage except for some parts of Return of the King.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Demosthenes]

Me reading neuromancer in the equivalent of 7th grade.

[Demosthenes]

Me reading neuromancer in my senior year.

[Demosthenes]

Enders Game was simplistic when I fell into it in the equivalent 8th grade. Speaker For The Dead hit just right though. Shame about Card's inability to love people unlike himself in real life though.

[Demosthenes]

None of my school's had a diverse reading list for school. 9th grade was to kill a mockingbird. No books in 10th, lots of poetry so Shakespeare's poems were overrepresented, The Crucible in 11th, and Canterbury Tales in honors 12. I wasn't expecting to like Canterbury Tales as much as I did.

[Demosthenes]

I read a bunch of fantasy novels including the Shannara books in grade/middle/high school but all I remember being made to read in school (in terms of full novels) was-

The Giver (garbage)
A Tale of Two Cities (worse than garbage)
Huckleberry Finn (awesome)
To Kill A Mockingbird (v good)

A Tale of Two Cities is such a bad book for real

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

I can't speak for tale of two cities as an adult. I read all of Dickens in primary 6, I'd have been like 9, 10 or 11? I remember enjoying his shit back then. I didn't actually read Huck Finn until after I graduated high school. I cannot say I was impressed. Which is not to say it's not "good." I was still a pleb when I read it and I was definitely biased towards a lot of European, specifically English writing styles (when it came to non-science fiction) because that's what I grew up reading.

[Ksandra]

9-11 this is what I remember reading for school:

Wuthering Heights
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
The Scarlet Letter
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
My Brother Sam is Dead
The Lord of the Flies
The Heart of Darkness
A Raisin in the Sun
The Glass Menagerie
The Awakening
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
The Odyssey
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Canterbury Tales
Great Expectations

I feel like I’m forgetting 1 or 2.

As for 12th grade I can’t really answer that. I took a Shakespeare class, but I had one of those completed works of Shakespeare books so I made it a goal to read the whole damn thing that year. (Yes even some of the dry king plays.) So I don’t remember which ones were assigned from that.

[Zealot]

Oh I did read Call of the Wild, Moby Dick, and Lord of the Flies for school. They were fine.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Ksandra]

Less and less classics are being taught which I get and it’s also a shame. Problem is they want to reach the struggling readers who are more likely to buy into a more modern text. But it also means many kids who may actually like the classics never will get around to it.


I am obsessed with them. I have started to run out of classics to read, and find myself not reading as much anymore (work and family don’t help).

[Boyiee]

I was fine reading but once they made us read brave new world I was totally turned off and never read anything for school again. Phoned it in cliff notes whatever else to pull off reports last minute, read whatever I wanted outside of that. What an absolute pile of trash.

Is call of the wild that stupid dude that went to Alaska and died what a dumbass. The movie for that legit made me angry from start to finish.

[Boyiee]

Like, I get it, definitely push good important books like to kill a mockingbird, but besides a really small handful of those let kids read what they want. Encourage reading don't force it with specific novels, those books are terrible. Best book I read in HS was a book on Metallica rofl what a fun report that was to do.

[Abandon]

great expectations was my jam

[Zealot]

I was fine reading but once they made us read brave new world I was totally turned off and never read anything for school again. Phoned it in cliff notes whatever else to pull off reports last minute, read whatever I wanted outside of that. What an absolute pile of trash.

Is call of the wild that stupid dude that went to Alaska and died what a dumbass. The movie for that legit made me angry from start to finish.

Call of the Wild is told from the dog's point of view.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Boyiee]

Call of the Wild is told from the dog's point of view.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

My bad I'm thinking into the wild. I literally googled dude goes to Alaska and dies and it came up.

[Boyiee]

I would totally read a dog book.

[Fondue]

Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.

[Mertron]

edit: disregard cocks etc