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School books...


Michelle

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As part of our GCSE course, we have to read a book called OPENING WORLDS. It's a collection of short stories that are by authors from all over the world, and all the stories are based around the theme of poverty. They're all really good, and it's nice that they are set in different parts of the world.

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Although it is ahhmmm 1 or 2 years since i left school :D i remember reading (in no particular order): :D

The wind in the willows

The lion the witch and the wardrobe

Kes

Cider with Rosie

Romeo and Juliet

A town like Alice

Charlottes Web (cried buckets over this one!)

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I remember reading Macbeth in high school English.....at the time I thought it was torture...we read the book...then heard the record....and then had to watch the play (on video not live); it might not of been too bad with a different teacher:roll:

Also remember reading the Scarlett Letter in the same class. that I liked; actually I am hoping to pick it up and read it again.

 

In middle school i remember reading The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, i enjoyed that too, especially because we got to go to the Mark Twain House for a field trip:mrgreen:

 

 

great thread!!

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  • 2 years later...

Came across this thread and thought it was quite interesting, so as I wasn't around when it was started, decided to resurrect it and add my memories of school books.

 

Tried to remember what I studied at English - I was double entered for both CSE and 'O' Level English Language and English Literature, and so had to study twice as many books! These are the ones I can remember (as you can see from the fact it was CSC and 'O' level, it was quite a while ago, so bear with me) and I think some of them may have been earlier than when I started on the exam courses, but here goes ...

 

Loved:

Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

 

Liked:

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney

Z for Zachariah by Robert O'Brien

 

Disliked:

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1984 by George Orwell

 

I'm sure there must have been more, but I can't drag them out of my memory, so they obviously didn't make much of an impression! What I notice looking back, however, is a distinct lack of female authors. Apart from the play A Taste of Honey, everything is written by men. I can't remember a single piece of poetry we studied, and to this day, it's a blind spot for me - I just don't get it. I'd love to go to a class on it, and have it explained to me. I've bought The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry which was recommended, as although it is about writing poetry, it explains the concepts of verses, rhyme, meter etc, but I haven't plucked up the courage to start it yet. Hopefully, in the summer, I'll have more time and the inclination to have a go!

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Really? I read it last year and thought it was beautiful. :)

 

I'm dredging the bottom of the memory tanks now, but if memory serves correctly, I remember it being too sentimental as if the author was looking through rose tinted glasses, and came across as too syrupy and sweet for my tastes at the time, I think!

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Am trying to remember what we read now...excluding Shakespeare I can remember:

The Importance of Being Ernest

An Inspector Calls

Of Mice and Men (we went to see a production of this one too which had Matthew Kelly (yes the presenter of Stars in their Eyes!) playing Lenny)

The begginning of Oliver Twist and a section of errr I can't think of what it's called, the one with Miss Havershem...David Copperfield?

A section of Wuthering Heights

Jane Eyre

 

Only one's I can really remember liking were Jane Eyre and Of Mice and Men, but haven't revisited either.

 

Oh and one year we got to help judge a children's book contest so I read a fair few of those, I remember one which was nominated was The Amber Spyglass and I voted for it because I'd already read it and enjoyed it but lots of other people didn't even bother reading it because it was the longest nominated book, so it didn't win

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It's been more than a couple of years since I left school and I'm trying to remember but struggling!! I can remember:

 

High school:

Macbeth

Romeo and Juliet

An Inspector Calls

To Kill A Mockingbird *

 

College:

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks *

Enduring Love - Ian McEwan *

 

Uni:

Wuthering Heights *

Death Of A Salesman

North and South *

King Lear

The Time Machine

Adam Bede *

Madame Bovary *

Great Expectations

The Mayor Of Casterbridge *

Crime and Punishment

Endgame - Beckett

Hedda Gabler - Ibsen

Fear and Misery In The Third Reich - Brecht

Saved - Bond

Cloud Nine - Churchill

Macbeth

Othello

Antony and Cleopatra

The Taming Of The Shrew

Twelfth Night

Affinity - Sarah Waters *

Hey Yeah Right Get A Life - Helen Simpson

The Shape Of Snakes - Minette Walters *

Being Dead - Jim Crace

The Orchard On Fire - Shena Mackay *

 

The ones with a * next to them are the ones that I liked and the two college books I have bought my own copy and re-read one and plan on reading the other.

Edited by rach.at.the.disco
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Hmmmm....let's see if I can remember.

 

High School:

Romeo & Juliet (liked it)

Macbeth (liked it)

A Separate Peace (can't remember what I thought)

Their Eyes Were Watching God (again, can't remember)

A Prayer for Owen Meany (loved it)

The Bell Jar (LOVED it)

The Joy Luck Club (LOVED it)

Invisible Man (liked it)

Crime and Punishment (didn't really like it)

Grapes of Wrath (hated it)

Heart of Darkness (liked it)

House on Mango Street (can't remember)

Huckleberry Finn (didn't like it)

Short Stories of Hemingway (LOVED it)

The Great Gatsby (LOVED it)

The Scarlet Letter (didn't like it)

 

There's a lot more that I can't remember. And I've read way too much in college to list, but here are some highlights:

 

Notes from Underground

Germinal

a ton of Shakespeare

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The Communist Manifesto

Ragged Dick

Hope Leslie

Ruth Hall

The Awakening

The Bostonians

A Small Place

 

Again, there's a lot more I can't remember.

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Can't remember all the books I've read at school although some I do are:

 

Spywatch - primary school

Romeo and Juliet - secondary

Macbeth - secondary

A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney - secondary & I still have my copy

The outsiders - secondary

Taming of the shrew started in it 6th form till I dropped out

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - 6th form

 

I remember reading one book for GCSE English, while others read of mice and men, our year was split into two and one half read that and we read another book on South Africa and aparthied and how if affected the life of this one black girl who had a white friend, I remember the kkk being mentioned and the girls family being affected by such....wish I could for the life of me remember or find any info on it online but I can't seem to.

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I remember having to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, I only remember parts of it and was disgusted. I am planning to revisit the book very soon.

 

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was one book that almost had me stabbing myself in the eyeball with my pencil.

 

Hamlet was read in my first year of college, and I love it still. One of my favorite pieces.

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Read for school and loved:

 

- Dante's "Divine Comedy" (I believe it still counts if you stopped short of "Paradise", everybody finds that one boring!).

- Pirandello's plays, especially "Six Characters in Search of an Author", meta-theatre at its best.

- Ariosto's epic poem "Orlando Furioso": a knight quite literally loses his sanity for a maid and his best friend must ride to the moon, where the reign of lost things is, and find his sanity and bring it back. Brilliant plot, brilliantly written.

 

Read for school and loathed:

 

- Alessandro Manzoni's "The Betrothed", or "how to take a reasonably good plot and drag it out with tedious moralising and an unreadable style.

- Daniel Defoe's "Moll Flanders", see above comment.

- Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", abandoned on page 36 and never returned to again. Very good story destroyed by an over-read (yes, it is possible!) author who thinks it is sophisticated to write every other sentence in Latin, with no footnotes. Pompous (insert epiteth here) - he ended up writing the only book on earth who is surpassed in merit and enjoyability by its Holliwood adaptation. Do see the film, it is quite a good murder mystery with monks in it.

- Torquato Tasso's epic poem "Jerusalem Liberated" - tedious drivel. The only good thing that came of it was Byron's excellent poem "The Lament of Tasso", on the writer's toil to complete his masterwork while in prison. Not often does it happen that the commentary is more gripping and moving than the work itself.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm still at school now but in the previous years of High School we read Skellig and Private Peaceful. Now at GCSE level we had to read Great Expectations, which is one of the wost books I have ever read, where we had to do a piece of coursework on it, How I managed to get two A's on it without finishing the book I will never know. We have another piece of coursework to do on Romeo and Juliet, we did a performance on this so it wasent too bad, and for our Litrature exam we have to read Lord of the Flies. Which again is a truly awful book I mean how ful of yourself must you be to write a whole novel based on allegorys. I just don't understand why the GCSE reading list is so bad!

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Wow, this takes me back! Not sure I can recall all so I may have to revise later. I remember really liking most everything we had to read, and only loathing Madding Crowd for some reason, although I can't tell you why, LOL.

 

The Scarlet Letter

Far from the Madding Crowd

Metamorphasis

1984

Animal Farm

A Tale of Two Cities

Of Mice and Men

Ordinary People

To Kill a Mockingbird

Catcher in the Rye

Romeo & Juliet

Macbeth

Much Ado About Nothing

Little Women

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Huckleberry Finn

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I remember reading To Kill A Mockingbird in my final year of highschool. I thought it was a very good book and have been thinking about rereading it. I also remember a book about a horse, set in WWII. I have forgotten its title, but I think my love for wartime novels began with that book. :lol:

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have any of you re read the books of your youth.............I have read the three books I had to inwardly digest for my exams at high school.

 

I was a typical 16 year old and to be honest did not read any of them properly, in fact one book was revised using a record player.......seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

But I have read them all now and I have to say appreciated them all much more the second time around and with a little bit more life experience.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

Of Mice and Men

 

War of the Worlds.

 

I did pass my exams but missed out on these books for a long time!

 

:readingtwo:

Edited by Michelle
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I had to read the following in school:

1984

To Kill a Mockingbird

Lord of the Flies

The Giver

The Outsiders

Jane Eyre

 

Romeo & Juliet

Hamlet

The Merchant of Venice

+ 2 other Shakespeares' but i can't remember what they were.

 

I liked all of them with the exception of Jane Eyre (but i think that had to do with the tedious assignments that came along with the book).

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Well on Monday Im doin my GCSE English Lit exam on the books I've read in skool! I read Of Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls. I think they are both suprisingly good but it would be nice to see some modern books on the exam list instead!

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I read Of Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls.

 

I saw a play of An Inspector Calls many years ago Christie and LOVED it! I don't know where I've been, but I had no idea this was a book too. I will have to add it to my list now ;).

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I saw a play of An Inspector Calls many years ago Christie and LOVED it! I don't know where I've been, but I had no idea this was a book too. I will have to add it to my list now ;).

 

Of Mice and Men is a book but I think An Inspector Calls is a play but It doesn't really matter I read it in play form but it was still gripping and thrilling! I loved the twist at the end to! I still wonder to this day what could have happened next!

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