School books...

[Michelle]

I know this was mentioned before, but I'd like to focus on a couple of aspects.

Which books do you remember reading at school, and more importantly, which ones stick in your mind, good or bad? Why?

Have you revisited your school books? Was you experience the same, or were things different this time around?

[Michelle]

Alot of my school books stick in my mind. The Hobbit was the first main book I came across in secondary school.. our deputy head took us for English, and she was fantastic at reading out loud. She was a scarey woman, but I loved her lessons!

I remember To Kill A Mocking Bird and Macbeth, because as well as the book, we went on trips to see stage versions.

As part of my GCSE, I compared Brave New World, 1984, Z For Zacariah and The Chrysalids.. and I enjoyed each and every one. Recently I reread the latter, and still loved it. Brave New World, however, I read a part of, and won't be going back to. I have 1984 on my shelf, and I'd love to get hold of Z For Zachariah!

[Inanna]

Do you know I was trying to remember the title of one of the books I read at school and thanks to you I know it now.

The ones I read at school and liked were:

The Crucible
Z For Zachariah
Lord Of The Flies
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Chocolate Covered Ants
Macbeth
Much Ado ABout Nothing

The Ones I didn't like were:

To Kill A Mocking Bird
Hamlet
Billy Liar

I've not reread any of them, but I may do in the future :wink:

[Anonymous]

Inanna wrote :

Lord Of The Flies

I love this book !

[Inanna]

Me too, it was great :D

[Michelle]

I liked To Kill A Mocking Bird.
I also remember Billy Liar now you mention it! :)
The one we hated was Far From The Madding Crowd - we had such a go at our teacher, until he agreed to let us stop!

[Tash]

Charlottes Webb
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men

They're the ones that really stick out and I loved them all.

[Kell]

Loved:
Macbeth
Romeo & Juliet
The Great Gatsby
Dracula (for my RPR)
Animal Farm (for my RPR)

Loathed:
Sunset Song
All that Norman McCaig poetry
Loads of Phillip Larkin poetry

I can't remember the others, but I do have shudder-inducing memories of having a young, male substitute teacher reading "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" to us. He could barely speak whenever it came to bits about boobs or periods & we all cringed mightily on his behalf. It was NOT a good idea.

[Margo]

LOL well I hated reading as a child and never really took it up till a few years ago. But the books I remember as a child were Stig of the Dump and the Peter and Jane books.

[Inanna]

Oh I loved Stig :D

[Maureen]

Peter and Jane books.

I remember Peter and Jane books too. I remember once I told the teacher the people who do these books are rather silly - they pictured Peter and Jane going for a swim, and one of them was wearing a cardigan! Lol (I live in Malta and it is unimaginable after the end of May here - which is when, (as a local), you would perhaps go for a swim.

[jake]

One of my favourite books from school was The Secret Garden. We had Janet and John rather than Peter and Jane.

[Michelle]

For those of you at school now.. what are you enjoying, and which ones are hard going? :)

[Liz]

For those of you at school now.. what are you enjoying, and which ones are hard going? :)

I'm taking English Literature GCSE at the moment, and so far we have studied......

The Taming Of The Shrew
Twelfth Night
Journey's End

I have also read/studied for school......

Friedrich
The Drunken Forest
A Christmas Carol
Taming The Tiger
Goodnight Mister Tom

I have really enjoyed studying the Shakespeare plays and also writing some character studies for Journey's End.
I didn't like Goodnight Mister Tom very much, and ended up getting a little fed up with the story and lost interest in it halfway through (I did finish it, though).

[Kell]

I adore Shakespeare - Twelfth Night is one of my favourites. I've never erad Goodnight Mr Tom, but they did a very good TV series of it with that guy who played Inspector Morse (is it John Thaw or something?). I really enjoyed that, but for once I wasn't inspired to go on to the book for some reason...

[Maureen]

I saw the film "taming of the Shrew" ages and ages ago, and I remember that it made me smile.

[Sarahrob]

I went back to night classes a couple of years ago and did an English lit AS level to keep my brain active. I loved it, and wanted to carry on with the A2 level, only to find the college didn't offer that. How mad is that?

Anyway... at school I loved:
Phillip Larkin
Jane Eyre
How Green You Are
Seamus Heaney (eternally grateful to the teacher who introduced me to Heaney!)
The 39 Steps
Pride & Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Frankenstein
Othello
William Blake

I loathed:
Ted Hughes
Spring and Port Wine (Hilda, just eat the kippers will ya?)
The Country Girls
Wilfred Owen
Top Girls

[Tiger]

I've enjoyed the adapted versions of:
Jayne Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Frankenstein
Silas Marnier
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet

Poetry:
Tyger, tyger burning bright
The daffodils
Waving but Drowning
Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day)
Leisure (What is this life if full of care)

So far I've enjoyed these classics! :reading:

[Sarahrob]

Despite studying Blake at length, every time I see Tyger, Tyger it makes me think of Spike Milligan.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
Look out! You'll set the forest alight!

[Liz]

We've just finished studying ANIMAL FARM and have now moved on to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, which we had to read over the summer.

Had read ANIMAL FARM already before studying it - I loved the book the first time I read it, so it wasn't too much bother to read it again. I also enjoyed the school work that came with it.

Have only just started to looking deep in to PRIDE & PREJUDICE. I really enjoyed the book, though. Would now like to read another book of that sort of setting and time.

[Mia]

Spring and Port Wine (Hilda, just eat the kippers will ya?)

LOL! :mrgreen: I remember thinking that too!

I'm sad to say that I hated all the books I read at school for O and A Level English literature. I'm surprised I've remained an avid reader, to be honest. Some of the ones I remember are:

Spring and Port Wine
Mist over Pendle
Lord of the Flies (OK, that one wasn't too bad)
Macbeth
Anthony and Cleopatra
King Lear
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Far From the Madding Crowd (Aarrrgghh!!! Hate, hate, hated this.)
View From The Bridge/All My Sons
An "epic" poem by Pope - "The Rape of the Lock" (it was a curl of hair you lost! Get over it!)
Mansfield Park (why couldn't it have been Pride and Prejudice?)
And so on... yawn...

I get so jealous of all the people who studied fantasy and/or science fiction. We never did 1984, Animal Farm, The Hobbit, Jane Eyre, Goodnight Mister Tom, The Secret Garden... :cry: My school was utter pants. :cry:

[Michelle]

Far From the Madding Crowd (Aarrrgghh!!! Hate, hate, hated this.)


We refused to continue with this one! LOL

[Mia]

Some people have all the luck. :grr: Believe me, you had a lucky escape, Michelle!

I remember we did once refuse to continue with a book, but it wasn't an exam text. I can't remember the exact title, but I think it was something like "The Sound of Bow Bells" (will have to look it up). We all complained until the teacher gave up and substituted The 39 Steps. We didn't really like that much either, but we didn't feel we could complain after getting our own way about the original one!

[Angel]

Michelle wrote
We refused to continue with this one! LOL


I must be in the minority because I loved it! I still do - I love Thomas Hardy!

We also studied

Jane Eyre ( :D )
Macbeth
Midsummer Night's Dream
The Time Machine
Cider with Rosie
Stig of the Dump

[Liz]

The English Language group in my school had to character-study HOLES by Louis Sachar. Their thoughts on the book were mixed. Half of them seemed to like it, while the others thought it dragged a bit here and there. I haven't read it myself, so I don't know whether it's any good or not.

[Laramie]

Stig of the Dump
LUCKY!! i love stig of the dump!! we had to read skellig :( and Smash! :( (or something) in yr 8!!

[Liz]

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.

[madcow]

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

[Sofia]

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!!

[dogmatix]

IMHO the teacher makes so much difference in whether I enjoyed a book or not

Some I remember loving were:

The Grapes of Wrath
The Trial (just reread that last month)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight