Tell him it could be worse. My senior year we had a unit of Russian Lit and a unit on Hemingway, both of which I Did Not Want.
I had to read and write a 20 page research paper on Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. BEFORE INTERNETS.
Torture.
Danger's my birthright.
Buffy ,'The Killer In Me'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Strix - Sep 20, 2012 9:06:38 pm PDT #19760 of 28344
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
Connie Neil - Sep 20, 2012 9:45:39 pm PDT #19761 of 28344
brillig
In my high school Junior lit class, we got The Hobbit.
God bless Mr. Berryhill.
I don't remember any teaching moments. Except Dragons Are Bad (but have great dialogue). It may have been more a matter of "For god's sake, get some books in those poor hillbillies' hands!"
meara - Sep 20, 2012 9:57:43 pm PDT #19762 of 28344
Somehow, even though thinking on it I have bad memories of the Mayor of Casterbtidge (?), I still hated all the American Lit stuff junior year more than British lit or World lit and yet I can't remember what the heck we read other than the Scarlet Letter. I think we read Gatsby, I have vague memories of being required to think about symbols in it. Huh. I have no idea. It was the one year of school we didn't do at least one Shakespeare play too, sadly. (ETA obviously the bard would be hard to argue for in American lit. But still)
javachik - Sep 20, 2012 10:25:46 pm PDT #19763 of 28344
Our wings are not tired.
Thankfully we got all of the above but mitigated by lots and lots of incredibly entertaining short stories. And short stories are one of my favorite forms of literature (or just simply reading) today. I bet Emmett would totally dig Leinegan (sp?) Versus the Ants or a Diamond as Big as the Ritz.
The book I hated most was The Good Earth and I reread it with my book group a few years ago and hated it even more!
Calli - Sep 21, 2012 1:17:02 am PDT #19764 of 28344
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
We read most of the books above but had some Thurber and Saki to leaven things.
Sue - Sep 21, 2012 1:31:26 am PDT #19765 of 28344
hip deep in pie
I read Russian lit by choice in High School. The assigned book I truly hated was Lord of the Flies.
Jesse - Sep 21, 2012 3:03:21 am PDT #19766 of 28344
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Was Mr. Berryhill, by any chance, a hobbit himself?? That seems like a pretty hobbity name.
Sophia Brooks - Sep 21, 2012 4:05:32 am PDT #19767 of 28344
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
You know, I must be indoctrinated, because I can't really think of any book that is not, at the heart "miserable things happen to be" that is also something you would teach in a high school classroom that would appeal to both boys and girls. But I like Thomas Hardy, so what do I know?
The assigned books I hated were The Old Man and the Sea, The Red Pony, and The Pearl. I think that was mostly writing style, though.
sj - Sep 21, 2012 4:11:35 am PDT #19768 of 28344
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
I never liked any of the novels I was assigned in English class before my senior year in high school, but it never affected my love of reading. I did love many of the short stories we read in the assigned anthology, and I mostly rebelled against the novels I didn't like by reading the novels I did like whenever I could. FTR, among the novels we had to read in high school that I hated: The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible (no not a novel but long form assigned reading), and A Farewell to Arms.
Sue - Sep 21, 2012 4:11:59 am PDT #19769 of 28344
hip deep in pie
Oh god, The Pearl. That was worse than Lord of the Flies!