Was Mr. Berryhill, by any chance, a hobbit himself?? That seems like a pretty hobbity name.
Oh! I know this one! 'Slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah blah blahbity blah, I'm so stuffy, gimme a scone.'
Buffy ,'Help'
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."
Jesse - Sep 21, 2012 3:03:21 am PDT #19766 of 28344
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
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!
sj - Sep 21, 2012 4:15:07 am PDT #19770 of 28344
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
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?
Yeah, I really can't think of much either other than Shakespeare's Comedies, in which miserable things happen to people, but it happens to be funny at the time, and the story ends happy. Mostly I think miserable things happening to people is what makes for compelling literature.
Sophia Brooks - Sep 21, 2012 4:18:02 am PDT #19771 of 28344
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
The worst thing about The Pearl was that I had gotten it mixed up in my head with Scott O'Dell's "The Black Pearl", and thought I was going to be reading something like Island of the Blue Dolphins.
But, I forgot the one I hated the most-- Heart of Darkness. Which I had to read in high school and TWICE in college.
Books I liked- Silas Marner, The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Black Like Me.
Vonnie K - Sep 21, 2012 4:45:27 am PDT #19772 of 28344
Kiss me, my girl, before I'm sick.
We had To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby and... possibly Lord of the Flies, although I might have read that one on my own (I remember liking it though.) Oh! And Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.
Liese S. - Sep 21, 2012 4:57:03 am PDT #19773 of 28344
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."
I liked all the dire stuff, but I'm a dire sort of person.
hippocampus - Sep 21, 2012 4:59:28 am PDT #19774 of 28344
not your mom's socks.
This breakout of plot lines in Booker-prize longlist novels is very pretty: [link]
Jessica - Sep 21, 2012 5:13:08 am PDT #19775 of 28344
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
I can't remember most of what I read in high school. I mean, I'm sure if you handed me the list I would remember reading them, but I can't pull that list out of my head.
I know Watership Down and Jane Eyre were in there because I'd already read them on my own by the time they were assigned for class. Catcher in the Rye, obviously, because misery loves company. Oh, Native Son, which I loved. Probably some Shakespeare and short stories? And that random unit on The Bible As Literature, i.e. Make Sure The Heathens Can Understand The Bible References In All The Other Books We're Going To Read.