I'm not sure what it was with high school books. I read the scarlett letter in high school. Honestly,there was no way for me to get it then. It was so far beyond my experience. But Austin, Shakespeare, Poe, or even other Hawthorne. I fell in love with Steinbeck in high school. Old man and the sea is a book I try and discourage high school students from reading. I think I'd get it now,but in high school,once again I didn't have the life experience. Other books, like Huck Finn are better read at over again different ages.

What I have learned from my 4th - 6th grade book Club is that even smart 4th graders are still very literal and self centered. One of my friends was really concerned with what her 7th grade son was reading in school. I told her not to worry too much about it,because mostly what they are learning now is how to get analytical about books. Let them read stuff that is fairly easily accessible now. They need to learn the skills before they hit the classics

What is the appeal of bleakness?

I don't get it either. I need some kernel of -- not necessarily hope, or redemption -- illumination. I can't explain it better than that, to my chagrin.

Wow, people, I go away for a day and we revert to kindergarten? What gives?!

Kerfuffle Bunny roused the rabble.

Other books, like Huck Finn are better read at different ages.

It gets funnier -- and more barbed -- every time I read it.

I fell in love with Steinbeck in high school.

Maud Newton recently had something on her blog about how hard it is to revisit Steinbeck later in life. And I'm afraid that's true for me. As much as I admire the guy's life and aspirations, I don't think I'd like his writing as much now as I did in high school.

And you're dead on about Huck Finn. That's a book for adults pretending to be a book for children.

I read the scarlett letter in high school. Honestly,there was no way for me to get it then.

I read that in high school too, and I think I liked it because I could focus on the mystery of who the father was.

Old man and the sea is a book I try and discourage high school students from reading. I think I'd get it now,but in high school,once again I didn't have the life experience.

Yeah, I think I started reading that in junior high one day and stopped pretty quickly. Bo-ring! t /Homer>

I don't get it either. I need some kernel of -- not necessarily hope, or redemption -- illumination. I can't explain it better than that, to my chagrin.

that's where Joy came from .

I can go there with a contemporary 'fun' book. I loved the movie, liked the book - Bridget Jone's diary. I tried the second book -and gave up after the first 20 pages. - She was doing the same dance again, and hadn't figured it out. A waste of my time. It was missing whatever that element is that makes something worth my time.

I really need to read A Tale of Two Cities again. I remember loving it more than anything else we read in AP English senior year with the possible exception of Macbeth, but I read it in a hurry as I was recovering from chicken pox, and now I barely remember it.

I feel no urge whatsoever to revisit The Red Badge of Courage or anything by Steinbeck, however.

I don't know about Connie but I never had fights about James Joyce in kindergarten.

David, please don't dance on my last nerve. I know you know my Bite Your Head Off face.

illumination

Yes, this! Something achieved! The bleak situation may not change, but something in the internal landscape has improved. Maybe it just a sense of improved self-worth, of essential humanity, more peace with the cosmos. Though I dislike the idea that it's OK to be stuck in poverty because you'll get your reward in heaven and you'll be doubly blessed etc. I've seen that used too often in history as an excuse to leave the downtrodden in their trodden-upon state.

I'm not sure I've anything I would call unrelentingly bleak. Maybe The Stranger ? I don't remember much of it, though.