I need a website that will tell me what to write about.

I think that's my blog. You can write a book containing all the ways in which you disagree with me.

It's fairly standard to send out reading lists in Chicago-area schools just to avoid parental issues.

Oh, that was an honest question -- on re-read it looks potentially snotty. I really had no idea.

Donnie Darko has a fair amount of cursing. That's the only reason it's an R.

I'd argue that the mental illness on the protagonist's part and the attendant anguish that causes him are sufficiently adult subjects that an R rating is called for, far moreso than a few f-bombs dropped in conversations that kids probably hear in real life fairly regularly.

Also, Frank creeped me the hell out, and I've laughed through a showing of Un Chien Andalou that had frat boys racing for the bathroom.

I didn't take it as snotty. Not only is it a good idea to send out reading lists to avoid parental issues, it also can help get the parents involved in their kid's education. Always better to keep the parents informed on what's going on in the classroom all the way around.

The American Philosophical Association (not to be confused with the REAL APA) uses the Chicago Manual of Style in it's publications.

This is a good suggestion. Well, Bob Bob's eccentric advisor is far less helpful and enthusiastic than his other advisor, the best living historian of ethics. So we will ignore him. (But still a little curious about the two periods thing.)

Strega, go to wikipedia or lj and hit the random button. Make your book about the first five results and you're golden!

Do you get the reading list ahead of time?

I don't, but my kids are all elementary age, and I haven't objected to anything they've seen or had read to them, at school. I suspect we do get a list, in middle school, but am not positive.

For me, reading is different than film. It can be more potent in some ways, because the imagination is unlimited, yet I'd be slower to object to a book than I would to a film.

Always better to keep the parents informed on what's going on in the classroom all the way around.

For sure.

It's funny, I have no childhood memory of having any interactions with my parents around school, other than parent-teacher meetings. I know that can't be right.

Jesse, I read your question as expressing interest, not snot.

Phew, thanks.

Cool:

The title Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Antidisestablishmentarianism has a 41.4% chance of being a bestselling title!