'Shindig'
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."
connie, those are some great poems.
are you more prone to enjoy a book if you stumbled across it yourself, or if it was at some point assigned?
I think I'm with you and Hec. Yes, I love a lot of books I've discovered myself (or through friends' recommendations), but I've also loved a great many books I've been assigned, because I've had some great professors who've helped me appreciate what I've read.
Keeping in mind that I'm very picky with my non-genre stuff (err, please don't ask me about the book sitting on my desk right now... I'm gonna lie, and claim it's Decartes Sue or something--okay, fine, bodice rippers from the late 80s/early 90s amuse me like the Bad Fic, the more lurid the cover art the better, and if it's relief? I practically swoon), I'd say my love/meh/hate breakdown is about 60/30/10 either way (assigned or found).
PS, Hec, you will notice that I did, in fact, post some of my brain droppings on Batcrap in the other thread. Just for you.
Okay, I lie. Because I want/NEED to talk about this issue. And so I did.
After Shakespeare, my favorite sonnets are Millay's. I maintain that she wrote the best sonnets of the twentieth century, and the rest of her work was no less wonderful.
okay, fine, bodice rippers from the late 80s/early 90s amuse me
I saw you snickering with awful glee over that fox-porn romance thingie in Chicago. Unsurprised.
PS, Hec, you will notice that I did, in fact, post some of my brain droppings on Batcrap in the other thread. Just for you.
It's a gift!
Discussions I've had off thread have made me wonder, and this is a curiousity question more than anything: are you more prone to enjoy a book if you stumbled across it yourself, or if it was at some point assigned?
Definitely things I've stumbled across myself. Part of that is because I'm a moody, streaky sort of reader--I go through phases where I want nothing but a certain genre or style, or where I've overdosed on another and can't bear it for a year or two. Anything assigned has to be lucky to catch me in the right frame of mind.
In the library in my brain, Michael Chricton does not get shelved with the sci-fi, in spite of every one of his books (that I have read) having fictional science as a major part of the premise.
I think part of the disconnect is that his writing style is very much best-sellerese, which my brain does not parse as sci-fi no matter how much fictional science there is.
As tautological as it sounds, Michael Chricton writes Michael Chricton novels.
t bookmarking Jen's poetry post
BTW, for those of us who don't have huge book-buying budgets, college lit books are a great source of poetry, short stories, and other stuff. There is duplication, but surprisingly little, and the introductions are often amusing when they explain why they chose what. I just counted, and I have 7 books from lit courses, acquired in school when students were off-loading their books.
As tautological as it sounds, Michael Chricton writes Michael Chricton novels.
No, he writes Michael Crichton novels.