High school reading

I was reading the F. Scott Fitzgerald thread and being on TNL, an argument has cropped up. But I also think it presents some interesting questions:

• What did you read during high school?
• What did you like and what did you hate?
• And now (assuming you're out of HS), since I'm sure you're all becoming more balanced individuals, how do you think your opinion would change if you returned to them now?

My most tortured and painful book reading would have to come from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Absolute hatred for this one, and it bored me to tears. It's going to take a lot of effort on my part and an intervention party to get me to pick it up again.

My favorite was Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, a beautiful and lucidly written tale. Hesse, if I was informed correctly, stopped writing for about eight years between the first and second part, and the second part is written so boldly that the self-discovery one gets from it is like a two-way mirror between the author and reader.

I think it's interesting to note that Scarlet Letter was the first book I read for high school while Siddhartha was last, and probably reflective of maturation from freshman to senior. The other books I read range from "didn't like" (The Awakening), "fairly indifferent" (Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Confederacy of Dunces), to "really liked" (Great Gatsby, Illustrated Man). A Confederacy of Dunces I really liked in high school, but in re-reading it, it has fallen out of favors with me and I find it repetitive and not any better than Exley's A Fan's Notes or the supreme Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo.

I didn't really read a lot in high school, really. If I read anything, it was mainly Michael Crichton books. I still read those.

But after I got out of school, I started reading a lot more non-fiction. Biographies, history and theology.

'The Scarlet Letter' was hard to get through - have you read 'Rappacini's Daughter'? It was a short story (maybe a novella) that I thought was great. Gives you the Hawthorne feel, bit more engaging.

I really liked almost everything I read in AP English - I can't remember from before then. I've always read stuff, constantly, though, the sort of books that most people probably only read for classes. I developed an interest in James Joyce back in 10th grade, and I did my final paper in AP English on Ulysses. Actually, my inability to really understand Ulysses in high school was one of the things that propelled me to apply to the college where I'm going now. This guy named Schwartz wrote a book of Ulysses criticism I really liked, and I knew he taught a seminar on Ulysses here, so I decided to apply.

By the way, the seminar made coming here worth it - great stuff.

Books assigned that I didn't read because I didn't like them - The Great Gatsby (hah), The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, and probably some more that I can't remember.

Book I chose, which turned out to be the best book I've read thus far - 1984.

Heheh, there's nothing wrong with not reading a classic book because you didn't like the experience. There's something wrong with finishing a classic book and feeling confident that you can say it's shit.

I can't say that I loved reading the Bible, or anything, but that isn't going to keep me from understanding that it's one of/the most important, best books (judged purely as a work of literature) ever created.

Oh wait, I remember one book I had to read. All Quiet On The Western Front. Most excellent.

I liked 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and Night (I might've read that in middle school; I can't remember). I thought Ethan Frome and Tale of Two Cities sucked. I never finished any of the other books I was assigned. I did get about halway through Return of the Native, and Thomas Hardy is by far the worst author I was forced to read. I've read dictionaries that are less boring.

I doubt any of my opinions would change if I went back to read them again (especially about Hardy), but I do regret not reading more of the books I was assigned.

Liked:

Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
Julius Ceasar

Hated:

Scarlet Letter

Klonoa - isn't 'Julius Caesar' fantastic? It's one of the easiest Shakespeare plays to get through, some of the most accessible language. The political content of it, too, seems particularly relevant now.

Stone, yes it is fantastic.. It's probably my favorite work by Shakespeare.