Comments (24) (Please sign in to comment)

1. 

   Adam Nedens(Snoopster) said, 6 months ago

   Put the slash over the number, but Jason knows that
2. 

   Nabuquduriuzhur said, 6 months ago

   Only book I truly hated in high school was the unabridged (cuss words galore) version of “Catcher in the Rye.” I finally set up a timer for one minute per page and got it done that way. If I want to read about insanity, I’d read the latest iteration of Oregon’s pedestrian laws. After several tries, they still can’t get it right…
3. 

   Penny Robinson Fan Club said, 6 months ago

   Happy Thanksgiving to all!
   From the Penny Robinson Fan Club
   http://pennyrobinsonfanclub.net/
4. 

   dukedoug said, 6 months ago

   @Nabuquduriuzhur

   We had an “English” (subject) teacher who was postively besotted with “Catcher”. He read the whole book to us over a couple of months in his classes. I guess he figured we wouldn’t get through it ourselves. BORING !! … and he would not permit anybody to yawn in any of his classes !!

   I agree with your comment about “reading about insanity” and what made it worse for us young Aussies was that it was AMERICAN insanity. We already knew by then that all Americans were insane !!
5. 

   skeeterhawk said, 6 months ago

   @dukedoug: Hmm. For so many years I had wanted to travel to Australia, even considered living there. But I guess those are just INSANE thoughts. LOL
6. 

   KasparV said, 6 months ago

   @Nabuquduriuzhur

   Waaah, whine, sniffle, about Oregon again. Why don’t you move to someplace like New Jersey?
7. 

   skeeterhawk said, 6 months ago

   But I agree. The worst part of English: plowing through what someone decided was ‘classic.’ I have a B.A. in English. I prefer contemporary, concise writing. I do not care for Melville spending 200 words just to say to the effect of “I’m Ishmael. I was bored staying ashore, so I decided to sail.” Neither Melville’s nor my line would catch a publisher’s eye today. But the classics tend to lull any modern reader. We’ve grown to have shorter attention spans and need the plot to get started sooner.
8. 

   olfart said, 6 months ago

   ^ “We’ve grown to have shorter attention spans and need the plot to get started sooner .” That would probably be because English classes no longer emphasize the classics.
9. 

   kroykali said, 6 months ago

   When I was in English Lit class, we had to read “Lord Jim”, a horribly long, boring book. It did nothing to promote any interest in reading with me. But our teacher did explain that back in those days, authors were paid by the word, thus explaining why those novels were soooo long and wordy.
10. 

    K.C. Fahel said, 6 months ago

    @Nabuquduriuzhur

    I liked “Catcher In the Rye” – could relate to it – but “Silas Marner” was my nightmare book. The only thing I took away from SM was “petite mal seizure”. I also loved “The Outsiders” and “The Hobbit”.
11. 

    einarbt7 said, 6 months ago

    Maybe it has big print and lots of pictures?
12. 

    N7326 Foxtrot said, 6 months ago

    Advice to young students: When studying “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, do not express the opinion that this stuff would probably make sense if we were allowed, when reading it, to smoke whatever Coleridge was smoking when he wrote it.
13. 

    Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago

    @K.C. Fahel

    I read “The Outsiders” in school but Lovecraft’s short story “The Outsider” was more my taste.
14. 

    Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago

    @N7326 Foxtrot

    You’d be amazed what you can write cold sober. I do it often myself.
15. 

    Kab Buch said, 6 months ago

    @dukedoug

    You made me yawn and its morning.
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