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Books that made an impact. Or, books that you couldnt quite finish


ChiliIrishHammock24

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QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 9, 2013 -> 11:34 PM)
Any relation to the story of the West Memphis Three?

 

No, God vs Satan, Angels vs Devils.

 

 

Paradise lost (1,2, and 3) is an intense and sad documentary

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Loved:

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

Call of the Wild

Into the Wild (was one of a number of choices for an independent reading thing my Jr. year of high school)

My Antonia (actually had to read it twice. Liked it way better time 2)

Hamlet

Catch-22

Hiroshima

 

Struggled with:

Great Expectations. Seemed long for the sake of being long.

Edited by illinilaw08
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QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ May 10, 2013 -> 08:18 AM)
Loved:

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

Call of the Wild

Into the Wild (was one of a number of choices for an independent reading thing my Jr. year of high school)

My Antonia (actually had to read it twice. Liked it way better time 2)

Hamlet

Catch-22

Hiroshima

 

Struggled with:

Great Expectations. Seemed long for the sake of being long.

 

Read Catch-22 in high school as one of our "independent study" novels. Read it several times since and probably my favorite book. Still haven't read the sequel Closing Time, though.

 

I read Great Expectations three or four years ago. Agreed that it was a struggle to get through at times. Found the same with Brothers Karamazov, even though I really enjoyed it.

 

If you like Russian lit, Chekhov's The Princess is a great short story, only a few pages long. It's notable for its portrayal of clinical narcissism and all of the diagnostic markers for it years before it was fully understood as a psychological problem.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 9, 2013 -> 02:59 PM)
Somehow I never read Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Animal Farm, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, any Twain and a bunch of other "everybody reads those in school" books.

 

Animal Farm is damn good.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 10, 2013 -> 07:31 AM)
Read Catch-22 in high school as one of our "independent study" novels. Read it several times since and probably my favorite book. Still haven't read the sequel Closing Time, though.

 

I read Great Expectations three or four years ago. Agreed that it was a struggle to get through at times. Found the same with Brothers Karamazov, even though I really enjoyed it.

 

If you like Russian lit, Chekhov's The Princess is a great short story, only a few pages long. It's notable for its portrayal of clinical narcissism and all of the diagnostic markers for it years before it was fully understood as a psychological problem.

 

Agreed on Catch-22. Like you, I read it as an independent study in high school. Loved it. I try to pick it up every couple years.

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Did anyone read the Jack London books? Call of the Wild obviously, and White Fang. I was also big into Gary Paulsen in Junior High/High School. Hatchet was one and there was a sequel. About a teenager that is caught out in the middle of nowhere after a plane crash. Similarly when I was younger I really enjoyed The Island of the Blue Dolphins, which is basically the same story but a young hawaiian girl. Now that I think about it, kind of odd that I was into so many isolation/survivor books.

 

I also remember an awesome series of like 5-6 books I read in junior high about a guy going from high school baseball through the big leagues. I have no idea what it was called though. I'll have to try and find them.

 

Edit: dammit I accidentally deleted my initial post.

Edited by Jenksismybitch
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Tried reading Something Wicked This Way Comes as a 12 year old. Got like half way through and just couldn't continue from there. It was way over my head.

 

Also, I have Infinite Jest. I've read about 11 pages of it. So close to being done!

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When I was in HS I remember having to read:

 

12 Angry Men

To Kill a Mockingbird

Romeo and Juliet

The Crucible

Great Expectations

 

Those last two I remember almost nothing about them.

 

A few other stories I remember reading in school are: Something for Joey, Where the Red Fern Grows, Soup and Me.

 

Some of the "classics" I've never actually read:

Of Mice and Men

The Great Gatsby

The Scarlett Letter

Lord of the Flies

The Lottery

Catcher in the Rye

 

I'm currently reading Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They are all put together in a single paperback.

 

I'm only halfway through Frankenstein and having only a vague knowledge of the story based on movies and other pop culture, it's not what I was expecting at all.

 

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I forgot about Lord of the Flies.

 

 

I read the Jack London books voluntarily, never as part of a curriculum. I also really enjoyed Where the Red Fern Grows and the "Big Red" books about the kid with the Irish setters

 

Anything that was "a boy and his dog" i read

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Wuthering Heights I hated.

 

Most of the books I was assigned I liked alot. I really liked the stream of consciousness books like Joyce and Faulkner. Heart of Darkness by Conrad was one of my personal favorites.

Edited by RockRaines
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QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 10, 2013 -> 11:57 AM)
Wuthering Heights I hated.

 

Burn all 19th Romantic literature. Expunge it from the face of the Earth.

 

Most of the books I was assigned I liked alot. I really liked the stream of consciousness books like Joyce and Faulkner. Heart of Darkness by Conrad was one of my personal favorites.

 

I couldn't get into Joyce in high school, but I've re-read some of his stuff recently and enjoyed it.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 10, 2013 -> 11:59 AM)
Burn all 19th Romantic literature. Expunge it from the face of the Earth.

 

 

 

I couldn't get into Joyce in high school, but I've re-read some of his stuff recently and enjoyed it.

Yeah, its one of those types of books that takes more concentration than most folks have in HS. English and literature was one of the only things I liked about school and I had a teacher than took an interest in me and made me sort of dissect books as I read them which helped me immensely.

 

I couldnt agree more with your first point. Hate most of that entire genre.

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