JK Rowling, et al.

[The Czar]

[quote=""rebecca""]I find it interesting to see the different level of books we were all made to read at school and thought I would list mine.

Shakespeare( I can't remember which one. I think I have subconciously blocked it )

Little Women-Loved it.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-Loved it.

Pride and Prejudice-Hated it then. Love it now.

To Kill a Mockingbird-Loved it.

Wuthering Heights-Hate, hate HATE it.

Ethan Frome-A tad depressing.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles-found the book boring but I love the TV Adaptations.

Poor Mans Orange-Ruth Park-I liked it.

Diary of Anne Frank-A moving book.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell-I didn't like it then but love it now and also the TV adaptation.

I also remember our teacher got into serious trouble when he gave us Lolita to read and my mother refused to let me read it. I still haven't read it.

Sara Dane but for the life of me I can't remember who wrote that one.

Careful He Might Hear You- A brillaint book by Sumner Locke Elliot(SP?) I am now trying to find that book but it seems to have gone out of print.

Gone With the Wind-Loved it and still love it.

That's my list as far as I can remember...My school days were many moons ago and a billion books ago.

Bec [/quote]

That could be fun...

Ones I hated

Ethan Frome
The Sound and The Fury
Billy Budd
Huck Finn (just before it was pulled from the curriculum as being racist)
The Invisible Man
Romeo & Juliet (mostly cause we read it aloud, and it took the windowlickers in my class three weeks. I skipped ahead and was reading Animal Farm in the Brit Lit text when I was called on... got detention for that.)

Ones I liked

Crime and Punishment
The Oddesy
Medea
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
The Divine Comedy (I picked this one myself)
The Canterbury Tales (Again, self picked)

Ones I was indifferent to

The Invisible Man
Madame Bovary


My favorite book back then was The Catcher In the Rye. But of course, it had hookers and booze in it, so it wasn't on the "approved list."

[LoveHistory]

Discussions like this one make me appreciate my parents' approach to my education. They had a list of various classics and I had to read a certain percentage of them, but I at least got to choose which ones.

I've yet to read Ethan Frome. Heard a lot about how not fun it is. I've loved the Wharton books I have read, but then they tend to be filled with her wit. Never heard of anything amusing about EF.

High school English teachers can do a lot of damage to great literature. Even a fantastic book will be underappreciated if one is forced to read it.

[Madeleine]

Your last statement is very true LH, I still hold my English teacher at least partly responsible for my dislike (although not total aversion to) Jane Austen - we studied Emma and Persuasion at A Level, and I hated the first book, and liked the second one only slightly more that Emma. We also studied 1984 which most of us re-named 1980bore, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Knight's Tale (CHaucer) once I got used to his style and language - given that my school was a rather prudish girls' grammar school at the time, Chaucer was quite a risky choice. Apart from Keats and Coleridge though, I could never get into the poetry part of our A Level course, and I still don't know or care what a metaphysical poet is, apart from the fact that John Donne was one.

I agree with Kveto that most fantasy is very derivative, but most successful authors do well because they come up with some sort of slightly original variation on those familiar themes. And I think it's interesting that a lot of modern fantasy has strong female leads - Hermione in HP, Lyra in the Dark Materials, Sonea in the Trudi Canavan Magicians' Guild series etc.

Funnily enough, with all the mention of the Ethan Frome - I went and bought a copy a few weeks ago, as there was a very good radio adaptation which made me want to read the book, but I am prepared for the story! I think it makes a good winter read though.