Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

I was thinking about going with A Tale of Two Citites. It seems to be the standard Dickens fare and I've been told it's not as dense as Great Expectations or say, Bleak House. Actually the DIckens thing is on hold for now. The only copies of anything I can find in town are trade paperbacks or collections costing $20 and up. No good for a money-impaired dude like me.

Romeo and Juliet isn't the simplest play of Shakesphere in my opinion. Macbeth is about a guy who is told he will be king so he does everything in his power to achive his goal with horrible consequences. It's that straightforward.


Could you elaborate? If you mean easy lit assignments, I would suggest Stienbeck or Hemmingway.

_________________
Sig?

whoops sorry about not being clear on my question. what i meant was: anyone have any particularly interesting final projects/reading that they have been assigned as the school year winds down? my last paper for my english class was about the film Dogma--she's somewhat unconventional --but that's way off topic. just wondering if anyone has notable final assignments to close out the school year.

(Whoa, how did I miss this?)

I've got three great literary loves right now - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Anglo-Irish literature.

GGM is the only writer that I'd describe as magical, really. Taking his One Hundred Years of Solitude - if I were to tell you the plot, you'd probably die of boredom. But GGM has a unrivalled skill of holding your interest in the way he tells the story.

Anglo-Irish writers of nobility (18th - early 20th century) are fascinating because they belong to a no-man's-land between Englishness and Irishness. Most of their stuff is about the Anglo-Irish struggle against the loss of a lifestyle that they were destined to lose, and against the rising tide of Irish savagery.

They're important writers because they're importance to Irish history is often underestimated - they tell the story the more hardened Irish nationalists don't want you to hear. I'd recommend the duo-writers Somerville and Ross.

And my interest in modern Irish theatre runs the gauntlet from Yeats to Beckett to Behan to Frank McGuinness.

Nice to see this thread got revived. Unfortunately, I know nothing of Irish literature. I saw Frank McCourt on Conan once and that's the extent of my knowledge on that subject.

And now, digging around, I see that McCourt was actually born in Brooklyn (although he did spend a majority of his youth in Ireland)...so...I got nothin'.

_________________
Sig?

He was. He's what we call a Plastic Paddy.

It was by orders from his grandmother that the family move back to Ireland, because they were pretty much starving in New York. But then they were pretty much starving in Limerick too, so...... that didn't work out.

Another classic that turned out to be highly unreadable: Crime and Punishment! There was just too much time where there was no real action taking place, it seems. The first 200 and last 100 pages were the most interesting out of a 600 page book. I don't know. It was a good book, but I would have liked it more if there hadn't been as many side plots that never got resolved or explained.

I tried to read Catch-22 for English class but I had too much trouble keeping all the characters straight. I'm trying to read it now though.

_________________
Unfortuately, I have already used up today's alloted supply of "clever quotes".

Catch-22: one of the few books that have ever made me laugh out loud. And whoa - your English class must be the coolest ever if you're doing Catch-22. (We did Middlemarch at my school. >_< )

But yeah, there are a lot of characters to get to grips with. My advice: don't overthink it when you read it, and don't try to remember every detail. The characters will get more memorable as you read more of the book - believe me.

I agree in every sense of the word. Great, great book.

My English teachers were dull. We got the usual Shakesphere/Twain mix. Nothing against those authors mind you, there just weren't any 'Woah, we're gonna read that!' moments.

_________________
Sig?