fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POSt #2600 ]

[ SECRET POSt #2600 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2600 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]

08. [WARNING for rape]

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09. [WARNING for rape]

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10. [WARNING for RL death]

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11. [WARNING for underage?]

[Lilo and Stitch]

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12. [WARNING for rape, non-con]

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13. [WARNING for rape]

[Panic! at the Disco]

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14. [WARNING for child molestation?]

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15. [WARNING for rape]

[Silent Hill]

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16. [tb]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #371.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Most schools in the US (and assume the world) have certain books that everyone will read. The Scarlet Letter, To Kill A Mockingbird, and some kind of Shakespeare.

But what are some books you think should be required reading? For fun or education.

I wish Robert Cormier's novels were required. I guess The Chocolate War is the classic. But my favorite is tenderness. And who doesn't want to read a book about a serial killer? Plus I love books where the good guys don't win all the time.

What are yours?

I just read Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank and I'm surprised we didn't read it in high school, I thought it was great book and I think would have appreciated reading it then.

What is it about?

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

shortysc22 - 2014-02-15 02:12 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 02:48 (UTC) - Expand

Back in school Sinuhe the Egyptian and the Manilla Rope were my favorites among the required books and at least Sinuhe has been translated into English.

Hm. I have never ever heard of those! Were you taught in a country not in the US?

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:12 (UTC) - Expand

Herland and We Have Always Lived in the Castle but I have no interest in teaching so maybe those are dumb choices.

If it's for fun I think the students should choose.

I kind of think students should be able to pick "fun" books in the higher grades too as long as they wrote a paper on it.

I don't think so. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (and even more so, The Haunting of Hill House) are great examples of literature that really only repays a close reading. And there probably aren't any Cliff Notes, so everybody has to actually do the work.

Yeah, in my junior/senior year my teacher let us pick what we wanted to read and do papers on.

Brave New World was required reading at my school and absolutely should be for pretty much everyone.

I understand why many schools teach Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead-- because it's more or less an example of Absurdism (although I'd rather assign Godot, Rhinoceros, or Exit the King for that) and because schools teach it the same semester as the do Hamlet for compare/contrast fun times-- but if we're going to do a Stoppard, I'd actually rather have high school students read Arcadia. You can approach it from so many angles-- in conjunction with Byron's poetry, the double time-line thing, the Romanticism vs Enlightenment thing, all the science (a bit challenging, but not enough to ruin the reading/viewing experience), etc.

Edited 2014-02-15 00:46 (UTC)

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:44 (UTC) - Expand

I don't know about required, but my favorite of the books we read for school was One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Personally, I could have done with less literature and more work on grammar and sentence structure. The latter would have been far more useful to me in life.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 00:57 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 01:45 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

ginainthekingsroad - 2014-02-15 02:58 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 06:23 (UTC) - Expand

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ginainthekingsroad - 2014-02-15 08:14 (UTC) - Expand

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weaselbee - 2014-02-15 02:11 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 16:08 (UTC) - Expand

I had to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Waiting for Godot in high school and I loved both. I hope they're still in the curriculum somewhere!

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:43 (UTC) - Expand

I think one or more of Bill Brysons travel books--they got me interested in geography and culture when i previously had trouble putting them in context. The one in Europe is pretty good, and I also like the small-town america one. (His linguistics book is also fun and educational!)

Island of the Blue Dolphins. Most newberry award books made me roll my eyes (so depressing ending is particularly admirable?) but this one is stull great.

I think it would be fun to do a unit on different treatments of the same story--i know I've read a lot of good versions of Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, starting with Mckinleys 'Beauty'.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:42 (UTC) - Expand

Hmm, we never read Scarlet Letter. I only know the premise through cultural osmosis.

We had the option to read Beowulf but didn't, and I think that one should be required. It's the indirect inspiration for a lot of modern fantasy.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 01:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

ginainthekingsroad - 2014-02-15 01:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

caecilia - 2014-02-15 01:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:42 (UTC) - Expand

Lord of the Flies (Especially to expecting parents. "Anyone who tells you that children are innocent little angels is full of it.")
Animal Farm (Mostly because people think this is a kids' book. "Yeah, that's the one with the talking animals in it? How is it not a kid's book.")

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:41 (UTC) - Expand

The Chocolate War was nightmarish, but I agree with you. That one needs to be taught.

Dracula would make a good book for the month of October. The Count of Monte Cristo serves as a warning against the need for revenge. Fahrenheit 451 should always be taught, if only to warn people against censorship. And so teachers can comment on the irony of a book about censorship being banned. My favorite Shakespeare play is Julius Caesar (I didn't like Hamlet worth a damn) so that should be taught, along with The Tempest, which is my second favorite.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:41 (UTC) - Expand

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iceyred - 2014-02-15 01:44 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 06:25 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 01:54 (UTC) - Expand

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iceyred - 2014-02-15 02:05 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:34 (UTC) - Expand

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iceyred - 2014-02-15 02:45 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 03:27 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

iceyred - 2014-02-15 03:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 04:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

iceyred - 2014-02-15 05:13 (UTC) - Expand

The Chocolate War

I just realized that that book was the first time I got angry at a piece of media for its treatment of women.

As far as what I wish schools would be required to teach, I'd like to see Shakespeare's comedies get some more attention. In school I had to read Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear (I got R&J in my theater class, but escaped it in English lit), but there was no love at all for A Midsummer Night's Dream -- which has since become by far my favorite of his plays. I think overall schools would do well to have kids read things that are fun as well as good; sad isn't a measure of quality. I think I want to add The Importance of Being Earnest to the required reading list now.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

sarillia - 2014-02-15 01:34 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:40 (UTC) - Expand

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cassandraoftroy - 2014-02-15 01:56 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

cassandraoftroy - 2014-02-15 02:56 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

weaselbee - 2014-02-15 02:14 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

cassandraoftroy - 2014-02-15 02:42 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 03:18 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

cassandraoftroy - 2014-02-15 04:28 (UTC) - Expand

Outside of the traditional required lit, we read The Things They Carried my senior year, and that's probably the one that had the greatest effect on my view of literature.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 01:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

inkdust - 2014-02-15 01:51 (UTC) - Expand

I'm just never sure how to answer this because by virtue of them being required reading I found it frustrating, tedious and firmly against whatever book it was...and I like reading!

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 02:06 (UTC) - Expand

This is probably a really unpopular opinion... I think The Canterbury Tales should be taught in schools. BUT. Students should NOT be forced to slog their way through Chaucer's Middle English. Unless they're hardcore linguistic geeks, they'll get bored and frustrated and end up hating it. They should be given editions of the book that have the original text side by side with a modern translation.

And in the non-fiction realm: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 02:06 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:29 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:10 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 02:31 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

cassandraoftroy - 2014-02-15 02:51 (UTC) - Expand

The diary of Anne Frank

(no subject)

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 02:07 (UTC) - Expand

I read The Chocolate War in eighth grade. It was one of my favorite books.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 03:13 (UTC) - Expand

Night by Elie Wiesel.

and The Handmaid's Tale.

IA with 1984 and To Kill A Mockingbird.
Also the film, just because Gregory Peck played the character so well (and was also gorgeous.)

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 04:22 (UTC) - Expand

No Exit, the play by Jean-Paul Sartre. I read it in my sophomore year of high school while learning about existentialism but I don't think it's a very common reading for most high schoolers. I think I read the whole thing in about a day. As opposed to most of our required reading, which was mostly sparknoted.

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

kaijinscendre - 2014-02-15 04:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What books do you want to be required reading?

(Anonymous) - 2014-02-15 05:05 (UTC) - Expand

This is only tangentially related to your question, but high schools in my state are apparently phasing out Oedipus as a required text. Every time I've taught it at the college level in the past five years, the majority of the students haven't read it and have no idea what's going to happen. And teaching that play to a group of unspoiled students is FUN! LOL

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