Help Me? I don't know what I'm reading...

im going through Heart of darkness right now actually, great book, reminds me a lot of hemingway only better

frankenstein was good, much better than dracula or any of the movies

the others i dont know, but the Joyce one sounds interesting

in my opinion, frankenstein was great...really well written and throughout the book i could visualize what was going on, plus it's a really interesting story.

ethan fromme was good, kind of sad but i liked it.

i just started reading invisible man and it's pretty good so far....every teacher i've had always says it's one of the best african american novels...

I'm going to be a senior, also, and on our summer list we've got Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The Invisible Man, also...
I heard that Portrait was pretty good... T'least, a lot of people in my class were going to read it.
Never having read either, I can't help out much more... Making this response pretty much a useless waste of postage:rolleyes:

((Our list also includes Kafka's Metamorphosis....happy.))

[QUOTE=LifeCafe]
((Our list also includes Kafka's Metamorphosis....happy.))[/QUOTE]
the Trial is even better

ooh, indeed. Well...tied.
But The Trial has the benefit of Orson Welles' (mmm) name attached....So i would have to concur...it wins out.

Frankestein is one of my favorites.

[QUOTE=LifeCafe]
But The Trial has the benefit of Orson Welles' (mmm) name attached....[/QUOTE]
whowhat?

[QUOTE=karbunkle]the Trial is even better[/QUOTE]

I did read Metamorphosis...I have the book with all his stories in it, but haven't gotten around to reading them. The Trial will be one of those.

[QUOTE=karbunkle]whowhat?[/QUOTE]

I think he's agreeing with you.

i dug a lot of his other stories over The Metamorphosis
i dont know why that one gets all the pub

[QUOTE=RoxyH]I think he's agreeing with you.[/QUOTE]
i didn't get the orson Welles connection

Ethan Fromme was eh...I read it as a junior. Frankenstein as a senior... to be honest, I didnt like either of them. I had to read Frankenstein with a shit teacher, Mrs. Pennell. She was a twat. Didnt like when I called Victor a sadist. I really did hate that teacher. I guess it was more her than the book. Those are the only ones Ive read from your list. I guess Id better get crack-a-lackin.
Wait, what was your question?

also, if your ever got a book and you don't know what it is your reading and every sentance is completely irrelevant to the preceding one and theres lots of drugs and sex mentioned for no appearant reason its probably Naked Lunch

[QUOTE=ladydie]As a rising senior in high school I am again facing a summer reading list. Below are the titles- anyone have input? I don't know very much about these titles/authors, except for Frankenstein (of course,) and Charles Dickens.

[U]The Heart of Darkness[/U]- Joseph Conrad
[U]Frankenstein[/U]- Mary Shelly
[U]Hard Times[/U]- Charles Dickens
[U]Ethan Frome[/U]- Edith Wharton
[U]Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man[/U]- James Joyce
[U]Invisible Man[/U]- Ralph Ellison
[U]All the King's Men[/U]- Robert Penn Warren

Thoughts, insights, and opinions about these books would be greatly appreciated. I'm a huge Palahniuk fan, and I've had a great time reading some of the titles recommended by the Cult. I've been amazed by the thoughtfulness and depth of discussion here, and I'd be grateful for any insight.
Thanks![/QUOTE]
Right, as with just about anything, opinions vary from person to person. I've got a theory that if you're forced to read anything, chances are you're going to think that it sucks donkey balls. However, that's not always the case as a majority of the books on your list that I've read, I've been forced to read in a class of some sort and I love nearly all the books on your list. So without further ado...

My thoughts, insights, and opinions:
[U]The Heart of Darkness[/U]- Joseph Conrad
Bloody beautiful. I think it's a brilliant look at racial relations during the time and place, as well as an interesting look at perspective (from a literary point of view). Keep in mind while you're reading that the person telling the story isn't actually the "narrator" and see what that does regarding your trust of everything he says, particularly by the end of the book.

[U]Frankenstein[/U]- Mary Shelly
Completely different than what I thought it was going to be. Kind of like with Irvine's Trainspotting, if you've seen the movie (or in this case know the basic story line), you're only really seeing the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more to this story than a giant rotting corpse terrorizing a small Bavarian village. Humanity is the theme here.

[U]Hard Times[/U]- Charles Dickens
Alright, so the first time I read this, I thought it was a pile of crap, but that was because I was forced to read it. Since then, I've grown a soft spot for Dickens and I think it's a fantastic novel. It's easy to remember, but the setting and circumstances play a major role in this one.

[U]Ethan Frome[/U]- Edith Wharton
Sorry, my Edith Wharton cherry has yet to be popped.

[U]Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man[/U]- James Joyce
I thought this one was so-so, but I haven't gotten a chance to read it since I was forced to. Now the idea of it is really intrigueing. Joyce has got a writing style that I think is a touch over my head at times, but it's fascinating to watch it progress as his protagonist grows.

[U]Invisible Man[/U]- Ralph Ellison
I can't even tell you how great this mother is. It's a long one, it's a little bit difficult to digest at times, but I love it. Pretty much as soon as you get started, you'll be able to figure out that race is the primary theme of the story, but politics certainly come into play. There is a ton of symbolism, so keep your eyes peeled.

[U]All the King's Men[/U]- Robert Penn Warren
It's on my (personal) list, The List, but I haven't had the chance to partake just yet. Any other questions, just ask.

I'm going to be a senior too, but I'm too lazy to take AP even though I said I was going to sign up for me. Frankenstein is a classic, and it's not a bad read. James Joyce will get you thinking so I suggest that one...Kafka's Metamorphisis is one of the books kids here have to read...I can't wait to see all of the confused looks on their faces "wait...he's a roach?"

[QUOTE=karbunkle]whowhat?[/QUOTE]
Orson Welles directed a movie losely based on the story [b]The Trial[/b]. Starring Anthony Perkins. I don't think it was very popular. I hear it's pretty weird actually. I haven't seen it though.

[QUOTE=PGoutis01]Orson Welles directed a movie losely based on the story [b]The Trial[/b]. Starring Anthony Perkins. I don't think it was very popular. I hear it's pretty weird actually. I haven't seen it though.[/QUOTE]
Perkins and Welles ! interesting
well theres a little treasure to go huntin' up now

Are you taking AP English Lit. next year?
I only mention this because I took it and I had to read all of these books. There's an AP reading list of 74 books.

[I]Heart of Darkness[/I] is similar to the movie 'Apocolypse Now' (or other way around).
[I]Frankenstein[/I] deals with same stuff as [I]The Island of Dr. Moreau[/I].

I forget the rest, as there were 74 books read in this 9 month span. Sparknote them if you don't want to read them.

[QUOTE=the midas touch]

I forget the rest, as there were 74 books read in this 9 month span.[/QUOTE]
DAMN

[QUOTE=karbunkle]DAMN[/QUOTE]
Check that--99 books.
74 because I had already read 25 of them in previous years of high school. The AP Lit Exam asks you to write an essay in which you use one of these books to answer the prompt. They give you a choice of like 15 books (out of this 99) on the AP Exam itself.

Here you go:
1. The Adventure of Huck Finn*
2. The Age of innocence
3. Alias Grace
4. All the King's Men
5. All Quiet on the Western Front*
6. An American Tragedy
7. Anna Karenina
8. Antigone*
9. As I Lay Dying
10. The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man
11. The Awakening
12. Beloved
13. Bleak house
14. Bless Me Ultima*
15. Billy Budd
16. Candide
17. Catch 22
18. Catcher in the Rye*
19. Ceremony
20. The Color Purple*
21. Crime and Punishment
22. The Crucible*
23. Cyrano de Bergerac*
24. Death of a Salesman*
25. Doctor Faustus
26. Don Quixote
27. An Enemy of the People
28. Ethan Frome
29. Equus
30. A Farewell to Arms
31. Faust
32. Fences
33. Flowers for Algernon*
34. For Whom the Bell tolls
35. A Gesture Life
36. Ghosts
37. The Giver*
38. The Glass Menagerie
39. The Grapes of Wrath*
40. Great Expectations*
41. The Great Gatsby*
42. Hamlet*
43. Heart of darness
44. Hedda Gabler
45.Henry V
46. The House of Mirth
47. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings*
48. Invisible Man
49. Jane Eyre
50. Jasmine
51. Joe Turner's Come and Gone
52. The Joy Luck Club*
53. Jude the Obscure
54. King Lear
55. Light in August
56. Long Day's Journey into Night
57. Madame Bovary
58. Major Barbara
59. The Mayor of Casterbridge
60. The Merchant of Venice
61. Middlemarch
62. The Mill on the Floss
63. Moby Dick
64. Mrs. Warren's profession
65. Native Son
66. Native Speaker
67. Obasan
68. Oedipus Rex*
69. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*
70. One Hundred Years of Solitude
71. Orlando
72. Pere Goriot
73. The Piano lesson
74. The picture of Dorian Gray
75. Phedre
76. The Plague
77. Poccho
78. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
79. Ragtime
80. A Raisin in the Sun*
81. The Scarlet Letter*
82. Sent for You Yesterday
83. A Separate peace
84. Silas Marner
85. Song of Solomon
86. The Sound and the Fury
87. The Stone Angel
88. The Stranger
89.Sula
90. The Sun Also Rises
91. A Tale of two Cities*
92. Tess of D';Urbervilles
93. Things fall Apart*
94. The Things They Carries
95. The Turn of the Screw
96. Their Eyes Were Watching God*
97. Things Fall Apart*
98.Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
99. Wuthering Heights

Summer reading list?

Do you go to a private school?

SPOILER...........BUT I DON'T THINK ANYONE WILL CARE ANYWAY

[QUOTE=the midas touch]

83. A Separate peace
[/QUOTE]

12th grade AP....they had us read this in medium 9th grade english.....i did my final paper on it. i read most of the book and wrote a "B" paper w/o ever knowing that phineas dies at the end.

alright, i thought you had said you had to read all 75/99 of them in a 9 month span

Thank you so much to [U]Rents[/U] and [U]the midas touch[/U].
I feel a lot better about reading these now.
I am taking AP Lit, I didn't know that's how they set up the exam...
so out of those 99 books we just have to hope that we've read at least one of the 15?
Although it is true that we've been reading a lot of those titles since 9th grade...
weird.
I'm going to pass along a link to this thread to my non-cultie friends who have to do this reading too...
You guys rock!

[QUOTE=karbunkle]Perkins and Welles ! interesting
well theres a little treasure to go huntin' up now[/QUOTE]
Amazon has like 3 or 4 different copies. They all seem to be put out by some small ass production companies. I haven't shelled out to buy it yet because I don't want to pick the wrong one and end up with a cheap copy that looks like shit. There was one of them that a reviewer said had a logo in the lower left corner of the screen the whole time. (It was either The Trial or The Stranger or maybe both that they did this on.) I love buying DVD's but I hate it when you buy an older movie made into a DVD and it looks like somebody put a VHS into a DVD recorder and just recorded it that way...

So if you go looking for it and find a decent copy - let me know which one you end up getting.

[QUOTE=PGoutis01] (It was either The Trial or The Stranger or maybe both that they did this on.)[/QUOTE]
damn those two guys on either one of those books i bet would be fun to see
i'm surprised they haven't got done up for mass sale yet, or even as a turner classics movie channel deal
i'll drop ya a line if and when i find anything

[QUOTE=JKuhlmann]SPOILER...........BUT I DON'T THINK ANYONE WILL CARE ANYWAY

12th grade AP....they had us read this in medium 9th grade english.....i did my final paper on it. i read most of the book and wrote a "B" paper w/o ever knowing that phineas dies at the end.[/QUOTE]

I hated A Seperate Piece. Every freaking page I had to turn was an excercise in self-restraint. What a miserable piece of literature to have someone read in 9th grade.

By the way, I passed both my AP English exams without having read over half the list they gave me. SCOREBOARD!!

[QUOTE=Rents]
[U]Invisible Man[/U]- Ralph Ellison
I can't even tell you how great this mother is. It's a long one, it's a little bit difficult to digest at times, but I love it. Pretty much as soon as you get started, you'll be able to figure out that race is the primary theme of the story, but politics certainly come into play. There is a ton of symbolism, so keep your eyes peeled.[/QUOTE]

:You_Rock_ You were so right.
I'm almost halfway through [U]Invisible Man[/U], and although long, it is great. The descriptions are very strong, and it's easy to get inside the narrator's train of thought. Though it was pretty tricky of Ellison to avoid giving away his name...