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Resentment is no excuse for baldface stupidity.
-- Garrison Keillor

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'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude (as Merry)

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Resentment is no excuse for baldface stupidity.
-- Garrison Keillor

I completely agree with you. Assigned novels should not appear until elective classes in high school.

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Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.

I agree. There are people with a great command of English who aren't really into reading novels, period. Even people who are into reading novels will have those they like and dislike. In Grade 12 English at my school we were assigned Pride and Prejudice. I loved it; I'm one of the many people who think of it as one of the greatest-ever English novels. It was probably what first put me on to reading classic literature. But there are people who are great readers of books in many genres who just don't like it (including people on this board). There were many such people among my classmates, and many more who just didn't like novels. I can't imagine what a torment slogging through P&P must have been for them; certainly I'd understand it if they never opened another classic novel again.

I know plenty of people who are highly intelligent readers who can't get through an Austen novel. It's not a moral failing. But I'm extremely grateful not to be one of them. Oh, man. What a loss that would have been to my life--like never hearing any Bach.

Not liking whom is also not a moral failing.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I'm one of those people who could not get through Pride and Prejudice...in spite of several attempts. However, had it been assigned reading, I would have slogged my way through it and perhaps, through class discussion and dialogue, gained an appreciation of it.

I think having assigned novels is not a bad thing, even in the younger grades. If the whole class reads the same book, it makes for much more interesting discussion and activities. It won't kill anyone to read a book or two that isn't their cup of tea. How else will they get exposed to certain genres of literature? It would be like a music class that let the kids just listen to whatever they "liked" instead of exposing them to a variety of musical styles and time periods.



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"Live! Live! Live! Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Auntie Mame

What Jewel said.

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

Listening to a song, though, is much less of an investment of time and effort than reading a novel.

More time investment is a good thing. The world is full of kids who are instant gratification junkies.

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

But what's the point if the result is half the kids end up feeling like reading is a tedious chore?

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everything happens so much

There should also be books that are fun to read. My daughter is studying English in University and her current assignment is to compare and contrast Joyce's Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man with a Ross O'Carroll Kelly book. The latter is a modern popular comedy author in Ireland.

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

It's also hard to predict what will get through to a kid. In high school lit I found that I really enjoyed the widely dreaded and reviled Ethan Frome—it was so vividly written, and tragic in an austere, un-weepy way. I'd never read anything like it. It opened some doors for me.

At least, that's my memory of it. I never read it again. I just went and looked and there are several free versions on Kindle, so I nabbed one.

ETA: Just to prove I was also a normal teenager, I disliked The Scarlet Letter every bit as much as all three of my kids did.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

We didn't have to read Shakespeare on our own but we read two plays - Tempest and MacBeth - in our classes. Well, basically had them read to us by the teacher since Shakespeare pretty much needs an interpreter. I was amazed at how much I loved both (so good!) considering the enormous language barrier. But I always wondered how my fellow class mates felt about it. I never asked but it made me wonder whether most kids left thinking Shakespeare was cool or awful.

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everything happens so much