What are you reading?

[jekylljuice]

Originally Posted by Diamond Duchess

Now I am forced to dig into Geoffery Chauser's The Canterbury Tales, courtesy of my English class.

The structure of the work is quite different from the other works of literature I have been reading and studying in class. It's a bit easier to read, and allows for many differing styles of prose to be presented in one collected work.

A quick question: Who here has read The Canterbury Tales as part of required reading for their English classes? I would like to know, just out of curiosity, if anyone here has.

That would include me. I covered them a couple of years ago as part of a module I was doing on High Medieval Literature (which is far from my favourite literary period). Out of interest, Diamond Duchess, are you actually reading them in their original Middle English form or just in their Modern English translations? I had to read them in the former, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The thing about Middle English is that it looks rather terrifying on the page, but if you read it out loud you'll find that phonetically it's very similar.

Sadly, I don't actually remember that much about the texts themselves, other than that the Wife of Bath was quite the character. Most of what I'd stored had to go to make way for deliberations upon William Langland's Piers Plowman, which I had to write a 3,000 word essay upon at the end of the module. Just be thankful you're not studying that happy little epic - infuriatingly mind-bending or mind-bendingly infuriating? My cerebral jury's still out on that one.

[Ccook50]

Who Framed Boris Karloff? by Dwight Kemper.

[Diamond Duchess]

Originally Posted by jekylljuice

That would include me. I covered them a couple of years ago as part of a module I was doing on High Medieval Literature (which is far from my favourite literary period). Out of interest, Diamond Duchess, are you actually reading them in their original Middle English form or just in their Modern English translations? I had to read them in the former, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The thing about Middle English is that it looks rather terrifying on the page, but if you read it out loud you'll find that phonetically it's very similar.

Sadly, I don't actually remember that much about the texts themselves, other than that the Wife of Bath was quite the character. Most of what I'd stored had to go to make way for deliberations upon William Langland's Piers Plowman, which I had to write a 3,000 word essay upon at the end of the module. Just be thankful you're not studying that happy little epic - infuriatingly mind-bending or mind-bendingly infuriating? My cerebral jury's still out on that one.

To answer your question, jekylljuice, I'm reading the tales in their Modern English translations. You're right: Middle English isn't too far from Modern English, but it looks weird and the vowels are used differently.

I wanted to mention the Middle English because my English teacher made note of it and read the introduction to our class in the original Middle English.

[some guy you dont know]

wow this thread is in a coma.

i just finished reading lord of the flies and i gotta say its a good read. i'd say that if you had a chance, you should read it.

[Sparky]

I just finished the 2rd sequel to Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, which GM tells me is actually better than the first sequel (both sequels were written by the original author's daughters). If that's true, then OMG. Because the one I read was utter crap. Anyways once I finished that I started re-reading Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers which I haven't read in a long time.

[Mac_Attack]

I'm reading "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edger Allen Poe. It's not really my cup of tea, but I don't have much of a choice.

[jekylljuice]

Originally Posted by Sparky

I just finished the 2rd sequel to Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, which GM tells me is actually better than the first sequel (both sequels were written by the original author's daughters). If that's true, then OMG. Because the one I read was utter crap.

RT, Margaret and the Rats of NIMH? I could have warned you about that one. Yep, pretty dire, and certainly not worthy of the brilliant book that inspired it. Where, in Robert C. O'Brien's novel, was it ever established that the rats could speak to humans in plain English? This one felt more like poorly-written fan fiction which made up the rules as it went along.

I actually didn't mind the first sequel, Racso and the Rats of NIMH, too much, despite a couple of glaring contradictions with the original. Since both sequels materialised after O'Brien's death, I guess it's up to you whether or not you want to consider them cannon.

I'm about to embark on reading Skyscraper by Faith Baldwin.

[BabyCharmander]

I'm reading the unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo off and on. I'm a horribly slow reader and I have lots of homework due to it being close to the end of the semester, but I might be able to read it some more over Christmas break.

Believe it or not, I'm reading it for my own pleasure. %D See, in 11th grade I was required to read the abridged version for my English/Lit class and I LOVED it more than any other book I was required to read. It's an EXCELLENT book. It's also a LONG book, but it's excellent nonetheless.

Read it, if you ever get the chance. And... don't watch the movie. Ever. The movie is a disgrace to the book. D: They screwed up the plot SO MUCH. DX I watched it after reading the abridged version and wanted to get up and leave several times due to all the stuff they changed. (I didn't, though. I sat through the whole thing and hated every bit of it. @x)

[koosie]

Originally Posted by BabyCharmander

Read it, if you ever get the chance. And... don't watch the movie. Ever. The movie is a disgrace to the book. D: They screwed up the plot SO MUCH. DX I watched it after reading the abridged version and wanted to get up and leave several times due to all the stuff they changed. (I didn't, though. I sat through the whole thing and hated every bit of it. @x)

Haha, that goes double for Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Any-hoo, I'm reading 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' by Haruki Murakami. Didn't really click with it first time I tried reading it but this time I got over my own natural caution of anything that throws Unicorns into a modern data-entry thriller and it's really falling into place. Looking foward to finding out exactly what's going on.

[Medikor]

Stephan Colbert: I Am America (And So Can You). I'm only two chapters in and it's a riot! I can't remember a book that actually made me laugh out loud so much.