[bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters

  • From: "Katie Hill" <kaitlyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:09:20 -0700

HI Patti, 

 

The Lottery, in an odd way, when I think about it has  haunted me. I think
my first exposure to it was an old time radio show. I read it here about a
year ago in a collection by her. 

 

 

The joy of life is living in the question

Katie Hill

Kaitlyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

  _____  

From: Patti Johnson [mailto:razz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 3:26 PM
To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters

 

A book I had to read in college that I absolutely hated was Catcher in the
Rye.  I saw no merit in it.  I read for entertainment and relaxation, fun;
if I want to learn something, yes I'd rather read about it, but I don't
necessarily read to do that.

I have to really want to read a book I know I'll enjoy , not just because it
maybe 50 years old, though on the other hand I do love a lot of the
classics.

I won't read anything with explicit content in it, foul language, etc.  It
just really isn't necessary to my mind to have to plow through all that
garbage.

One of my favorite stories in high school reading was by Shirley Jackson,
The Lottery.  Why that has stuck with me I really don't know.

It's interesting what books really do stay with you over the years.

Patti

 

If you don't want to be accused of having a narrow mind, then stop blaming
everything on the dog.

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Amy Goldring Tajalli <mailto:agoldringtajalli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>  

To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 4:08 PM

Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters

 

You break my heart.  If you limit yourself to books that end happily you 
miss most of the truly great literature.  And if you omit all stories that 
include the deaths of animals you also limit yourself to the books which are

the most effective and forceful arguments against the killing of animals - 
especially against the unnecessarily and brutal killings.  No book is as 
forceful in today's climate against the murder of whales as Moby Dick even 
though it was not intended as such. And that particular whale has defended 
himself remarkably as well as the fact that there is more meaning in the 
book and whale than just a simple whale story.

I am sorry you hated the Shakespeare tragedies and histories.  King Lear is 
best seen or listened to - I used the Shakespeare society recordings when 
studying for my doctoral and it made a world of difference in my 
understanding and appreciation of some which I had  previously studied but 
also increased my love of the ones I already knew. While the ending of Lear 
is heartbreaking, it is also just - except, perhaps for Cordelia's. Like all

great tragedies and tragic heroes, Lear is responsible for his own death. To

truly appreciate great tragedies, even in novels, try reading Aristotle's 
Poetics.  It is not long and although he was specifically writing about 
Sophocles' Oedipus he set the definition and rules for all great tragedies 
and tragic heroes.  It is why and how English teachers  differentiate 
between tragedies and other dramas.

Great characters and great stories - plays and novels and even poems like 
those of Homer and Dante and Milton - teach us about ourselves and people 
like us.  Don't say they are not like us before you do some deep thinking. 
You may surprise yourself by your thoughts.

Amy

P.S. The only character whose death haunted Dickens, and it did for the rest

of his life, was Nancy in Oliver Twist and yet that book had a happy ending.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:44 PM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters


> Dear Cindy, Katie
>
> The blanks are to prevent spoilers.
>
> By all means skip "The Old Curiosity Shop," which had Dickens sobbing 
> loudly in the streets, "I've killed blank blank! I've killed blank blank!"

> I love and cry through Nicholas Nickleby as much as Amy, so you'd best 
> stay clear of that one, too!
>
> Katie, I'll be curious to hear how you like the drama and historic setting

> of, "The Robe." The writing tone is already dated, but that's part of the 
> charm of books for me. I love hearing voices and perspectives from current

> to way back. This is part of the reason I'm such a supporter of book 
> preservation. Deceased authors speak to any of us interested enough and 
> lucky enough to find their books.
>
> Old movies are similar and include visions as well as voices of the past. 
> I really appreciate almost any kind of historic preservation. I feel 
> Bookshare lets me take part in preserving books, one at a time. I still 
> gnaw on the worry of who can and will preserve Bookshare's massive 
> archive.
>
> Rick, are any animals killed in Billy Budd? I ought to read something by 
> Melville, and since I can't read about killing a whale, maybe I could get 
> through Billy Bud.
>
> Casandra, Sherry and other lovers of Shakespeare, I'm with you. I can't 
> think of a Shakespeare play I don't like, but McBeth, The King Henrys, 
> King Lear and Twelfth Night are way up there.
>
> My take on required reading is that it's one of the functions of education

> to expose students to ideas and material they might not discover on their 
> own. I don't need a teacher to require me to read books I already know 
> I'll like and read school or no school. Because I really like classics, I 
> didn't mind being required to read them. It's unrealistic to expect every 
> student will like every book that's required reading. I was shattered by 
> The Red Badge of Courage. I would never have read it unless I had to, but 
> it forced me to think seriously about the nature and consequences of war. 
> I might resent being required to read a half dozen books about war, but 
> reading one book about it helped expand my awareness and forced me to grow

> up a little more.
>
> Another point in favor of required reading is that sometimes students 
> discover they really like a book they'd have never considered reading 
> themselves. They discover authors or genres they will go on to seek out in

> their free reading time.
>
> With a book the whole class is required to read teachers can give students

> ideas about identifying writing style and literary devices like word use, 
> characterization, elements of plot, etc. They give them experience on 
> being more observant of what they are reading, putting the book in 
> historic context, applying its contents to themselves and their present 
> culture and expressing their opinions about it.. If teachers present a 
> variety of kinds of books than I would hope not all of the students would 
> like all of them. Reading what they don't like helps kids define their 
> personal taste.
>
> I sound like an education apologist, don't I? I also sound as if I've 
> forgotten I'm retired. Please don't mind me. You know books and teaching 
> are close to my heart and that I really respect everyone's right to read 
> what they like.
>
> Because I proficiencied  English in college and Kiddie lit was my only 
> required English class, I didn't take any college lit. If college was 
> cheap enough, I'd love to take some lit classes now. Amy, I'd take a 
> Faulkner class or two from you.
>
> Thank you Amy, Susan L,  and Shelley for the encouragement to read Bleak 
> House which I downloaded last night.
>
> Shelley, I expected I'd like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and was 
> surprised when I didn't enjoy it. Is the Lightning you like, the book by 
> Dean Koontz? If so, I liked it too, and also liked Strangers by him and 
> loved Watchers.
>
> Can you tell us who wrote, "Night," and, "The True Confessions of 
> Charlotte Doyle," and a little more about them?.
>
> I've downloaded Islandia which Brian Miller recommended. The synopsis says

> the author was a lawyer who unexpectedly wrote this novel about an 
> elaborate invented society in the southern hemisphere protected by 
> mountains. It's history, and culture are so well developed that the author

> is compared with Tolkien. Except that the place and society are invented, 
> I don't think this a fantasy or quest novel. I get the idea that the man 
> who discovers Islandia wants to stay there.
>
> Rick, even though you didn't like it, I have to read Barnaby Rudge , to 
> meet the blind villain. Really, Dickens wrote so many memorable villains, 
> I think it's kind of cool he gave blind fictitious characters an equal 
> opportunity to be bad guys.
>
> Mitchner's Texas was an entertaining read. What I learned was that pecans 
> don't just grow in Mississippi! Cindy Ray, I think I'll try his Alaska, 
> next. Since I love the cold so much, it will comfort me during Ohio's hot,

> humid, summer. Since Bookshare's copy is only rated good, I've added a 
> request for a BSO of Alaska to the wish list.
>
> According to Booksharian suggestions I've also downloaded
> Mrs. Mike and its sequel
> Memoirs of Cleopatra,
> Desiree
> The Fourth World, Suggested by Pennina
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Grandma Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:02 AM
> Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters
>
>
>> I'm glad to hear so many good things about Bleak
>> House. I haven't read that, or the Old Curiosity Shop.
>> The only Dickens book I liked were Great Expectations
>> and A  Tale of Two Cities. The others were too sad
>> and, perhaps the word is  grimy, for me. I like books
>> set in older centuries but the ones that deal with the
>> upper classes and nobility. Ordinary, and especially
>> lower class life, make me too sad and uncomfortable.
>> sigh
>>
>> Cindy
>>
>> --- "Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Bleak house was fantastic, I read it on cassette in
>>> High school.
>>>
>>>
>>> Shelley L. Rhodes M.A., VRT, CTVI
>>> and Judson, guiding golden
>>> juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc.
>>> Graduate Alumni Association Board
>>> www.guidedogs.com
>>>
>>> More than Any other time, When i hold a beloved book
>>> in my hand, my
>>> limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.
>>> - Helen Keller
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 6:03 PM
>>> Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer
>>> chunksters
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Casandra, Amy and Summer Readers,
>>>
>>> Casandra, I hoped it was a matter of time until
>>> David Copperfield  was
>>> mentioned. I read it for fun in seventh grade. Then
>>> it was the longest book
>>> I'd ever read. It was 10 volumes and in an English
>>> edition which had larger
>>> pages than the NLS books. I was enthusing to a
>>> sighted friend that I was
>>> reading a book that was, I think, about 1200 pages
>>> long in braille and she
>>> said in a bored voice, "Why would you want to do
>>> that?" It really brought
>>> home to me how people's reading and minds run along
>>> such different tracks.
>>> I agree with Amy that "The Old Curiosity Shop is
>>> really worth reading. Have
>>> you read that one yet?
>>>
>>> Dickens is one of my very favorite authors. If you
>>> are interested in him as
>>> an individual or artist, you might want to try the
>>> book I validated, "The
>>> Mutual Friend," by Frederick Busch. It's pretty
>>> literary, gritty, poetic in
>>> a ruthlessly realistic vein, informative about
>>> Dickens' time and haunts, and
>>> is irreverent to say the least, but, for a Dickens
>>> fan, it was never dull
>>> and it's yet another book I'll never forget.
>>>
>>> Amy, I haven't read Bleak House, yet. I hope
>>> Bookshare has it so I can read
>>> it in braille. For the first time I've topped out my
>>> download quota, so
>>> Bleakhouse will have to be July reading which is no
>>> problem because I
>>> already have way more than I can read in the
>>> meantime.
>>>
>>> If you and Kenneth ever run out of books about
>>> Faulkner to submit, keep in
>>> mind I'd love to read anything you scan or validate
>>> about Dickens.
>>>
>>> Always with love,
>>>
>>> Lissi
>>>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>   From: Amy Goldring Tajalli
>>>   To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>   Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:27 PM
>>>   Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic,
>>> summer chunksters
>>>
>>>
>>>   If you haven't already read them you might also
>>> give The Old Curiosity
>>> Shop and Bleak House a look.  But then, I am working
>>> on the complete
>>> Dickens. I am Making up for years lost.
>>>
>>>   Amy
>>>     ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>     From: Kasondra Payne
>>>     To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>     Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:50 PM
>>>     Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic,
>>> summer chunksters
>>>
>>>
>>>     I read David Copperfield on my own during the
>>> summer after my freshman
>>> year of high school.  I loved it!  I still love long
>>> classic books like
>>> that.  I am the same person who read the entire
>>> Bible from cover to cover in
>>> two weeks when I was fifteen.  I have thought of
>>> reading War and Peace or
>>> the entire Lord of the Rings series on my bus trip
>>> to the NFB convention.
>>> First I have to finish the three books I am reading.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     Kasondra Payne
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     No virus found in this outgoing message.
>>>     Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>>>     Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.16/849
>>> - Release Date:
>>> 6/14/2007 12:44 PM
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>> Release Date: 6/13/2007
>>> 12:50 PM
>>>
>>>
>>> To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
____________________________________________________________________________
________
>> Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated

>> for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.
>> http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=monopolyherenow
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