Reading

Hi Everyone!

I'm currently listening to These Walls by Teddy Geiger.

For my AP English IV class next year I have 20 books to choose 4 of which I will read. I have already eliminated the Dickens and Shakespeare which leaves me with 17 books to choose from. I am going to sort of talk through each one here. Give me your opinions too!

Bronte, Jane Eyre-
I can buy it for $4.95. It's 558 pages. "Jane Eyre is an extraordinary coming-of-age story featuring one of the most independent and strong-willed female protagonists in all of literature. Poor and plain, Jane Eyre begins life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression sheendures at home, and the later torture of boarding school, Jane manages to emerge with her spirit and integrity unbroken. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she finds herself falling in love with her employer—the dark, impassioned Mr. Rochester. But an explosive secret tears apart their relationship, forcing Jane to face poverty and isolation once again." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Jane-Eyre/Charlotte-Bronte/e/9781593080075/?itm=1)

Sounds interesting enough. The price is enticing but the page length can be a bit foreboding.

Chopin, The Awakening-
I can buy it for $4.50. It's 190 pages. "An American classic of sexual expression that paved the way for the modern novel, The Awakening is both a remarkable novel in its own right and a startling reminder of how far women in this century have come. The story of a married woman who pursues love outside a stuffy, middle-class marriage, the novel portrays the mind of a woman seeking fulfillment of her essential nature." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Awakening/Kate-Chopin/e/9780380002450/?itm=1)

The price and length both attract me. However I don't know if the writing style is one that will captivate me. Anyone read this??? Opinions???

Conrad, Heart of Darkness-
I can buy it for 3.95. It is 102 pages. "Horror awaits Marlow, a seaman assigned by an ivory company to retrieve a cargo boat and one of its employees, Mr. Kurtz who is stranded in the heart of the Africa, deep in the Belgian Congo. Marlow's journey up the brooding dark river soon becomes a struggle to maintain his own sanity as he witnesses the brutalization of the natives by white traders and discovers the enigmatic Mr. Kurtz. Kurtz, once a genius and the company's most successful representative, has become a savage. His compound is decorated by a row of human heads mounted on spears. The demonic mastermind, liberated from the conventions of European culture, has traded his soul to become ruler of his own horrific dominion. " (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Heart-of-Darkness/Joseph-Conrad/e/9780979660733/?itm=2)

The first part of it sounds boring but the heads on stakes part is a bit intriguing. The price and length are once again very nice numbers. This might be a good possibility if someone tells me that this is an enjoyable read...

Dostoevski, Crime and Punishment-
I can buy it for $3.50. It has 480 pages. "The poverty-stricken Raskolnikov, a talented student, devises a theory about extraordinary men being above the law, since in their brilliance they think “new thoughts” and so contribute to society. He then sets out to prove his theory by murdering a vile, cynical old pawnbroker and her sister. The act brings Raskolnikov into contact with his own buried conscience and with two characters — the deeply religious Sonia, who has endured great suffering, and Porfiry, the intelligent and discerning official who is charged with investigating the murder — both of whom compel Raskolnikov to feel the split in his nature. Dostoevsky provides readers with a suspenseful, penetrating psychological analysis that goes beyond the crime — which in the course of the novel demands drastic punishment — to reveal something about the human condition: The more we intellectualize, the more imprisoned we become." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Crime-and-Punishment/Fyodor-Dostoevsky/e/9780486415871/?itm=3)

While this sounds like an amazingly good read, I don't think it will be able to hold my attention... Anyone care to dispute?

Ellison, Invisible Man-
I already have it thanks to Mediterranean. It is 608 pages. "The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Invisible-Man/Ralph-Ellison/e/9780679732761/?itm=4)

The fact that I already have it and it is annotated makes me want to read it... Mediterranean, what do you think?

Euripides, Medea-
I can get it for $4.99. It has pages 56. "Medea has been abandoned by her husband. Jason, for whom she has sacrificed so much, has left her and their two children for a younger woman. Strong-willed and fiercely intelligent, Medea turns her formidable energies to exacting the most horrifying revenge possible on those who have injured her. " (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Medea/Euripides/e/9781599869117/?itm=4#TOC)

Sounds very good. I think that this is on my list.

Faulkner, Sound and the Fury-
I can get it for 11.95. It has 448 pages. "The Sound and the Fury is made up of undifferentiated streams of consciousness that ultimately turn out to be the inner voices of a family's siblings. Its construction is so masterful that the last sentence refers the reader back to the first one, as any perfect work of art might do. Sound has the earmarks of a modern psychological study, although the book was published in 1929. It is a dramatic and harrowing tale of the Compson family's pathology—primarily in the form of incest and incestuous thoughts." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Sound-and-the-Fury/William-Faulkner/e/9780393964813/?itm=7)

Sounds really good, but I think I would rather just read it for my own pleasure and get it from the library than read it for school...

Gardner, Grendel-
I can buy it for $11.95. It has 192 pages. "The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic BEOWULF, tells his side of the story. " (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Grendel/John-Champlin-Gardner/e/9780679723110/?itm=4)

Ummm, I think I would need to read Beowolf... right???

Heller, Catch-22-
I can buy it for $16.00. It has 464 pages. "Arguably the best novel to come out of World War II, in which Heller strips away the veneer of martial glory to expose its insanity, and gives our language a new paradoxical phrase to describe mankind at the mercy of its own institutions." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Catch-22/Joseph-Heller/e/9780684833392/?itm=15)

I don't think this is my type of book...

James, Turn of the Screw-
I can buy it for 3.99. It has 160 pages. "Gripping ghost story by great novelist depicts the sinister transformation of 2 innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. An elegantly told tale of unspoken horror and psychological terror." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Turn-of-the-Screw/Henry-James/e/9780812533415/?itm=1)

I have wanted to read this since it was featured in LOST, maybe this is my chance. It sounds good and is a reasonable price too!

Kesey, One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest-
I can buy it for $9.99. It has 336 pages. "unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them all imprisoned." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/One-Flew-over-the-Cuckoos-Nest/Ken-Kesey/e/9780451163967/?itm=9)

Sounds interesting but I don't know if it one of those books that I will hate because I HAVE to read it so I should just put it off until I have some spare time...

McCullers, Ballad of the Sad Cafe-
I can buy it for $7.95. It has 160 pages. "A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind," McCullers's first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Ballad-of-the-Sad-Cafe/Carson-McCullers/e/9780618565863/?itm=2)

One of the reviews said it was dreary and hard to get through at some places...

Momaday, House Made of Dawn-
I can buy it for $13.00. It has 208 pages. "tells the story of a young American Indian named Abel, home from a foreign war and caught between two worlds: one his father's, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons and the harsh beauty of the land; the other of industrial America, a goading him into a compulsive cycle of dissipation and disgust." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/House-Made-of-Dawn/N-Scott-Momaday/e/9780060931940/?itm=4)

I can pretty much tell you I'm not reading this...

Morisson, Beloved-
I can buy it for 13.95. It has 322 pages. "Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beloved/Toni-Morrison/e/9781400033416/?itm=1)

No. I don't think so...

Salinger, Catcher in the Rye-
I can buy it for $6.99. It has 224 pages. "Salinger's classic coming-of-age story portrays one young man's funny and poignant experiences with life, love, and sex." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Catcher-in-the-Rye/J-D-Salinger/e/9780316769488/?itm=6)

I so badly have wanted to read this for a long time. I have heard great things. I definitely think this is on my list.

Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas-
I can buy it for $13.95. It has 204 pages. "savagely comic account of what happened to this country in the 1960s. It is told through the writer's account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and 'check it out.' The book stands as the final word on the highs and lows of that decade, one of the defining works of our time, and a stylistic and journalistic tour de force" (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fear-and-Loathing-in-Las-Vegas/Hunter-S-Thompson/e/9780679785897/?itm=1)

mehh...

Williams, Streetcar Named Desire-
I can buy it for 7.50. It has 142 pages. "The play reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche du Bois, a woman whose life has been undermined by her romantic illusions, which lead her to reject—so far as possible—the realities of life with which she is faced and which she consistently ignores. The pressure brought to bear upon her by her sister, with whom she goes to live in New Orleans, intensified by the earthy and extremely "normal" young husband of the latter, leads to a revelation of her tragic self-delusion and, in the end, to madness." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Streetcar-Named-Desire/Tennessee-Williams/e/9780451167781/?itm=7)

I have no opinion...

= )

Soul