I loved the Foundation trilogy so much as a teen, I thought it was the best thing I'd ever read, and it kept that place in my memory for a long time. Alas, I went back about five years ago and tried to reread it, and it really is drek. Alas. (*braces for defriending*)
Also, I actually like Hamlet better than MacBeth, but in my weird skewed view, I think you actually have to be older to get Hamlet, even though the hero himself is barely out of his teens. Does that make any sense?
There were a bunch of these I couldn't answer. Also, I think the a lot of this is situational.
Unlike you, I absolutely loved Huckleberry Finn, but it's a pretty accurate portrayal of a time period that I can perfectly well understand not everyone wanting to read about. Tom Sawyer, on the other hand, I think of a book for elementary school- it was fun when I was 10, but I had to reread it at some point later for school and found it simplistic and Tom rather needing a good smack.
By 20 is very broad. I would recommend completely different Shakespeare to a 12 year old than to an 18 year old. Ditto Austen. And frankly, given the age range, I'd probably say that if you want to read just one Defoe, skip Crusoe and wait till you're old enough for Moll Flanders.
Asimov will still be read voluntarily long after the last English Lit teacher has been purged.
Mark Twain did a better job of saying "THAT IS NOT PROPERTY, THAT IS A MAN" than anybody before or since.
Phileas Fogg barely manages to remember in time that each day going eastward was just a little less than 24 hours, and he had to set his watch a trifle earlier each day.
Lear's fate is a sharp lesson about flattery.
What do you have planned for Saint Crispin's Day?
Kate and Petruchio manage to get in everybody else's faces without ever doing anything her sisters could quite put a finger on. BEST. SIBLING. REVENGE. EVER.
If the new regime makes the reading of Jane Austen compulsory, then I will. I understand EMMA is comparatively short.
There is exactly one WWI poem that deserves to be remembered as expressing the life of a true and faithful soldier... under the command of a desk officer promoted for accomplishments on the field of cronyism:
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Granted, I haven't read a single book out of that whole list you have at the top of the page. :/
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So hard to pick an Austen- love them all except Mansfield Park.
Much Ado is my fave Shakespeare ever, though As You Like It comes a close second
And how can one not have a crush on Mr Fogg- in my mind he is represented by David Niven.
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(Anonymous) - 2014-03-13 23:10 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
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Unlike you, I absolutely loved Huckleberry Finn, but it's a pretty accurate portrayal of a time period that I can perfectly well understand not everyone wanting to read about. Tom Sawyer, on the other hand, I think of a book for elementary school- it was fun when I was 10, but I had to reread it at some point later for school and found it simplistic and Tom rather needing a good smack.
By 20 is very broad. I would recommend completely different Shakespeare to a 12 year old than to an 18 year old. Ditto Austen. And frankly, given the age range, I'd probably say that if you want to read just one Defoe, skip Crusoe and wait till you're old enough for Moll Flanders.
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Mark Twain did a better job of saying "THAT IS NOT PROPERTY, THAT IS A MAN" than anybody before or since.
Phileas Fogg barely manages to remember in time that each day going eastward was just a little less than 24 hours, and he had to set his watch a trifle earlier each day.
Lear's fate is a sharp lesson about flattery.
What do you have planned for Saint Crispin's Day?
Kate and Petruchio manage to get in everybody else's faces without ever doing anything her sisters could quite put a finger on. BEST. SIBLING. REVENGE. EVER.
If the new regime makes the reading of Jane Austen compulsory, then I will. I understand EMMA is comparatively short.
There is exactly one WWI poem that deserves to be remembered as expressing the life of a true and faithful soldier... under the command of a desk officer promoted for accomplishments on the field of cronyism:
The General inspecting the trenches
exclaimed with a horrified shout,
"I refuse to command a Division
which leaves its excreta about."
And certain responsible critics
made haste to reply to his words,
observing that his Staff advisers
consisted entirely of turds.
But nobody took any notice
No one was prepared to refute,
That the presence of shit was congenial
Compared with the presence of Shute.
For shit may be shot at odd corners
and paper supplied there to suit,
but a shit would be shot without mourners
if somebody shot that shit Shute.
(Clearly a candidate for the Cone of Shame.)
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