Calling all Bibliofiles

[Lugh]

I'm helping a friend of mine put together a couple High School level Literature courses for Home Schooled kids. We are doing them secular so religious views are not a problem.

 

Here is my challenge to you. If you had the chance to choose (a minimum of) any 30 novels in (a minimum of) four groupings (such as American Literature, World Literature, British Literature, Genre Study...) which books would you choose (and why)?

[LittleBuddhaTW]

I'd say three of my favorite novels from high school would have to be Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, and Catcher in the Rye (and it's probably not a coincidence that they all have homoerotic undertones ). In 10th grade English, we also had a unit on the Bible (as literature), which was quite interesting.

[Xandra Kitee]

I'm helping a friend of mine put together a couple High School level Literature courses for Home Schooled kids. We are doing them secular so religious views are not a problem.

 

Here is my challenge to you. If you had the chance to choose (a minimum of) any 30 novels in (a minimum of) four groupings (such as American Literature, World Literature, British Literature, Genre Study...) which books would you choose (and why)?

Oh list of books. My hobby! O_o

 

First, when I'll talk about the themes it'll be roughly, highschool level in my mind.

 

American Litterature :

 

I won't try that, I guess. ^^

 

World Litterature :

 

The Judgment, Kafka

Well... All you've ever wanted to know about dark atmosphere in novels is here! First the political denunciation is obvious but there's also all this slow but inevitable wearing out of the hero's mind by the absurd circumstances which is very interesting to study.

 

Don Quixote, Cervantes

This is the FIRST "modern" novel. Narratives techniques, inner shiftings, author's interferences within the text... Just about everything break free from the previous styles. And I won't even begin to mention the fabulous gallery of characters.

 

Ferdidurke, Gombrowicz

This book is... first of all an exuberant game with words and language. I loved it as a teenager because I think that along with a few others, it showed be that writting could be... anything but mostly cathartic and fun. There's also so critic of culture and teaching, of technical progress and the childish state of mind mankind is kept into.

 

Ok, maybe I don't make much sense. Just try it. >_>

 

Out of Africa or/and Letters from Africa, 1914

[Camy]

I'm helping a friend of mine put together a couple High School level Literature courses for Home Schooled kids. We are doing them secular so religious views are not a problem.

 

Here is my challenge to you. If you had the chance to choose (a minimum of) any 30 novels in (a minimum of) four groupings (such as American Literature, World Literature, British Literature, Genre Study...) which books would you choose (and why)?

 

Surely the title should be English Literature, and not sub divided into American and British. It is after all one language, albeit with peculiar cultural differences.

 

And why just novels? Poetry is equally important, and plays - you'd have to include screenplays and lyrics too.

 

Rather than titles I'd go for Authors - Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Wodehouse, Salinger, Golding, Orwell: to King, Rowling, Pullman, Brown etc and list their best works.

 

You have to show the relevance of learning about long dead authors vs living ones. Once that clicked with me then I got into history as well...

 

Camy

[LittleBuddhaTW]

Musashi, Eiji Yoshikawa

A great adventure novel and a very good insight of japanese history and culture.

 

I agree, this is an excellent book! One of my faves, actually ... but I don't think I've seen it on any high school reading lists ... although there's a first time for everything!

[goddessmaat]

For A level, which I took many years ago now and think/hope is sort of the UK equivalent, I had to study poetry too. I did Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Byron and Chaucer. Then did straight texts too which included Dickens, Austen and Eliot.

 

All are classic UK/English authors.

 

It did instill in me a lifelong love of Shakespeare and poetry for which I will always be grateful.

[Naiilo]

I'm helping a friend of mine put together a couple High School level Literature courses for Home Schooled kids. We are doing them secular so religious views are not a problem.

 

Here is my challenge to you. If you had the chance to choose (a minimum of) any 30 novels in (a minimum of) four groupings (such as American Literature, World Literature, British Literature, Genre Study...) which books would you choose (and why)?

 

 

There is no way you can teach a High School level Literature course without teaching Dante's "Inferno". The other canticles of the Comedy wont be understood very well unless you are teaching a lot of theosophy and philosphy, so stick with "Inferno."

 

Also, you ought to include:

Musashi

Gilgamesh

The Upanishads

The Iliad

The Odyssey

The Aeneid (Compare to the Ilaid and Odyssey in class)

1 or 2 Canterbury Tales (Compare to Inferno in class)

1 Shakespearian Tragedy(Macbeth is timeless, but Antony and Cleopatra is more entertaining- i think)

1 Shakespearan Comedy (Midsummer's Night)

The Tempest (a very different genre than most of Shakespeare's stuff)

Something from the Enlightenment that isn't Milton (I'm not a fan of the Enlightenment Era lit, so I cant name anything)

Romantic Era Poetry(Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Blake)

Frankenstein

either Pride and Prejudice or Northanger Abbey

a Dickens novel (To appreciate the rest of them)

A Bronte novel

Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rosetti (Or other Pre-Raphealite Poetry)

The Importance of Being Earnest

a Woolf novel

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Catcher in the Rye

Brave New World

East of Eden

Prometheus Unbound

Something from Zola

Catch-22

Death of a Salesman

The Crucible

The Dumbwaiter

The Woman's Bible (if you are teaching secular this will work better than A Vindication on the Rights of Women)

Blindness (Jose Saramago, World Lit, Nobel Prize, contains interesting perspectives on disease and differences)

The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano (Slave Narrative, World Lit, Post-Colonial)

 

 

These would be my picks, but you may not have the same views on them as I do. The reason I choose these is they are all classic examples, exceptions being The Dumbwaiter and Blindness, of their genre and era and also because they offer great foundations and perspectives on literature. Included in this list are Classics, Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romance, Victorian, Modern, and Post Modern examples. Your students should at least appreciate the more ancient pieces and have a bit of fun with the more current pieces. For an fun class you can also read out some of the definitions of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, those will have your student's laughing--or at least amused.

[Caipirinha]

I

[Guest raz]

As far as poetry goes, I'm really liking works by T. S. Eliot. I especially enjoyed "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".. I believe that was the title. :king:

[CoLeYy]

hmm i gues i could name a few books

last yr ( sophmore yr ) we read

 

the crucible

cut

to kill a mocking bird

the catcher in the rye

this yr we read

 

scarlet letter

ethan frome

fences

a streetcar named desire

death of a salesman

macbeth

and the great gatsby

[dkstories]

Master and Margarita is on my list, as is Eugene Onegin and Boris Godunov, both of the last by Pushkin.

 

 

For Poetry...well I had to memorize a lot of Russian poems in studying Russian so I know more of them. My favorite were by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin.

 

Try Monument or Current of Time's River...I love both of them and can still recite good portions of them.

 

http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenner/...e/derzhavin.htm

 

Hmmm...now I need to find my old poetry book...somewhere in the back of it is a translation of the old hymnal "Amazing Grace" into Russian...

[Red_A]

My Choices For a School Reading List

 

When I saw Little Bubbha suggestion of Lord of the Flies, I was shocked as this book was my school reading book and resulted in me turning away from formal English Literature and the majority of my classmates stopped reading books.

 

Since I have never criticized anybody without, unless I could do better, here is my recommendations. Some of them are turkeys. I chose them, to illustrate points of interest.

 

But first, I must give you some of my background. I was brought up in Swansea Wales, when all the good modern books were science fiction. I was and am still slightly dyslexic and have some problems communicating with people. I am also notorious in getting 98% in any maths exam. When I read, I do not read every single word but sentences, or groups of words. I was brought up to follow the teachings of the Religious Society of Friends.

 

So with that information, you can judge the following.

 

The books have been chosen to illustrate how writing style have changed and I have deliberated chosen light books not heavy themes, as this could put off younger or immature people. After all reading should be for fun and pleasure. Futher pleasure can come later when examination of the mechanism of writing is understood, and fun dissection can be done. I have where possible suggest basic questions and give additional hints for source of information.

 

English thru the Years

 

The Bible King James version, Song of Solomon

http://bible.cc/

http://kjv.biblebrowser.com/songs/1-1.htm

 

This is for language only; there is no underling moral or religious theme.

Read all of the Songs

Look at other versions of Song of Solomon Chapter 1 only. What is your opinion on the differences in the translations? Why do you think this has occurred?

How would you translate it especially verses 1 to 6.

 

 

Shakespeare Mid Summer

[Former Member]

Here's the books that I can remember that I've read during high school:

 

Freshman Year:

Ethan Frome

Romeo and Juliet

A few short myths/part of The Odyssy

Random poetry from a poetry book

I think that's all my class read but I know others also read Great Expectations (may have actually been The Grapes of Wrath) and To Kill A Mockingbird

 

Sophomore Year:

A Seperate Piece

Catcher in the Rye

Julius Ceaser

All My Sons

Others read Lord of the Flies

 

Junior Year:

My Antonia

Rip Van Winkle

The Great Gatsby

An essay by John Smith

Some of Ben Franklin's writings

Some of Henry David Thoreau

Some of Poe's short stories

The Scarlet Letter

The Crucible

Other classes also read Of Mice and Men,One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Death of a Salesman

 

Senior Year:

The Stranger

No Exit

Dante's Inferno

Beowulf

Grendal

Some read Hamlet

 

I'm sure there were other books we read but I can't remember them. Hope I helped!

 

-Kayla-

Edited June 14, 2006 by Kay