<p>I love old books, but classics less :/</p>
<p>13 Reasons Why isn’t fantasy or dystopia, and it’s kinda disturbing…
I also suggest the Uglies series, Bumped, Enclave, The Declaration trilogy, and The Forest of Hand and Teeth :)</p>
<p>I guess I can understand why someone would love classics, but I just don’t get them :S</p>
<p>Oh, okay. The Uglies trilogy was rad! I could just imagine everything…it really drew me in! I’ll have to look up those other books, though.</p>
<p>@CellyZ I feel especially superficial when talking about books. I read Catcher in the Rye for summer reading and thought it was boring, the main character annoyed me. Mockingbird was okay, but being African American I couldn’t help be a little annoyed…which usually happens with books like that. I got Lord of the Flies from the library but got bored after the fifth page (no joke) and returned it. Animal Farm was for 8th grade English, and it was an okay book. It was cool that it was supposed to have an underlying political meaning.</p>
<p>@UKgirl23 Ahhh, I got 13 Reasons Why and loved it! Weird how 1) she recorded a tape of each person who basically made her suicidal and 2) the main character’s (yes, I forgot his name) story wasn’t even that bad!! I’ve also read the Uglies series, and it was really good. Kinda sad they didn’t make a movie out of it, but I guess some books are meant to have legacies and not shower the big screen to squeeze out of a few bucks from the general public.</p>
<p>@bsrox It would have been really good as a film as well! With all the technology and action scenes…
13 Reasons Why did annoy me a little for that reason. It’s like the person who’s telling us the story has to be the good one. It would have been mor einteresting if he’d had to deal with the guilt of it all as well.</p>
<p>@bsroxmysox: I know! I feel especially petty as well…and to think that I was recommended for Honors English! All the people I know who are in that class are the most ardent believers in classical literature. :P</p>
<p>@UKgirl23 Didn’t it? I was waiting for his tape so she would tell him how he screwed her over, and it would be a million times worse than everyone else’s or just different, maybe unintentional. And then it wasn’t. Also, I kind of feel like some of the things were a bit superficial, but maybe that’s just its individual effect…</p>
<p>@GoldenRatio Same here! Except I’m in Humanities, not sure if that’s really Honors English. Everyone’s talking about books and I hear snatches like, “Oh! I loved the Great Gatsby!”, “Catch 22 was gooood.”, “Wuthering Heights was really good.” And I’m sitting there, silently sliding Gossip Girl under my desk. I remember taking out Wuthering Heights (to see what all they hype was about because, I’ll admit it, Bella read it and loved it) and getting bored after maybe the first chapter, and promptly returning it the next day.</p>
<p>^I like some classics, I detest Victorian novels eg Dickens and Brontes. Jane Eyre was so horrible, I don’t even allow it on my bookshelves in my room, and we’re studying Great Expectations in English and I’m considering studying another entire book outside school so I can answer on that instead in my exam. It’s just too long, too slow and the characters annoy me!</p>
<p>It’s a pity you guys don’t love the classics 
The problems is with the ‘get bored and then put it down’ is that you never actually comprehend the novel. Think of it this way, you start off the book being shrouded in confusion and boredom, darkness, so to say for this analogy. However, as you get further into the book, you start to collect keys. Every time you collect a key you have the opportunity to go back and open a door that was previously closed, and behind each door is something wonderful, like enlightenment, (following the analogy). So reading classics may be a challenge, and hard to make it through, but if you truly put all of your effort into continuing down what may seemed to be a boring classic or a dark path, you will most definitely be able to see and share the light that so many others before you reveled in.</p>
<p>Although I do enjoy smaller dystopian books, like Divergent, and halfway-to books like Looking for Alaska, they don’t leave you as enlightened and thoughtful as not necessarily the classics, but harder more ‘boring’ novels do. Those books only scratch the surface, whereas some of the older novels dig deep somewhere that is different for every reader.</p>
<p>Sorry 
/end rant</p>
<p>^I never give up on books, at least no permanently :)</p>
<p>I read harder novels, but generally modern ones. I just finished A Possible Life by Sebastien Faulks and it was brilliant. But I finished with the feeling that I wasn’t smart enough to get the whole point of it. My mum suggested just trying again in a few years instead of agonising over it now.
I also like some classic 20th Century novels, like Of Mice and Men, lots of things by Orwell, Lord of the Flies and All Quiet on the Western Front. The latter is one of my favourite books ever, and I’m trying to read more by the same author but it’s hard to find some of them.</p>
<p>I know what you mean! Reading Lord of the Flies at the age of 9 left me horrified 
There are so many novels that I’ve read that I just WISH I was mature enough to fully comprehend and enjoy :(</p>
<p>^I read the entire Narnia series at the age of 7 and didn’t reread them until last year. I just had no memory of them at all 
But, rather disturbingly, my mum suggested I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (which I only just found out was an autobiography :o) when I was around 10. It includes such horrors as child rape. It may be a good book for an adult, but I’m not entirely sure what my mum was thinking at the time…</p>
<p>@bsroxmysox: Haha, I love Gossip Girl as well! And English Honors is part of the Humanities program my school has.</p>
<p>@UKgirl23: I prefer more modern classics as well; All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the best books I have ever read! The movie was great, too.</p>
<p>@CellyZ: Maybe I should wait a few years before reading any classic 
Just so I can fully appreciate its flavors.</p>
<p>There are currently 20 books on my bedside table that are ‘to read’, I am part way through 8 of them. I’ve made a deal with my self in an effort to actually read some of them, which is that I have to finish 4 of them before I can buy another book, then 2 more from the pile for every new one I want to buy. Only 3 more to go :)</p>
<p>@Golden which movie? There’s been 2 and another one’s coming out this year or next with Daniel Radcliffe playing Paul. And have you read the (sort of) sequel, The Road Back? It’s a bit longer but has more about the time in Germany (Which helps as I’m studying Germany 1918-28) and the characters are just as good.</p>
<p>I just broke my backspace key :(</p>
<p>I mean the really old movie that is all black-and-white 
J’adore vintage-looking movies!</p>
<p>@CellyZ Exactly, LOTF didn’t really interest me. But your really long post got me thinking…I think I’ll check out Wuthering Heights tomorrow and keep a dictionary in handy whenever I come to words that confuse me. And I will finish it, no matter how lazy I get :D</p>
<p>@UKgirl23 I actually finished Of Mice and Men for English class. We call it a novella <em>lol</em>. I thought it was nice, but also feel too stupid to comprehend the true meaning of the book, which we will probably spend a whole period deciphering tomorrow.</p>
<p>@GoldenRatio The thing is, I only read the first book and I feel totally mad at myself for watching the show first. Mainly because the show is really good, and the book makes the characters seem superficial and really mean and conceited, worse than their show counterparts, even though its the original. Like Serena and Dan in the book annoy me, and Blair in the show is 10x meaner to Serena–with displaying it–than Blair is. Oh, and if you don’t mind me asking where is your Humanities program? You can PM me if you like, it’s just really cool how we’re both in Humanities.</p>
<p>We’ve spent the last 6 months on it, I wouldn’t feel bad. Isn’t it just about what the American Dream has become and the title quote “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.” (The best laid schemes of mice and men / Often go awry.)</p>
<p>@bsroxmysox: My Humanities program is in the North (which is about as close as I’m going to get to answering XD) But it is really cool, how both of us are into Humanities! We’re actually just about to delve into “Lord of the Flies.”</p>
<p>I haven’t really tried to crack open a Gossip Girl book, but maybe I shouldn’t…I’m content enough with the show, and your opinion scares me.</p>
<p>I actually tried to read through Wuthering Heights, only to start sighing at the second chapter, and then flipping to the last chapter because everything seemed to go so slooooow; I know, I shouldn’t have spoiled everything for myself, but-! I’ll have to try that one again.</p>
<p>@bsroxmysox
It’s nice to know someone actually took the time and read my post ! I hope you enjoy the book.</p>
<p>@GoldenRatio and @bsroxmysox Gossip Girl is MY LIFE
I can’t tell you wo addicted to it I am</p>
<p>@CellyZ Me too! Haha.</p>