FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for November 14, 2011

The heck with “The Great Gatsby”, but give Asimov’s Foundation series and I’ll read like the Dickens.

Even with my sometimes outragous work schedule, I read a book every 10 days at worst. Daniel Silva, Vince Flynn, Steve Berry, Brad Thor … it’s all their fault. I not a fast reader unless I’m deep into one of their books. “Thin” is for magazines.

I’ll never forget sludging through “Lord Jim” during English Lit, which was written during a time when authors were paid per word. Yep, paid per word. Awful book.

If you like horror, try Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dracula, or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Anything by C.S. Forester. the entire Hornblower series, The Last Nine Days of the Bismark, African Queen!

I prefer Larry Niven and Douglas Adams.

The Scarlet Letter was pretty thin and it was possibly the absolute worst book I’ve ever read (both in plot and in writing skill), even the teacher said “don’t even bother reading the introduction, just skip to the first chapter.” Things Fall Apart wasn’t badly written but I hated it start to finish. Gatsby bored me to death as well. I actually like Shakespeare but I don’t see why we force kids to read it when they’re probably not ready to appreciate how witty it is anyway, even if they don’t mind reading it.I pretty much read nonstop through my childhood, classics to modern, but I mostly agree with Nab, a large amount of what people call “classics” and throw on that forced summer reading list are either badly written or just bad overall (and it’s not always because they’re dated, I could read Verne until the cows come home).

This strip is ridiculous. I’m 14 and I read everything I can get my hands on, as do all my friends. I read my first Shakespeare play at 12.

Paid per word? A lot of things make sense now! I like to read books that have a nice flow, not books that make me want to take out a pencil and start editing. Nobody should need a dictionary with you to look up more than 10% of the words in a fictional novel. Nope, uh-uh, no way.

To each his own. The Scarlet Letter was and is my most favorite book — exquisitely written. I have never liked to read Dickens. Shakespeare is so much fun! Jane Austen is lovely, although she does go on about her most irritating characters.

An updated run of this strip – the next day Paige and the class find out it’s actually an e-reader with a copy of “Pride and Prejudice” on it.

I for one loved The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby when I read them in high school. (And Nabuquduriuzhur, you should try another book by Salinger before dismissing him completely. He wrote The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager would speak; that’s not how Salinger writes. His other books, told from other points of view, really illustrate this. I particularly enjoyed Franny and Zooey). My English teacher at the time also loved those books, and I think that makes a big difference. Of course the teacher liking a book doesn’t guarantee that the students will too, but I think it definitely helps. Their excitement for the book tends to be contagious. Conversely, when I had to read Great Expectations, my teacher openly admitted to hating the book, and no one else really enjoyed it either. If the teacher is excited about the book, that will lead to energetic class discussions and a deeper understanding of the books.

I remember liking Catcher in the Rye, but I didn’t really get Gatsby at the time. I just read Bleak House (Dickens) for the first time and absolutely loved it, although I wonder if I would have gotten as much out of it if I had been required to read it in high school. Certainly I got much more out of Jane Eyre as an adult, even though I enjoyed it as a teenager. BTW in response to whoever thought that Jane Austen dwelt on her irritating characters, I suspect that may have been because she was forced to interact with Mr. Collins-types a great deal, and used her writing to vent a bit.

In my mind, for good suspense fiction, you can’t beat Michael Crichton. His books keep me on the edge of my seat, no matter how many times I’ve read them.

My teacher asked me if Frankenstein and To Kill A Mockingbird should be removed from the curriculum. I responded in absolute disgust.

Shakespeare’s writing is full of swearing.

The School Board recommended “A Wrinkle in Time” as an introduction to Science Fiction. An excellent book, but Fantasy rather than Science Fiction.

In Honors English my senior year, the teacher handed out a three page, double columned list of books, with instructions to select and report on six books we had never read.I explained I had read all but one on the list.Ended up supplying her with another two page list of recommended books I had read, and wrote reports on six books out of the hundred or so book I read for pleasure that year. ( I eventually read the one book on the list my Sophomore year in college. Didn’t care for it.)

Part has to do with the teacher’s personal bent. I had one who was very much into the “Man’s Inhumanity to Man” and always focused on that theme, even though there were many others to be found in the "required literature. Plus when you are already depressed about things, having a depressing reading list is not good. I enjoy Kippling, Clancy, Heinlin, Schmitts, Twain, L’Amour and Cussler for my leisure.

“Catcher in the Rye” is “a compendium of cusswords?” I can only recall one curse word being used in the book, and the main character was pretty aghast.

Part of the problem is that people have limited patience. I like to try and read older classics, but sometimes it’s tough going. But get enough time, and really read it, and you can enjoy them.

Oh, and authors used to be paid by the word? Shocking. Good thing modern authors aren’t and as such NEVER write long, padded out books (cough-cough Stephen King cough).

The real problem is that school admins are so skittish they allow only the most drab and inoffensive books to be used.