Notice for Review Requests

I receive review requests weekly. However, my personal schedule is hectic and I no longer review actively. (I also manage another blog called The Toronto Cafe and Food Blog). I do read every request sent but I apologize in advance that I do not reply to them all.

If I do take on a request, I will forewarn that it may take some time before I can review it. I am now looking to review adult fiction and self-help books instead of young adult fiction because I have grown out of it. If you are to request a review for either adult fiction or self-help, I will more likely to give it a shot.

In the meantime, Stop, Drop, and Read! serves as an archive book review blog. When I have the time, I may post a review. Thank you for understanding.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Q4U: What are your opinions on your school books?

Q4U (Question 4 U) is a feature on Stop, Drop, and Read! that appears on random days. A question is asked for you to answer, where it could range from getting feedbacks for the blog to a start of a fun topic!

I'm sure everyone here had to read a certain book for English class at one point in their life. From Shakespeare to the Harry Potter series, there were the novels/plays that you enjoyed and didn't enjoy. So I am curious...

What are your opinions on your school books?

I remember back in 6th grade I had to read The Wrinkle in Time and The Book of Three. They were both alright and I managed to read through them. The Wrinkle in Time stood out the most for me as it was just plain weird.

Fast-forward to high school, I had to read The Hobbit in 9th grade. Prior, I did not like The Lord of the Rings series. When the movies came out, I was still in elementary school, so the concept was scary and confusing. However, after reading The Hobbit (spectacular!), I went home and watched all three movies of The Lord of the Rings and got really into it! But till this day, I still haven't read the actual series aside The Hobbit.

10th grade, I had To Kill a Mockingbird. This novel was a bit of a strange ride for me because there were times where I got so into it and while other times it got so boring that I didn't want to pick it up anymore. The class got to watch the movie so we didn't do much with the actual reading. Before I could finish it, the teacher took the novel back. (I doubt I'll go venture out and get a copy now, way too many other books to catch up on).

Last year, my 11th grade class got a chance to read The Kite Runner. At that time, it was when I was just starting out on my blog. You can see my review of The Kite Runner here. It was such a depressing novel but a brilliant one. Highly recommend everyone to read it.

This year, well, nothing so far. The only reading I'm doing for English right now is Pride and Prejudice (still pushing myself to finish it; so hard to get into) for the end of the year summative. I'm comparing it with Dracula! But first, I have to finish Austen's novel before going to Stoker's.

So what were the novels that you had to read like?

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5 comments:

Keira Gillett said...

Classics are some of the worst books to read in class I think. The worlds, language, and writing style is so far removed from high school vernacular that it makes the endeavour completely ridiculous if not impossible.

In high school it was hard to slug through Dickens especially.

Shakespeare is easier because it's in play format and kids and become certain roles to act out. Movie versions of Shakespearian plays are nearly always the exact script.

Thomas Hardy's Tess of D'Ubervilles was the worst. I don't know what my English teacher was thinking telling me it would be a novel that I would love and could easily write a 10 page paper on. To date it's my least favorite book I have ever read.

I did like Wuthering Heights for the most part, but I remember periods of tedious slogging and nodding off mid passage.

The Scarlet Letter was also tough, but the project was hilariously fun -- we made music videos and rewrote song lyrics.

Loved, loved, loved... The Most Dangerous Game. It's a short story and wicked good.

Um... what else? I can't recall right now, but for the most part I preferred my own reading adventures outside of English class in high school.

Anonymous said...

Okay, so I've always enjoyed English but in high school, I found myself kind of not always wanting to read the books they gave us. Classics are great and fantastic and usually beautifully written but sometimes they're a tad boring. I think that's why a lot of high school students aren't into English in school, because they can't relate & have no interest in doing so. When I was already in the eleventh grade, the ninth graders were given Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson to read & I saw people reading it all the time. Students were really into that novel.

Now that I'm a bit older, I find that I have a higher tolerance for reading the classics. I appreciate them more & I think they are an acquired taste at least they have been in my case. I think it's important to study the classics in school but I also feel that maybe one book out of the mix should be more current and should be YA so that maybe it can attract people to reading who normally wouldn't have been inspired to pick up a novel on their own.

Diana Dang said...

@Keira: Classics are bad when they are tedious in every sense, from language to plot. But if they have an interesting story line that anyone today can enjoy, it's not so bad.

Lol, I have never read any of the novels you had too. My friend read Wuthering Heights but she didn't enjoy it so much.

@Michelle: I wasn't given many classics to read but I'm sure some are difficult to get through. Hm, I have to agree with you, maybe with the lack of good books given to students is why these days not many are into reading. They should definitely look into a wider and more modern range.

Krista/Tower of Books said...

I've enjoyed reading In Cold Blood, The Bell Jar, and The Great Gatsby from school. There are probably more too, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Miriam said...

Wow whoever got to read Harry Potter in class was very lucky. I remember in primary school we were reading this strange book - about a silver sword and a war - which was about as good as it got. We read 'Skellig', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'To Kill a Mickingbird', 'The Tempest', some of 'Jane Eyre' and 'Educating Rita' for English in High School over the years. I didn't like most of them - Educating Rita was okay (since it had swearing and jokes in it ;)) but the rest were too 'old fashioned' for me. I still have to force myself to read classics, though I loved 'Pride and Prejudice'.