# The Required reading list....



## granfire (Sep 2, 2012)

Well, Summer is now officially over.
I had a 3 month battle with 'the kid' to get him to read - and do the assigned work - for Honors English, something he signed up for btw. Dad and I were only wondering why, since he barely made the grade in regular English (but more because of laziness, not because he is dumb...well, unintelligent...) 

The Hobbit and Tom Sawyer aren't too bad (his grade)
But if the list does not change, next year Twilight is up. :lfao:
Ok, I understand that even bad books offer teaching opportunities...but really? 

When I told my mother-in-law, she had a moment...you know how it is demonic, and the bible says something about the blood thing, etc :roflmao: 
Seriously, the Vampire angle is the smallest problem with those books....


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## Omar B (Sep 2, 2012)

Firstly Tom Sawyer is an awful book.  I would not let a child as young as your son forming his ideas about proper spelling, sentece stucture, grammer or objective writing (as in sentences that go somwhere rather than meander for ab0out 4 lines then stop) etc should ever be reading it.

I remember when I first moved to the US and they assiged me both Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin to read.  It was wholly impenitrable.  Such dreadful reads.  But I will say the same for most books written on purpose in slang.

I'm a big fan of Geoge Orwell's rules of writing and those books broke every single one of them, and didnt do it in a way that works I feel.



Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Oh if I could make the required reading list.  I can guarantee the kids would come out with an understanding from the books themselves about plot, structure, diction, tone, proper use of language, proper punctuation and on and on.


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## granfire (Sep 2, 2012)

well, Tom Sawyer his his merits as part of americana. 
I have to say that when I was not as fluent in English I had a lot easier go at slang-english than I do now.
And I hope that for Honors English they are well equipped to deal with it. 

I have a compilation of horse stories of which many are written by every day guys with little education. Once my english was good enough to get through they were fantastic, now they are killing me. :lol: 


But sadly, they have to bridge the gap between really good books and what they can get the kids to read...not easy these days!


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## elder999 (Sep 2, 2012)

I'm a big fan of Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn. However:



> I am greatly troubled by what you say. I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' & 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, & it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave.- Samuel L. Clemens, 1905


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## granfire (Sep 2, 2012)

elder999 said:


> I'm a big fan of Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn. However:



True.

But then again, much that was unthinkable those days is common these days...for better or worse.

I suppose it's one reason I do prefer reading children/young adult lit over much of the adult stuff.

(this is actually taking an unexpected turn...but enjoyable so: I think Twilight has been criticized to pieces by now) 

On the same note, I have read LOTR as a teen, not sure how old I was, maybe 16. While I enjoyed the story, I found the end depressing and it lingered with me for quiet a while. I'd say I was too young to read it....


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## arnisador (Sep 3, 2012)

Tom Sawyer? Very important! The Hobbit? Classic fantasy but not in the same league. Twilight? You're kidding me, right?


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