You really didn't like Gatsby? Oh, I just LOVED that book. I didn't read it until last year and I was just mezmerized by the language and the way he wrote.
I never read it in school, so I am curious - what turned you off?
I read it once in high school and thought it was okay.
Then I had to read it four times in college for various literature classes. By the second time I had to read it in college, I realized that the characters in this book were soooooooo ridiculously stereotyped. That was the time I had to write a paper about the symbolism of color in the book. I got an A on the paper, and then just re-typed the front page for the next two papers I had to write when I had to read it again.
I personally think that Hemingway and Fitzgerald are the two most over-rated authors on the planet. The last literature class I wanted to take was a "current contemporary fiction" class. I asked for the book list in advance. Books on the list included "The Great Gatsby" and "A Farewell to Arms". I do not consider books written in the 1920s to be current contemporary fiction - so I didn't take the class. I also told the teacher that she might want to look at a current fiction best seller list for contemporary fiction.
High Fidelity and About a Boy are phenomenal - FAR better than the films
Same goes for Fight Club, Cider House Rules and The English Patient. (Anything by John Irving does it for me.)
And really? Pat Conroy is my favorite. There is so much darkness and pain and brooding JUST beneath the surface of his writing and his humor. It carries me away. Well, that and the fact that he is purely southern.
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But you simply MUST MUST MUST read 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Murakami. And then read all the rest of his books... He's amazing!
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And The entire "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin.
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I never read it in school, so I am curious - what turned you off?
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Then I had to read it four times in college for various literature classes. By the second time I had to read it in college, I realized that the characters in this book were soooooooo ridiculously stereotyped. That was the time I had to write a paper about the symbolism of color in the book. I got an A on the paper, and then just re-typed the front page for the next two papers I had to write when I had to read it again.
I personally think that Hemingway and Fitzgerald are the two most over-rated authors on the planet. The last literature class I wanted to take was a "current contemporary fiction" class. I asked for the book list in advance. Books on the list included "The Great Gatsby" and "A Farewell to Arms". I do not consider books written in the 1920s to be current contemporary fiction - so I didn't take the class. I also told the teacher that she might want to look at a current fiction best seller list for contemporary fiction.
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Memoirs of a Geisha was incredibly well done.
Bridget Jones is fluff, but GOOD fluff.
High Fidelity and About a Boy are phenomenal - FAR better than the films
Same goes for Fight Club, Cider House Rules and The English Patient. (Anything by John Irving does it for me.)
And really? Pat Conroy is my favorite. There is so much darkness and pain and brooding JUST beneath the surface of his writing and his humor. It carries me away. Well, that and the fact that he is purely southern.
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