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On May 14 2010 09:55 kodancer wrote:
During the years in high school, english has been one of the hardest classes for me, especially since I'm not a native here in America. This is the reason why I gave up trying to get better at it and chose a path in the math/science field. However, I learned that I won't be able to dodge english any longer as I'm going to college this fall and am desperate to catch up with an understanding of this subject.
I do read occasionally, but those books are purely for entertainment, not for knowledge. Such books I've read are the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, some Stephen King's books, Harry Potter, etc. Probably the only literature book I've read is 1984, which I really enjoyed. It had a good, understandable plot unlike other literature books I came across, such as The Tale of Two Cities and Candide, two of which we went over in class recently. I have never touched books like Treasure Island, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or any other books a middle school student should be familiar with. Unfortunately, I do not even know the plots of those books.
So if anyone could make a list of literature books in an order of increasing difficulty, starting with a fairly easy and interesting book like 1984, I would really appreciate it. Kind of like learning to 9pool before learning other complex builds as zerg.
Read quote books. "The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill" is a great start.
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On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Most of the Shakespearean works--Most of the world probably would disagree, but I find that Shakespeares plays are just that...plays. The man was a playwright, not an author. His plays may be good and all, but honestly it doesn't pass as literature. It's like saying Schindler's List is a literary work just cause it had a good story. No. It's a good movie, not a good piece of literature.
I fail to see your point: if you don't like him, fine, but I fail to see how saying "he's a playwright/poet" determines his authorship in any way. He's one of the most studied and famous writers in the history of literature, so it really doesn't matter at all how you classify him.
Anyways, some recommendations (very roughly ordered from easiest to hardest):
Lord of the Flies, Golding
Animal Farm, Orwell
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde
Oedipus Tyrannus, Sophocles
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
The Odyssey, Homer
Hamlet, Shakespeare
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On May 14 2010 11:21 qrs wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read)
Find the short story; skip the novel. 1984 is a great novel; if you liked it, try Animal Farm (as Myles suggested), also by Orwell, dealing with the same subject in a different way. It's very easy to read (probably one of the easiest out there as far as classics go) but none the shallower for that. Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 10:57 TriniMasta[wD] wrote:
Just try your best and you will succeed! English is one of the easiest languages, considering you can spell out MOST words. LOL? You're not seriously trying to call English one of the easiest languages on the basis of its spelling, right? You're joking.
English is one of the easiest languages to be literate in.
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On May 20 2010 08:47 synapse wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 11:21 qrs wrote:On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read)
Find the short story; skip the novel. 1984 is a great novel; if you liked it, try Animal Farm (as Myles suggested), also by Orwell, dealing with the same subject in a different way. It's very easy to read (probably one of the easiest out there as far as classics go) but none the shallower for that. On May 14 2010 10:57 TriniMasta[wD] wrote:
Just try your best and you will succeed! English is one of the easiest languages, considering you can spell out MOST words. LOL? You're not seriously trying to call English one of the easiest languages on the basis of its spelling, right? You're joking. English is one of the easiest languages to be literate in.
Besides Spanish or like Russian or any language with regular spelling patterns. You can learn to be literate in spanish in like 3 or 4 hours.
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On May 17 2010 06:23 love1another wrote:
I would recommend reading anything by James Joyce.
yeah finnegans wake seems like a great way to build confidence and interest for a struggling english student...lolol
not to say that this thread shouldn't continue, but OP is reading cats cradle y'all...
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Charles Dickens is a pretty easy read with interesting characters and plot lines. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway are also pretty good choices too to start up.
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On May 14 2010 10:03 ramen247 wrote:
The Great Gatsby,
This man speaks the truth. However I also think "Of Mice and Men" is good, short and well written.
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Read the Fagles translation of the Iliad. Easy and fun to read and its a fundamental part of the canon.
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Soooo much stuff for me to read in here  :D:D
Starting with James Joyce going into Dostoevsky and into Tolstoy :D Then Hermann Hesse!
No job + new town (no friends yet) + no school = TIIIIMMMEE
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One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest.
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On May 14 2010 16:31 caelym wrote:
Hemingway (Nick Adams stories, A Fairwell to Arms) and Twain (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer) are two authors who have written a lot of easy to read and very engaging novels.
Some medium level authors would be jane austen (Pride and Prejudice, Emma) and Ian McEwan (Atonement, Saturday).
harder level authors would be faulkner (as i lay dying, sound and fury), Virginia Wolfe (Mrs. Dalloway), and Dostoyevsky (Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment)
bonus: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Cold Mountain is easy-medium. the english patient is medium-hard. Both are very exciting reads. And if you want some old literature, The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is really good.
EDIT: How can i forget? James Joyce! Dubliners is about medium. Ulysses is hard.
You are telling a not native speaker of English to read Faulkner. You have never really read Faulkner have you?
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Everything there is to know about life can be found in The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)
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any survey class you take is going to have some scramble of books anyway and the chances of you being familiar with a specific one without a very, very intensive reading regimen are negligible.
grab some books that pique your interest off this list if you're looking for "literature"...i could narrow it down more but it's mostly personal preference. you'll like some and you'll dislike others
http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/reading_list/high_school.html
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I have to say I absolutely hated The Great Gatsby. The story itself is very monotonous and rather uninteresting.
To Kill a Mocking Bird is brilliant a work of art that depicts the era perfectly and is beautifully written.
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, starts off a little complicated and slow but all in all a great book.
and Spicy Crab hit the nail on the head with my favorite piece of literature "The Count of Monte Cristo." astonishingly well written and relatively easy to understand.
qrs I also think he is just referring to how English is a very phonetic language so with understanding of the alphabet you can generally read and write relatively easily but the beauty comes with understanding.
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I remember playing a lot of Baldur's Gate 2 when I was learning English, but I think any game with a lot of dialogue will help. It really improved my grammar skills. My sentences at that time made more sense than those of most other students at the same level.
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EPT
