Hey /lit/. My teacher is letting us pick a book to read that is to be read in our free time. Pic related is the first book that we are reading as a class.Other books are Macbeth, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Great Gatsby. Since we are read

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Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 01:31:20 No.6652

Hey /lit/. My teacher is letting us pick a book to read that is to be read in our free time. Pic related is the first book that we are reading as a class.

Other books are Macbeth, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Great Gatsby. Since we are reading them as a class they are off limits.

So /lit/ what book should I read? Also need a second book for the second half of the year so might as well give two books. The caveat is that the books have to be by American authors as it is an American literature class.

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 01:34:47 No.6653

>>6652

Perhaps Faulkner? Maybe another Twain work. Moby Dick by Melville, maybe?

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 01:39:38 No.6654

>>6653

Wait

>Macbeth

>American lit class

What?

Also, although they are not literature, maybe the founding fathers? Are you also permitted to read collection of poems; if so, then you could read Keats, Poe, Wadsworth, Longfellow, Hawthorne, etc.

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 01:43:22 No.6655

>>6653

>Faulkner

I have never heard of him. Is that bad?

>Maybe another Twain work

I'd prefer to read a variety of authors.

>Moby Dick by Melville

Last time I tried to read was when I was 10 or something so I may read this one.

>>6654

I was confused about MacBeth too but I think the curriculum requires them to do one Shakespeare play.

>the founding fathers

Like the declaration of independence? Or are you talking about essays they wrote and things like that?

>collection of poems

Haven't thought of that. Will ask if permitted.

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 02:13:04 No.6657

>>6655

>I have never heard of him. Is that bad?

Yes, but not in "you're an illiterate idiot; kill yourself" way. That is to say, I don't fault you for it, as he is not someone that one tends to focus on high school, I'm assuming literature classes.

Essays, diaries, other stuff. I don't exactly know too much about those things myself unfortunately (many names and works). I know Franklin wrote the Poor Richard's Almanack.

There was a poem that we—my class—read in high school by Keats called "The Eve of St. Agnes", which I really liked and introduced me to metered verse, moreso than Shakespeare. There are also Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft.

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 02:14:46 No.6659

>>6657

I should say that Lovecraft and Howard were short story writers. So you should see about a collection of short stories as well.

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 06:20:36 No.6663

File: 1442902836801.jpg (16.96 KB, 250x250, 1:1, Amerrykinz? LOL.jpg)

>The Great Gatsby

>Rampant general criminality, murder, infidelity, drunkenness, racism, spooky green allegorical hallucinations, old boyism, etc.

I takes it all them good traditional American pastimes is allowed subjects to study? OK then, let's get to recommendan'.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson. "The Great Gatsby" was a particular favorite of his, and there is an echo of Fitzgerald to be found in Thompson's writings.

"America, My Wilderness" by Frederic Prokosch. Two earlier novels of his are even better, except they focus on oriental settings.

Fire up your favorite search engine. Enter any subject of interest to you plus the name Isaac Asimov. Chances are, you will find something he wrote on that subject. Asimov will be forever known for his contributions to hardcore Asimovian polemics over his other writings, a legacy he mildly lamented. For a suggestion: "The Stars, Like Dust." This contains a heavy final dose of RAH! RAH! AMERICANNA! that Asimov later felt was a serious mistake made from insufficient wariness of editorial suggestion. It's a popular novel in spite of Asimov's own literary judgement.

With the pope planning to lay down all that delicious traffic grid wrecking pomp and circumstance, perhaps you might pay tribute by reading one of the works of our own self styled biographer of America? "Messiah" is an entertainingly nasty satire of the founding of Christianity, written by Gore Vidal. If you have a taste for some controversy, but not something so over the top that it may as well be in orbit, try "Lincoln: A Novel." This book prompted an epic exchange of letters between Vidal and certain professor who thought himself an expert on the subject. Vidal's mania for history, plus his dedication to careful and detailed research, meant he could quickly turn the table on people looking to blow holes in his scholarship. Even trained professionals.

Kurt Vonnegut is another big name. "Hocus Pocus" is a lesser know book of his that I think is outstanding.

And there's always Charles Bukowski. Any novel of his will do. "Post Office," maybe?

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 06:30:50 No.6664

>>6663

>hardcore Asimovian polemics

science…fiction

>if i see that word filter one more fucking time …

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 08:10:12 No.6666

of mice and men.

the quads are mine!

Anonymous 09/22/15 (Tue) 13:40:01 No.6670

>>6666

DAMN YOU, SATAN!

Anonymous 09/24/15 (Thu) 03:33:54 No.6681

>>6664

Why wouldn't you like hardcore Asimovian polemics?

Anonymous 09/24/15 (Thu) 04:03:25 No.6682

>Wordfilters may not wordfilter previous wordfilters. For example, if a filters to bb and b filters to cc, that is not allowed.

Snap.

Oh well.

>>6681

Everyone likes a bit of hardcore Asimovian polemics, or speculative fiction.

Not everyone likes getting bitten by the wordfilter though.

Anonymous 09/24/15 (Thu) 09:26:14 No.6687

>>6657

I read Faulkner in high school. The Sound and the Fury to be exact. Brilliant stuff. All of the illiterates picked As I Lay Dying.

Anonymous 09/24/15 (Thu) 12:02:11 No.6688

>>6666

i agree with Beelzebub, read this.

I'd also recommend "Train Dreams" by Denis Johnson.

Anonymous 09/30/15 (Wed) 01:01:18 No.6784

>>6652

>My teacher is letting us pick a book to read that is to be read in our free time.

How generous

Anonymous 09/30/15 (Wed) 01:35:12 No.6785

This is the recommendation list he gave us.

1. Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Melville

2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe

3. Walden and Other Writings (1854) by Henry David Thoreau

4. The Awakening (1899) by Kate Chopin

5. The House of Mirth (1905) by Edith Wharton

6. The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair

7. Ethan Frome (1911) by Edith Wharton

8. My Antonia (1918) by Willa Cather

9. The Sound and the Fury (1929) by William Faulkner

10. A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway

11. Tender is the Night (1934) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

12. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston

13. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck

14. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway

15. Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright

16. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers

17. The Fountainhead (1943) by Ayn Rand **

18. A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams

19. East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck

20. Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison

21. Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) by James Baldwin

22. On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac

23. Sirens of Titan (1959) by Kurt Vonnegut

24. Mother Night (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut

25. Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller

26. The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick

27. The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath

28. Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert (5 sequels follow this one)

29. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick

30. Ubik (1969) by Philip K. Dick

31. Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut

32. The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison

33. Bless Me, Ultima (1972) by Rudolfo Anaya

34. Ragtime (1975) by E.L. Doctorow

35. A Scanner Darkly (1977) by Philip K. Dick

36. Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy

37. Beloved (1987) by Toni Morrison

38. American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis

39. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) by Julia Alvarez

40. “The Border Trilogy” by Cormac McCarthy (you may select one or all)

a. All the Pretty Horses (1992)

b. The Crossing (1994)

c. Cities of the Plain (1998)

41. The Namesake: A Novel (2004) by Jhumpa Lahiri

I'm thinking about these but if you think the others are must reads please tell me.

25. everyone says it's funny and seems like it is important/required reading

29. title caught my interest and seems like good Asimovian polemics

38. dubs guy? and an unreliable serial killing narrator sounds interesting

To the other anons. I read of mice and men freshmen year by the way. And about the short stories and poems he said they have to be connected on purpose, not just a hash together of stories/poems in no order. We read The Things They Carried and he said while they were short stories they were interconnected.

As another anon guessed, yes this is high school.

Anonymous 09/30/15 (Wed) 04:59:13 No.6786

File: 1443589153725.jpg (41.95 KB, 313x475, 313:475, LMTTM.jpg)

OK. I knew there was some sort of approved reading list lurking behind your request. Surprisingly, that's not as bad as I supposed.

If I was faced with such a choice back in high school, and I'm trying to recapture my past mindset here, I would probably go for one of following:

6, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35, 36.

The rest would be triggering my establishment pushing meaningless tedious bullshit detector.

Today, the only ones I have no interest in reading (and why) are:

Everything before 1900. One has to have some sort of filter. It's just a general rule though. I'm reading through Dostoyevsky for example and am happy with his popular works.

5 and 7 – Gore Vidal does such stories better.

17 – Can't stand Rand's writing style.

Make of that what you will but, yeah. That's not a bad list.

My only direct advise is to use caution. Play the system. If you are being graded there is no need to reach for the door stoppers or more complex works, and stay within the range of answers you are expected to give. If in doubt Vonnegut should be pretty safe. If you have a shot at extra credit by reading an additional book, choose any. Then ruthlessly report back to the class whatever and however you please. Be willing to be wrong.

Anonymous 09/30/15 (Wed) 06:19:28 No.6787

>>6785

>Ayn Rand

>American

No.

Anonymous 09/30/15 (Wed) 10:38:53 No.6788

>>6786

He said the list was there because generally didn't know what to pick. Also there are two of these assignments through the year. One for now and one for spring term.

>>6787

She naturalized early in her life so I guess she counts.

Anonymous 09/30/15 (Wed) 12:07:38 No.6789

>>6785

>all that PKD

Also, Thomas Ligotti should be mentioned ITT. I've been reading his stories and I'm waiting on my first physical book from him to be released. It's some great shit.

Anonymous 10/02/15 (Fri) 17:57:57 No.6834

>>6785

The Sound and the Fury, Blood Meridian, or On the Road. All brilliant stuff by some of my favorite authors. Kerouac is hit or miss, though.