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what book should i read for english?

5K views 33 replies 23 participants last post by  snapplerocks 
#1 ·
my teacher assigned harry potter but i want to read something more complex than that... i mean i love HP but im just not in the mood to reread a 600 page book at the end of the school year (its an easy read though haha)... she said we can ask her for permission to read another book and i have a couple on my list:
1. Atonement (another reread for me as well - #1 on my list)
2. Love In The Time of Cholera (iffy)
3. Count of Monte Cristo (seems super long... and i dont want to read long novels when summers about to start due to my senioritis lol)

anything else, or should i stick w HP?
thanks :thumbsup
 
#4 ·
As much as I love HP, it is a children's series!!! lol

I recommend Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. She wrote it during WWII and never finished it because she was taken away by Nazis (she was Jewish). Still, it is beautifully written and romantic. It's one of my favorite books right now.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a fast, easy read you might wanna consider, as well. It is, however, kinda disturbing.
 
#30 ·
amazing book^

Um, That's awesome that your teacher is assigning hp tho, haha,

and Other reccomendations would be:

Farenheight 451, Brave New World, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies
 
#8 ·
The Kite Runner- Best. Book. Ever.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Author wrote it on drugs. So a lot the story is questionable (was he tripping, or did it actually happen)
The Crucible- Classic. It's really short. But a lot can be analyzed for an essay
The Scarlet Letter- Classic. Hated by many, but I enjoyed it. There are a lot of places where you can skim past. Hawthorne is a blabber mouth.
Joy Luck Club- asians... lol
Memiors of a Geisha- Better than the movie. More historical details, character relationships are more complicated, etc
 
#9 · (Edited)
i read scarlet letter actually last yr. at first i hated it but i didnt mind the story. it was better than some books i read, so it wasnt too bad.
i also read geisha for fun.. just soo long though! lol i wanted to stop bc i kind of thought it was boring :ashamed
 
#13 ·
no offense to hemingway, but 'the old man and the sea' was so boring!! i enjoyed 'a farewell to arms' much more. :)

LOVE MEDICINE by Louise Erdrich
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by John Fowles
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E. M. Forster
NIGHT by Eli Weisel
THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin
 
#14 ·
lol i thought old man and the sea was boring too...
i actually read catcher in the rye last year... it was a quick read but for some reason i just didnt like it... (the ending wasnt what i expected it to be) and i also read great gatsby.. quick read too but a bitter ending... it was really sad imo. :(
i tried to read lolita but fell asleep =/
 
#17 ·
How about another Ian McEwan? Atonement is great but what about Amsterdam. It's my favorite book of his and it's a lot easier to analyse than Atonement (more ambivalent subject). Oooh but you know what, now that I think of it, what about Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Really awesome dystopian novel.
 
#19 ·
From your original list, The Count of Monte Cristo was a really cool read, for me, but I enjoyed reading The Three Musketeers much more. Lots of adventure and excitement.

You're still in high school, right? I was going to make some other suggestions, but didn't want to get too far off the map, if ya know what I mean...

Other suggestions:
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Eaters of the Dead or Andromeda Strain both by Michael Crichton
I'd also suggest anything by Tom Robbins, BUT, it might be a bit inappropriate.

Props to you for wanting to choose something a little more advanced, too, btw...

-P
 
#20 ·
rocklymber,
owen meany was good. a bit long but still good. i saw the movie loosely based off the novel (simon birch) and that was a fascinating movie as well.

and yes im still in HS :D
i was thinking of les mis as well but isnt that like 8000 pages... i love the musical so may as well read the book!
 
#21 ·
John Steinbeck - East of Eden
(Of Mice and Men is like 80 pages...long enough?)
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake OR The Handmaid's Tale
Pearl Buck - The Good Earth
Khaled Hosseini - Kite Runner OR Thousand Splendid Suns are both excellent

If you liked Count of Monte Cristo, you might like Sleepers (Lorenzo Carcaterra), although it might not be good studying material. Similar themes and a gripping plot, but the writing isn't stellar.

When I was in high school, I read Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt), Ladder of Years (blah), Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes), Death of a Salesman (Arther Miller), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and I forget what else.....
 
#27 ·
I loved the novella Charlie (first version of the story, but much shorter), but Flowers for Algernon did not live up to my expectations. For some reason I did not fall in love with the character in the longer version. Anyway, I highly recommend reading the short story if you liked the novel.

My mom gave me Curious Incident and its on my summer reading list.
 
#23 · (Edited)
why no mention of the standard classic, Gatsby?
or perhaps Animal Farm... kinda short though

i would suggest A Clockwork Orange, but that requires more effort than you probably want to put forth at the end of the semester

EDIT: oops, now i see that gatsby was mentioned.... how about Wuthering Heights? I am really into the classics right now, obviously
 
#24 ·
NO WUTHERING HEIGHTS. God. That book is sooo boring.

Atonement is good, but it was hard to read for me. I also like Memoirs of a Geisha but I don't think it acutally has much historical significance...I have never seen the movie. I haven't seen Atonement, either, so I am judging completely from the books.

Night by Elie Weisel sounds like the best one so far. :) Or A Clockwork Orange, but that's a longer read.
 
#28 ·
Have you read 1984? If you haven't, I would strongly recommend it. It's about living in a totalitarian government. If you have read it and enjoyed it, I'd recommend Brave New World, which is also about dsytopian themes but takes a different perspective.

Another classic that someone else already mentioned is One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest which is set in a psych ward. It delves into the minds of the patients and their relationships with each other and the staff. Great book that really makes you think.

Black Boy by Richard Wright is another book I read during high school that I really enjoyed. It's a fictional autobiograpy based on his life dealing with racism.

All those are pretty quick reads, and definitely entertaining. If you liked Atonement, you'd probably love any Jane Austen novel, but those definitely take longer to get through. I'd avoid any Hemingway or Steinbeck that other people mentioned; they're great authors but the books aren't for everyone, and would probably be too slow to get through while you have senioritis.
 
#32 ·
Dystopia kicks butt, I love all of that kind of stuff.

Handmaid's Tale, Brave New World, 1984... everybody has mentioned already...
But really, Harry Potter for an English class? Dang.

I'm going to add the Secret Life of Bees. Its the only English class-esque book I remember off the top of my head that hasn't been mentioned yet.
 
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