Books

lucylespian

Heineken Helen wrote:

Apology accepted, but please let it be a lesson to ya and try to refrain from jumping into threads without reading them and taking things out of context. It’s like just reading the liner notes and not the whole book, eh? Also, ‘you’re out of your mind’ isn’t really a great counter argument No offence taken though.

Also I never said films were as good as books! I like films, I like books… I haven’t read every book of every film I have ever seen though so I cannot say that outright books are better than their films.

Hey, I didn't actually say "you are outa your mind", that was soneone else. I think I agreed with FPC on his "for fucks sake" from memory. This thread is ten pages, one of many, so your patronising reply is kinda outa order. Let it be a lesson to you !!

ON the subject of classics, the problem is some of them are shite. Mockingbird is great, not familiar wioth Northanger Abbey, but I don't know the clebreated Nobel Prize winning Australian author PAtrick White wrote some of teh most turgid boring rubbish ever. I was unable to force myself to read more than a few chapters. I don't know anyone else who has done better, despite knowing many erudite literary well educated folk.
I think they gave him teh prize out of pure snobbery, using complete unreadability as the standard of excellence.
I have ploughed through some DH Lawrence, but jeez it was hard going, and I only did it cos I figured reading some classics was a good thing. Only pride kept me going, the stories were hardly enthralling.
On the other hand, a guy like Nevil Shute wrote brilliant naratives that draw you in and glue you to teh page while giving you goosebumps and tears over teh simplest things.
If you are interested, have a look at "Round the Bend" and "The Rainbow and the Rose". They are not huge books, and musty old stores are usually loaded wiht them. He is better known for "A Town LIke Alice", but it is not his best. I think they made a movie of "Pied Piper", but I nearly always shun movies if I have read the book.

lucylespian

Heineken Helen wrote:

Huh? :eek: Do you make them just sit there and read it? Isn't it best to get them to take turns reading it out loud and then analysing each part?

I remember when we did Wuthering Heights... I literally knew the entire book off by heart by the time I sat the exam. I could still quote quite a bit of it now.

Making boys, especially who are poor readers, read out loud in class is precisely what teaches tehm to detest reading. I doubt if this happens much in moderen schools, I sure hope it doesn't.
The trick to getting boys to read is to choose a book which appeals to them.
I have done this a few times. At teh end of "YOU've Got MAil" remember how the Meg Ryan character gets offered a job as childrens book editor of the big chain that put her out of business.

That beautifully illustrates teh point that librarians, esp in primary schools, should be there to care for teh readers, not teh books. The idea that the physical book is more importatn than the reader is entreanched and unhelpful.
The school librarian's main job should be to match books to kids, and let the paper care for itself.

elmer

I hated the reading-out-loud classes at school, they favour the non-readers,or at least they detracted from me from digesting the book.

some are just never gonna enjoy reading and I dont think anything will a make much difference, like you cant make a kid enjoy sports if.......

Heineken Helen

lucylespian wrote:

Making boys, especially who are poor readers, read out loud in class is precisely what teaches tehm to detest reading. I doubt if this happens much in moderen schools, I sure hope it doesn't.
The trick to getting boys to read is to choose a book which appeals to them.

I'm not saying people would have a gun to their head and be reading with tears streaming down their faces begging the teacher to let them stop . It didn't go from person to person, she'd pick random people and usually the kinda people who used to like reading. If someone obviously didn't like standing up and reading a chapter, she never used to force it.

elmer

Heineken Helen wrote:

people would have a gun to their head and be reading with tears streaming down their faces begging the teacher to let them stop

what a sadist!