Hahaha! Thanks for the welcome! Let's see... I tried begging, pleading, and threatening not to cook for the next two years! :) Just kidding.

I just told him a few of the best parts and then as I was reading LOST I made sure I laughed at the funny parts loudly when he was around! It made him more interested I think. Then I used the, "I'm not going to sleep yet I can't put this book down! You might as well read too! Wow! Here! Look a great book! How amazing is that? It's right here on your side of the bed!!! Hmmm!"

Sooo, basically? I was RELENTLESS!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Oh I WISH that would work!! I've tried all that...it's gotten to the point that whenever I'm on the Fforum and I laugh at something he'll say, "What's so funny? Oh wait, it's a 'NEXTIAN' thing, I wouldn't understand!"

and I tell him he would understand if he'd just read the books. He just says, "Someday maybe" He's such a brat! LOL

And another "Welcome to the fforum" for Nicole...

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

I read 'Jane Eyre' for O level, though luckily our teacher didn't revere it as much as some do, which can be so off-putting. I've also read 'Wuthering Heights' a couple of times, though I don't like it as much. The Yorkshire dialect is damned difficult to plough through, and no modern publisher would ever allow it.

I did english lit A level too, and was sort of expected to continue studying English at Uni, but by then I'd had enough of dissecting books and analysing motivations. So I did Archaeology and Ancient History instead.

I try to keep reading classics, and enjoyed 'Don Quixote' when I read it a couple of years ago. I like early Henry James, but his later books are unreadable. His sentences are so convoluted, that by the time you get to the last phrase, you've forgotton how it started. I had to study 'The Turn of the Screw' for A level and didn't care for it at all: didn't find it at all creepy.

I didn't find The Turn of the Screw scary either. I didn't know when I read it that it was suppose to be, so after I had heard reviews from people saying that it was the scariest they had read I reread it and still....NOT SCARY!!!!!!!!! I don't get it. *shrug*



Post Edited (06-17-03 21:27)

Welcome to drelvsme!

I enjoy reading Shakespeare, though it does rather depend on which play - I'm not so bothered about the historic ones. I'm also still laughing at the concept of Tess of the Madding Casterbridge...



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Re: Turn of the Screw, another vote for non-scariness. A friend lent it to me and said that it was ' tense and scary'. Bah I say, I've seen scarier dandelions grow on my lawn. For true atmospherics, M.R James rules! Particularly the always readable 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll come to you, My Lad' and 'Canon Alberic's Scrapbook'

I first read Jane Eyre as a "Readers Digest Condensed Book" form (no, I didn't buy them, they were left behind by someone who'd moved out). I later read the book in it's entirety while visiting my Aunt and Uncle over the Thanksgiving holiday from college. No, there wasn't much else to do, although I did spend some time amusing my young cousins by reading it aloud to them in a (no doubt atrocious) british accent. I will say that having read TEA makes it easier to imagine what Jane saw in Rochester.

I did read "Wuthering Heights" for freshman english in college, and didn't like it as well (I too found the characters to be not overly bright). I much preferred "Emma", which we also read.



Post Edited (06-18-03 14:53)

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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Dante - I'm afraid the Bowdlerisers got to our Greek texts to make them suitable for young ladies, however, someone brought in a full copy and made poor Miss Gerard blush and stammer even more than she usually did.

Okay, so the general opinion is 'Don't bother trying to read Wuthering Heights'. I've never tried reading it, but I must admit it's never appealled. I love Pride and Prejudice, but the first time I read it was a bit like ploughing a field full of clay. But I've read it three or four times now and love it. I occassionally read Shakespeare, but much prefer to see a play (especially if Kenneth Brannagh is in it). But basicaly I think Life Is Too Short to read a book simply because it's a Classic. If the book doesn't appeal I don't read it.

I don't know if anyone has read any books by this bloke called Jasper Fforde. He's written two and there's another coming out next month. They're not bad :)

Okay, so the general opinion is 'Don't bother trying to read Wuthering Heights'. I've never tried reading it, but I must admit it's never appealled. I love Pride and Prejudice, but the first time I read it was a bit like ploughing a field full of clay. But I've read it three or four times now and love it. I occassionally read Shakespeare, but much prefer to see a play (especially if Kenneth Brannagh is in it). But basicaly I think Life Is Too Short to read a book simply because it's a Classic. If the book doesn't appeal I don't read it.

I don't know if anyone has read any books by this bloke called Jasper Fforde. He's written two and there's another coming out next month. They're not bad :)

Good heavens, life's almost too short to read this thread. Dragging it vaguely back on topic I didn't particularly enjoy Jane Eyre, but have read Pride and Pred. and enjoyed it, but not as much as Tom Jones, whch I've read quite a few times.

Oh, and Nicole - welcome to the fforum.

Jo - Will have to go for a drink sometime when you're back in Stratford...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

was going to catch up on jane eyre again after exams, but now i'm not so sure. guess i'll just have to read TEA and LIAGB again.
and again..

My son is 'doing' Aristophanes' Lysistrata for his Classical Studies GCSE (exam of Friday), the uncensored version. Didn't exactly make me blush, but I am pleased it is not me teaching that to a bunch of hormonal 15 year olds! My mother did express mild surprise that her taxes were being used to buy these texts. lol. (she was being ironic, not being a fully paid up member of the moral majority...yet).

I'm half way through a 4 yr Eng lit degree, at the advanced age of 34, lol. I can fully understand why being forced to read the classics puts people off reading for life.

I've had to do a few of the Greek classics as part of my history/ancient history degree - we most notably did 'The Wasps', which I found dire! (But then, when a joke is over 2,000 years old, it does tend to get a bit stale)

PSD - definitely. I've got 5 days left in Stratford before I move to Bristol! I'd love to get together at some point (I want to see this hair colour...) I'm there on the 21st July (flying to Crete on the 22nd), and I'll then be around for some of 6-8 August, and am then moving over the weekend. (still don't have anywhere to move to - panic? Who said anything about panicing?)



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Hey Magda, I've been to Stratford (Ontario) too, Dawn has some relatives who live nearby in Waterloo. Is it just my memory playing tricks or is the river there called the Avon?

Hey Adam,

There's also an Avon river in Maryland...and on either side of the banks are Oxford and Cambridge LOL (one of my ancestral homes lies nearby)

There is an Avon river in Stratford Ontairo. In fact, they renamed the river to go with the town. Before Stratford was officially named, it was known as the Little Thames.

BTW, I grew up in Plymouth (Michigan), and now live half an hour north of Milan (pronounced "MYE-lin", frighteningly enough).



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

I thought there was but I didn't know if I was making it up for comedy value.

I wonder if there is a Dobcross in the US or Canada?

hahaha, Magda, the next town over from us was Milan, Washington...also pronounced mye-lin LOL