[weithman5]

cap fwiw, i hope i didn't offend you, i just really hated being forced to read that book.  to this day (over 30 years), i still get a little uneasy when i open up canned meats, soups, beans.

i did hear about the new explosion, last i heard no one was killed.

[capozzoli]

I cant be offended. Well, except for bad beer and food.

The jungle is a big book to swallow. Didnt mean to even imply that it is good. But it is interesting.

Its been years since I read it and I still think of it often.

How bout when they were trying to harvest meat from the cows while still leaving them alive. The plan being that the meat will grow back to be harvested again later.

That and the Communist Manifesto? What the heck were you studying?

The workers shall control the means of production.

[akr71]

I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman.

LMFAO!!

Back to the cruelty of eating vegetables...  don't know if any of you have heard of a band called The Arrogant Worms - here's a link to their song "Carrot Juice is Murder"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

[weithman5]

i had to read the jungle for a high school english class.  the communist manifesto came much later while i was in the military. know thy enemy.  i will give upton siclair/sinclair? credit because as i read marx, i reflected back on the jungle and how he incorporated marxism ideology in to the story.  i still hated it.

[nicneufeld]

In the realm of ghastly, awful things "higher" education forced us to read the pinnacle for me was "The Female Man".  I also thought A Separate Peace was s***, too, but not in the same extreme way (why didn't they just have us read "Leave It To Psmith"?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Female_Man

Absolute, unvarnished excrement.  Which becomes so much the worse when you are forced to pay money/tuition to study it.  I hated English 210 or whatever it was.

[weithman5]

my daughter has to read a separate piece and romeo and juliet this year.  all i could say was ha ha

[dbeechum]

I guess I'm weird. I may not have loved every book I read for class, but I was happy to have read them.

Then again I usually read 3 books a week, so reading a book is no big deal to me.

The one that does amaze me though is the number of people I know (including some of my very smart colleagues) who are perversely proud about having never read a book after they finished school.

[tschmidlin]

The one that does amaze me though is the number of people I know (including some of my very smart colleagues) who are perversely proud about having never read a book after they finished school.

My brother is like that.  I don't get it either, I read all of the time.  In fact, I'm reading right now.  I just read "In fact, I'm reading right now."

[nicneufeld]

Don't get me wrong...I love reading, and make full, almost larcenous use of my local public library, and I have since I was very young.  Where I get annoyed is when schools used to force us to read particular books, particularly when the value or quality of that book is wildly overestimated.  I would have preferred, if they are going to force and direct our reading, that they at least make us read the actual classics.  My publicly-educated peers are largely a class who can recall reading "Goosebumps" stories and Choose Your Own Adventure, and were forced to read (and write essays about) books like "A Separate Peace", but very few of us (only the self-motivated) have read any Chaucer, Twain, or my recent favorite, Kipling.  I'm totally in favor of "populist" fiction, by all means (most would consider my favorite authors Wodehouse and Douglas Adams in that class), but if schools are going to force us to read stuff without choice, let's pick novels with some history and influence on our culture, not, well...like I referenced, "The Female Man", which is bound and printed dung, basically.  Of course, I'm a bit old school in this as I'm a bit bitter they didn't at least try to teach us some Latin! 

[nicneufeld]

The jungle is a big book to swallow. Didnt mean to even imply that it is good. But it is interesting.

The early part of the 20th Century was one of a great many big, new ideas.  The literature of the time period is full of that sort of thing, lots of imaginative visions of alternate utopias and societal restructurings.  Bit of a shame that a great many of those "big new ideas" were "big new very bad ideas", but you take the rough with the smooth, I guess!

EDIT: granted the Jungle wasn't quite like that but there are parallels.  I've skipped it, personally, because at this point it would just be historical interest leading me to it. 

[richardt]

Wow.  If this isn't a thread drift, I don't know what is.

[beerocd]

yeah, it's a good example of judging a book by its cover. you just never know....

[weithman5]

oh, i like to  read okay.  things like : "the everything homebrewing" book by some guy named drew something
seriously, i do enjoy a good read, it is just that only such a small portion of the required literature in high school i found tolerable.  i enjoyed the grapes of wrath, and of mice and men.  i liked 1984, but not so much animal farm.  and the book we talked about earlier, the jungle, was not worthy of complete reading but it did make for good referance and discussion

[weazletoe]

yeah, it's a good example of judging a book by its cover. you just never know....

  Just run of the mill for a BFI thread. It's a game we used to play over on the other board.

Oh, and now to get this thread back on topic.....http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=realannoyingorange&annotation_id=annotation_562723&feature=iv

[bluesman]

....over on the other board.

I remember those days.   

I think I need to get some sleep tonight.  Labor day weekend is always fun.