BOOKS: what to avoid?

Most people here probably shouldn’t read The Game Of Thrones.  But I’m really into it and have read the first five books by Martin.  Look out though if you have a weak stomach.  There’s everything you could imagine in his books.  I look forward to the last to books to find out about John Snow and Ayra Stark.  The Lannisters are the real villians along with a lot of other mid evil characters……..Ronnie

Massha, when my people are doing readers theatre, they automatically slow down if the words call for it. Otherwise, everything is read at a "normal" pace.

I am not promoting the idea of reading everything out loud. It’s nice to stop occasionally and read some particularly wonderful passages aloud (for the sheer pleasure of it)–or difficult ones, to help with understanding (I need to do this sometimes with more challenging books).

I envy you the Ulysses session–it sounds amazing!

I have to comment on the value of reading out loud. I taught English (and vocal music) for 27 years. I am a firm believer in reading out loud. Practice helps everyone. A so-so reader gets braver; a good reader improves by reading with more expression.

Many students enjoyed reading out loud, and it was a pleasure to listen to them. But sometimes I would ask everyone just to read one sentence (some writing lends itself well to this–it doesn’t work for everything). My goal was just to have the words said out loud.

Anyway, I believe that every person can improve by reading aloud, at least once in a while.

I have a senior citizen readers theatre group (through the OLLI organization), and we read different plays every month. It’s really enjoyable, and more people in the group are reading even better because of the practice we all get.

Reading rules!

One more little thought and it is not meant to offend–just an observation.  Because of my different physical impairments, a young teenager in my neighborhood sometimes comes to help me do things around the house.  She is a beautiful and charming young woman of 15 who has aspirations of being a nurse one day.  I  am a retired CPA, so while we were working on a project of going through my stacks of old mail and cleaning out what I should keep and what should be thrown away, I asked if she would mind reading the highlights of my Tax Update Newsletter that comes monthly.  (As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have trouble with my eyesight.)  I was shocked when I discovered she could not read ANY of the headline notes without assistance from me.  

I think there is not enough reading being required in the school systems today and the children and young people are going to pay a high price for this.  How will she be able to study easily to learn what she will need to learn to become a nurse?  All of life will be a struggle because her reading skills are so low.  And this is not a girl from a low-income family who is a truant, hooligan.  She is young, beautiful and vibrant and my heart broke for her. 

I didn’t say anything to her.  I just helped her with the words.  But all I could think about was that I could have read all of that, including the detailed articles, by the 4th grade.  I think a lot of people don’t like to read books because the very act of reading is a lot more challenging than they realize.  All you can do to improve is get something easy and just read more OUTLOUD and hear what you are saying and practice.  The more you read the more you will enjoy reading.

It is very sad.

I am new here.  But I agree with Massha in her post about Dhalgren and am a little shocked that so many of you, just because you don’t like to read challenging literature, would prefer to denigrate those who do.  And I agree about Dune as well.  (There are just so many good books out there!  LOL)

Because my eyesight has been very poor for many years, I have been unable to read just about anything, so value and use it while you can to enrich your mind; and yes, that does include cooking, gardening and decorating.  But the classic novels didn’t get on that list by accident; and once you read them, you will know why.  They capture you–they change you forever.

The romantic novels of the 60s focused on the relationship and drew you in by the quality of the writing.  The romantic novels of the 21st century seem to only use sex in its lowest form to shock the reader to keep him/her enthralled.  That is not literature to me.  

The last "good" novel I read was The Swallows of Kabul.  It was a very easy read.  I got it with large print, too!  LOL  But it was enlightening and frightening to be inside someone else’s head whose view of life could be so similar to mine and yet so different, too. 

KlmTampo, I love shopping and reading. I’m sure I’m not alone!

But for the couple of few artificial and genuine ‘intellectuals’ who might read such daunting novels as "Dhalgren" and "Crime and punishment", I really don’t think there are enough heavy readers to sustain a Books thread.  I think peoples’ common interest here is shopping.

LOL!  I didn’t read the book, nor did I see the movie.  I’d heard the movie was just as torturous.

I read The Picture of Dorian Gray six years ago.  Chapter eleven, in which Gray lists page after page after page his debaucherous pursuits, was a brutal read.  Although, the book as a whole was a very good, thought provoking read.  Just that one chapter was horrendous to get through.

WTH?! I just wrote a gigantic essay on why I hated the book Dhalgren by Samuel Delany. HSN *ate* my essay .I am not writing it again.

The book is boring, pretentious, extremely unpleasant, and has disgusting characters who have sex with everything that moves no matter the gender or species, and do not wash at all, and the book even describes interesting accumulations on interesting parts that happen when you do that Eeeeeeeeeeewwww. If you were a hippy in the 70’s, and remember it all fondly, you might like the book.

Beyond that, most any books in series past the first few with the exception of Terry Pratchett’s discworld which only kept getting better. No need to read the Dune series past maybe 2nd or 3d; definitely nothing written by the heirs like say nothing that Anne McCaffree’s son or Frank Herbert’s wrote in continuation of the original series.

I was also grossly disappointed by Dawkins "The magic of reality." It felt mostly like a polemic piece.