50 books to read before you die discussion

Hi everyone!

I've just joined this group... So I thought I'd note down which of the books I'd read, and which I will be trying first...

These are the named books:
1 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien - READ for pleasure some years ago
2 1984 by George Orwell - READ for the first time for A Level English, then since for pleasure
3 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - READ for pleasure some years ago
4 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - READ for the first time for GCSE English, then recently as I've been teaching it to my GCSE students
6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - READ for the first time for GCSE English, then since for pleasure
7 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - READ when I was at university
8 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
9 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10 Hamlet by William Shakespeare
11 A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul
12 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13 The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
14 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
15 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16 The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank - READ for pleasure many times
17 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
18 The Bible by Various - READ when I was younger
19 The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - READ when I was at school
20 Ulysses by James Joyce
21 The Quiet American by Graham Greene
22 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
23 Money by Martin Amis
24 Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling - READ many, many times!
25 Moby Dick by Herman Melville
26 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
27 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman - READ when I was at university
28 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
29 Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - READ when I was at university
30 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
31 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon - READ a few years ago
32 On the Road by Jack Kerouac
33 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - READ for A Level English
34 The Way We Live Now by Antony Trollope
35 The Outsider by Albert Camus
36 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
37 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
38 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - READ when I was at university
39 The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
40 Man without Women by Ernest Hemingway
41 Gulliver´s Travels by Jonathan Swift - READ when I was at university
42 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - READ Summer 2012 when I adapted it for the stage
43 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
44 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
45 One flew over the Cuckoo´s Nest by Ken Kesey
46 Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
47 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
48 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
49 The Divine Comedy by Alighieri Dante
50 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

So I have a number to catch up with! I think I'm going to start with The Great Gatsby. I saw the film when I came out in the cinema, and really enjoyed it. I'm sure (as always) I will find the book is better so really looking forward to reading it.

Interesting thought - how many of these would be deemed as 'unsuitable' by a certain Mr. Gove based on the news today that To Kill A Mockingbird will be removed from the GCSE English reading list because it's not British... Ridiculous!!!

Sarah :)

I read about the Gove thing this morning after seeing your post. It seems to have sparked quite a reaction! As an American, I'm not very familiar with the UK education system, but I stumbled across the ReadingBukowski youtube vlogs the other day and became curious. GCSE would equate to US 9th and 10th grade, if I'm getting it right??

The other works Gove tossed out included Of Mice and Men and the works of Arthur Miller. Gove's expressed wish is that more Dickens and Austen and Shakespeare be included in the curriculum instead of these less "rigorous" texts. It was very interesting scrolling through the comments on the Guardian and BBC sites. Gove was alternately accused of being anti-American, a right-wing ideologue, parochial, and suffering from lifelong boarding school envy. Mark Gatiss called him a "dangerous philistine." Wow!

So, I learned that these works are as cherished in Britain as they are here. Cool. What surprised me were the number of comments arguing that D & A & S are too hard, too tedious, too right-wing (!), and too irrelevant for students. Somehow I thought (without thinking, clearly) that Brits had a leg up on those authors, speaking, you know, English English. Why I would assume UK teenagers would have an innate flair for blank verse or the natural ability to explicate a Dickensian longwinder beats me, but there you are.

For the record, I think Mr. Gove is confused about what constitutes rigor in literature. The works he considers too easy are gorgeous examples of literary works from which students can learn all the many components of what makes literature important. These works not only stand on their own merits, but also prime readers for works that are more difficult to tackle on a technical level.

Michael Gove is a 'dangerous philistine', apparently he didn't like studying 'Of Mice and Men' at school, hence the downer. He has 'tunnel vision' with regard to his ideas of what constitutes good schooling and has upset a lot of teachers etc., in the last few years.

We usually take GCSE's (General Certificate of Secondary Education) at 16 ish which is the end of our compulsory education. Then college 17-18, then University 19-21. The last two, not compulsory, just desirable.

A levels are college then?

Gove sounds like a moron! If you don't read books from other countries, which general deal with other themes, then how do you broaden your mind?
Maybe he's jealous of broad minded people who enjoy literature and wants them to live in his little box too, as punishment for making him feel inferior.

Long hare, A levels is the last two years of high school. Our new education system in SA is similar. I think (please correct me) that A levels are needed for university.

Longhare wrote: "A levels are college then?"

Yes, but just to confuse you some secondary schools do have 17-18 year olds doing A levels, so they have pupils from 11-18. However, most people prefer leaving secondary school and going to college.
Lisa - Yes, A levels are needed for university.

Thank you for the clarification, Christine and Lisa. Having a kid just finishing high school, I do find it interesting how different education systems try to get it all in. Good teachers have my deepest admiration.