I feel like I should be defending Cooper against the mudslinging. I loved the leatherstocking tales in my youth. Unfortunately, when I took it up again about a year ago, I was very put off by how unrealistic everything was.
As far as "least favorite" works go, "Catcher in the Rye" comes readily to mind. I threw that book in the trash when I finished it.
Nabokov is not an American writer. I think you may be reading the wrong Americans if their style doesn't grab you. Try Margaret Atwood, Philip Roth, or even Cormac McCarthy (though after a few novels you tend to see the strings). If you like short stories I'd also recommend Alice Munro and Joy Williams. All of the above can write sentences around Martin Amis, in my opinion.
Nabokov is more American than Margaret Atwood...being as how she's been Canadian all her life. Atwood might have a lot of fascinating ideas and I do appreciate her clever way of bringing glaring patriarchy to light, but I wouldn't say her wording and style is especially charming.
Thinking of other Americans...Kerouac is ok. William Burroughs, disgusting individual that he was, was an excellent storyteller...again, I wouldn't call his style beautiful nor filled with depth.
Kerouac is one of my favorite writers, although its been many years since I read him. On the Road is an American classic in my opinion, although I don't know what critical opinion of him is currently. I also liked Dr. Sax, the Subterraneans and Dharma Bums. His poetry is OK. It tends to be prose poetry like his novels.
I should probably keep my thoughts to myself but I just had a thought that I bet Afaf and Flags would have great sex together.
Afaf, I am sorry; I don't want to offend you because I really do like you but the way you and he converse reminds me of how me and my little girl's daddy get along...we can't ever agree about anything...but...anyway...
I like to READ and read and rEaD, play on the computer (currently Zoo World on facebook is my obsession), decorate my house and make it as beautiful inside and out as I possibly can with hardly any money and figure out how to live without hardly any money.
If I have time after all that I spend it with my family. lol (being silly and ironic here). My 6 year old takes up a good portion of my time and my children are my life but my older two are grown. My 23 year old is going to have a baby in May, though, and I am exited about that!
Afaf, I do think you should give Twain another chance but I can understand someone out of the United States not liking him because his work is very coloquial (wow I spelled it right). Spelling is a rote skill that I am not the best at.
Flags, I would have thought you weren't old enough to be a teacher because you come accross as very immature but I am going to be charitable and say that I bet your students, for the most part, like you, probably because you are easy and maybe because you do what some of the coaches in my school did and spend most of the period sometimes talking about last night's game. Then again, I could be all wrong.
War and Peace is the best book ever written; Does anyone want to disagree with me? ;)
When I used to work for a newspaper, one of our editors told me that people with advanced degrees were the worst spellers.
No one has mentioned William Faulkner as a great American writer. Our heritage of slavery is among the central influences on our American identity, and Faulkner comes to terms with it brilliantly. I'd be interested to hear other opinions on Faulkner as we all have our own perspectives.
No one has mentioned Richard Wright or Ralph Ellison either. Invisible Man is one of my favorite novels. I wish Ellison had written more.
I used to play the field too, but 'ventually found out it weren't very fulfillin' 
before chess I held the title of GM-bater
As far as Amerivan novelists go, I really like John Irving, A prayer for Owen Meanie and The Cider House rules were great, I think.
I do a spot of reading myself, especially sci fi...
yeah. the fun one is going to be "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" when I get to explain hermaphrodites to a bunch of 15 year-olds.
I still have to explain hermaphrodites to adults. And how they are not the same as transexuals. It should be a great segue to get your students interested in reading.
I tried to like The Last of the Mohicans, goldendog but I could only take so much description of the material world...I think that is a common denominator for me. Authors that spend too much time describing the world instead of the characters annoy me. It was the same with Conrad and Heart of Darkness.
Anyone who goes on and on and on about landscape descriptions is cumbersome. It's like...okay, thanks for sharing how beautiful you find the vibrant autumn leaves...wow, your attention to detail of the tree trunk is astounding...NEXT. And then authors trying to establish the tree trunk as a metaphor for god knows what... I suppose I just find a lot of writing to be very "put on". I guess it's a matter of taste.
Oh dear god, has anyone here read Bret Easton Ellis? He pulls off this "I can describe material things for weeks because by describing it at length I'm mocking it" sort of trick to fill up the pages of his book. I feel the urge to call him and tell him "you made your point by page 20".
It's really so hard to judge literature. Poor editors.
The only sci fi I think I've read is A Wrinkle in Time? I was pretty upset when it ended...but I don't know what qualifies as high quality sci fi. Brave New World was good...though I would have cut out some of the Shakespeare.
Apparently Catcher in the Rye is imbued with lots of meaning...I also never got any of it, but it was a pleasant read. I'm a sucker for gender segregated prep schools in literature.
Is anyone a fan of the book? Maybe they can clarify.
Apparently Catcher in the Rye is imbued with lots of meaning...I also never got any of it, but it was a pleasant read. Is anyone a fan? Maybe they can clarify.
I didn't enjoy reading it. Maybe it suffers somewhat from age. Supposedly it was unique when written as far as it's portrayal of teen disenchantment and feelings of futility, but now there are plenty of such works available from the past few decades.
--Cystem
No one has mentioned William Faulkner as a great American writer. Our heritage of slavery is among the central influences on our American identity, and Faulkner comes to terms with it brilliantly. I'd be interested to hear other opinions on Faulkner as we all have our own perspectives.
Bill Faulkner is indeed the king of American writers, but he's also hugely popular in the outer-northern suburbs of Melbourne, where I grew up.
After school my friends and I would act out our favourite scenes from the Faulknerian corpus: the suicide of Quentin Compson, the disastrous crossing of the Yoknapatawpha River with Addie's coffin, the decapitation of Joanna Burden, the negro butler's rejection of the young Thomas Sutpen at the door of the Virginia plantation house, Lucius Priest's knife-fight in the Memphis whorehouse, you name it. All the boys wanted to play Chick Mallison, and all the girls wanted to be the lovely Eula Varner. Some of the skankier girls would want to play Temple Drake, but my mother warned me about them. You never knew when someone in the classroom would cry "Caddy!", only to be answered by a chorus of idiot bellowing, full of sound and fury. LOL!
Those summer afternoons would just fly by....
Apparently Catcher in the Rye is imbued with lots of meaning...I also never got any of it, but it was a pleasant read. I'm a sucker for gender segregated prep schools in literature.
Is anyone a fan of the book? Maybe they can clarify.
I actually was a fan of Catcher in the Rye when I read it but I don't know if I would enjoy it so much now on a second reading. That happened to me with Anna Karenina also. I related to Anna when I read it the first time but I just read it again last summer and this time I just though she was stupid and selfish. When I read Catcher I wanted to take Holden under my wing and tell him that mostly his perception of the world is accurate but that he has to continue to be as good as he can be himself and screw all the fakes and liars.
No one has mentioned William Faulkner as a great American writer. Our heritage of slavery is among the central influences on our American identity, and Faulkner comes to terms with it brilliantly. I'd be interested to hear other opinions on Faulkner as we all have our own perspectives.
Bill Faulkner is indeed the king of American writers, but he's also hugely popular in the outer-northern suburbs of Melbourne, where I grew up.
After school my friends and I would act out our favourite scenes from the Faulknerian corpus: the suicide of Quentin Compson, the disastrous crossing of the Yoknapatawpha River with Addie's coffin, the decapitation of Joanna Burden, the negro butler's rejection of the young Thomas Sutpen at the door of the Virginia plantation house, Lucius Priest's knife-fight in the Memphis whorehouse, you name it. All the boys wanted to play Chick Mallison, and all the girls wanted to be the lovely Eula Varner. Some of the skankier girls would want to play Temple Drake, but my mother warned me about them. You never knew when someone in the classroom would cry "Caddy!", only to be answered by a chorus of idiot bellowing, full of sound and fury. LOL!
Those summer afternoons would just fly by....
Help! Help! I'm being lampooned! Could you share the names of those skankier girls in case I find myself in Melbourne with nothing to do?
i am cook
i read newspapers
i read horror, science fiction
i dive for clams, snails...30, 35 ft deep water, with only mask
ride my bike
i love watching baseball!
i play golf once in a while
a litttle agriculture, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, yuca, melons...
and i absolutely loooove art! picasso, dali, reubens, diego rivera, diego velazquez, van gogh, gaguin, goya.....
No one has mentioned William Faulkner as a great American writer. Our heritage of slavery is among the central influences on our American identity, and Faulkner comes to terms with it brilliantly. I'd be interested to hear other opinions on Faulkner as we all have our own perspectives.
No one has mentioned Richard Wright or Ralph Ellison either. Invisible Man is one of my favorite novels. I wish Ellison had written more.
Invisible Man! Holy cow. The first time I read that book, it was like grabbing hold of a live wire! What a wild novel...and scary.
I've read all Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories (favorite: "Adventure of the Speckled Band", "The Crooked Man") and watched all of the TV adaptations with Jeremy Brett. I also have a huge stock of Agatha Christie mysteries, Miss Marple being one of my favorite detectives. Patterson's Alex Cross was all right for a while, but not up to standard lately.