mc_squared
03-28-2009, 12:55 PM
I am a high school English teacher and I actually used a thread on this site to introduce my students to the major themes and key questions for the book Into the Wild before they started to read it. I think this site can be a great teaching tool for eduactors and I hope to use it more in the future. One of my students already joined the network. Hopefully more will follow. Literature, after all, is best when it is shared with others and this site is a great forum for discussing the ways in which literaure affects different readers.
My favorite books are those that take a deeply personal approach to writing. For example, I love the work of Jack Kerouac (he really turned me on to literaure at a young age) and the writing of Henry David Thoreau, and Kurt Vonnegut too. These are writers who put a lot of themselves into their writing and I always appreciate that personal component in a book. Also, I think a good book is one that makes you think, and with Vonnegut's work I find myself turning his messages over in my mind long after I'm done reading. And his use of sarcasm is great too. That's always a good thing.
My most recent read is The Shadow of the Wind by a Spanish writer named Carlos Ruiz Fazon. One of my students recommended it. I loved it - a very passionate story. I find that European writers generally have a knack for pulling off passionate narratives more convincingly than their American counterparts.
Anyways, I look forward to hearing from other readers out there. Take care.
My favorite books are those that take a deeply personal approach to writing. For example, I love the work of Jack Kerouac (he really turned me on to literaure at a young age) and the writing of Henry David Thoreau, and Kurt Vonnegut too. These are writers who put a lot of themselves into their writing and I always appreciate that personal component in a book. Also, I think a good book is one that makes you think, and with Vonnegut's work I find myself turning his messages over in my mind long after I'm done reading. And his use of sarcasm is great too. That's always a good thing.
My most recent read is The Shadow of the Wind by a Spanish writer named Carlos Ruiz Fazon. One of my students recommended it. I loved it - a very passionate story. I find that European writers generally have a knack for pulling off passionate narratives more convincingly than their American counterparts.
Anyways, I look forward to hearing from other readers out there. Take care.