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Of all the many many books I've read there are two which have always put me to sleep.Yall might disagree,but the two most boring books of all time are GREAT EXPECTATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE SCARLETT LETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These books have actually made me consider suicide.Sorry if you like them,but it is all a matter of opinion.
I think I understand what you mean.I love Charles Dickenson but a few of his works, that being one of them made me feel severely depressed.
The scarlett letter simply reminded me of some people I knew who were like non stop vigalantes and had to crucify everyone on earth no like them. dreadful
But why are you telling us this. Is it that you were supposed to read them and hand something in but didn't, I don't understand
And hullo, I don't know you but I give you a belated welcome to this excellent forum.
Thank you for the welcome.
I have not read much by Chekhov, only The Cherry Orchard and a short story whose name escapes me. I found The Cherry Orchard very boring (a play, not a novel), but I fear I may have missed the meaning, if there really is one deep inside. Usually I can make it through most readings (this was something for a class) and at least appreciate what the author was attempting, but this one just didnt do it for me.
The Cherry Orchard's primary function was to illustrate the conflict that arises between the new rich and the old rich. Another major theme was to highlight people's inability to adapt and change. I do not know if that helps you any, but I found it boring as well. I liked the message, I just didn't like how it was presented.Quote:
Originally Posted by chmpman
Oh oh! I've got it I've got it!!! The Waves by Virginia Woolf takes the cake. I have to admit that it is a great book, but Virgem Maria, it is booooring.
Anything by Woolf would do the trick!Quote:
Originally Posted by Fontainhas
:p
Hey. Mrs. Dalloway wasn't too bad! I mean...it was a bit booring.... :p but I read it!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Quote:
Originally Posted by blp
I’ve been thinking about these issues for nearly twenty years and have come to the same conclusion I’ve come to with regards to Jane Austen - that some people get it and some don’t. The most inspirational teacher on earth wouldn’t be able to encourage an appreciation of Literature in those who aren’t burdened by a moment’s reflective thought. As that seems to be the majority, the news isn’t good.Quote:
Originally Posted by blp
I once started with a new sixth form group (17 years old) and instead of going through the usual induction programme, simply gave them a sheet of A4 paper and asked them to write down all the things that mattered to them. As you would expect, the response was hesitant and uncertain. When someone finally started writing, others reluctantly followed. Those lacking inspiration looked around at what others had written. To know what mattered to them, they felt it necessary to see what supposedly mattered to others. The system of education does this. Even something as fundamental as what matters to us as individuals can be seen as just another test of our competence. It’s very difficult to break out of that.
I can remember clearly what it was that set me off reading. It was being taught Lord of the Flies when I was 14 by the best teacher I had. He didn’t teach it in the way that would be considered effective today. He mostly drew analogies with events and situations from our own lives as well as the world at large. He seldom set essays, gave very few notes and spent most of the lesson either amusing us or asking us difficult questions. Just a few years earlier I had seen episode 20 of The World at War. I always remember that it was episode 20 as I can picture the sub-titles at the programme’s opening – ‘Episode 20 – Genocide’. It was first shown without a commercial break. It affected me profoundly and I wanted answers. I hadn’t given God much thought before that but I think that’s when the idea finally died for me. Golding’s exploration of the human capacity for evil made sense to me. Suddenly I didn’t feel alone in my tormented adolescence.
Other students did not respond to his teaching in the same way. They liked, admired and praised him but he didn’t inspire them in the way he did some of us. So when you say that you had good teaching of Troilus and Cressida, what do you mean? Did it help you understand the play or did it lead you to believe that plays matter? Was it something else? I’ve tutored a few Oxbridge English applicants and helped some of them get there but the best teaching I’ve done could not be measured by the kind of assessments so important now.
The situation has worsened considerably in the past fifteen years. With the commodification of education, students have become customers armed with consumer rights. No longer do they have to live up to the subject, it now has to meet their requirements, chief among which is that it’s not too demanding and can be fitted around their social life. This is supposedly more egalitarian. Paradise Lost has to compete for attention with Buffy, both at home and on the curriculum.
I’m glad you said, “I think my best experiences of being taught have involved being pushed somewhat reluctantly to understand and enjoy things I wasn't favourable towards.” Most students aren’t as forgiving as you. Fortunately enough of them are to make me get out of bed in the mornings.
“To direct a student’s attention towards that which, at first, exceeds his grasp, but whose compelling stature and fascination will draw him after it. Simplification, levelling, watering down, as they now prevail in all but the most privileged education are criminal. They condescend fatally to the capacities unbeknown within ourselves. Attacks on so-called elitism mask a vulgar condescension: towards all those judged a priori to be incapable of better things.”
Steiner
Referring to the relationship between teacher and student: “It's about the opposition... It's about what gets rubbed off between the persistence of the one and the resistance of the other. A long hard struggle against a natural resistance.” (239)
Waterland
Not that I'm making fun, (actually it was an interesting post from a teacher's perspective) but I couldn't help thinking about the Pink Floyd song:Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
;) Kids will be kids. It's hard to understand another's mind, what motivates them, what inspires them. It's doubly hard when they are seventeen and have hormones raging.Quote:
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (Waters) 3:56
We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
"Wrong, Do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"
^
I am tempted to write ZINGGGGGGG! but that'd probably be too 17'ish of me. :p
Condescension begets flippancy.
That's a moment's reflective thought for you.
Hoyday, a riddle! Was it inspired by "As you sow, so shall you reap."? Aphorisms are a marvellous vehicle for profundity. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by EAP
Not for me. But if it qualifies as such for you, then you take it.Quote:
Originally Posted by EAP
On the contrary, I know exactly what motivates them when they are seventeen and full of hormones – it’s very similar to what motivates you when you are forty and full of hormones.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
I do like Pink Floyd but I hate that song (the whole album is little more than adolescent whinging). It’s hard to take a bunch of Oxbridge educated, middle class rock stars telling the rest of us that ‘we don’t need no education.”
I’ve been trying to persuade one of my students to post on this forum. She occasionally reads it – although she does tend to confine herself to the bits by and about me – and laughs at the perception of me. I’ve given her my permission to tell it as she sees it. She can’t type at the moment because I stamped on and broke all of her fingers for not underlining the heading for her essay.
Try a little harder. Tell her that we greatly desire her contributions. The heading should have been bold, not underlined.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
I agree absolutely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Icarus
and Orlando - Virginia Woolf
Bluemonkey:
"The Cherry Orchard's primary function was to illustrate the conflict that arises between the new rich and the old rich. Another major theme was to highlight people's inability to adapt and change. I do not know if that helps you any, but I found it boring as well. I liked the message, I just didn't like how it was presented."
These are things I noticed, but I also just didn't like the way it was presented, and felt like there should have been more of an underlying meaning than what this amounts to, as it was portrayed (rather uninterestingly to me) in the play.
Oh, I would die to communicate with someone who actually knows you in person. But given that she's a student of yours and dependent on getting a grade from you, how honest is she really going to be? She'll probably tell us you're a sweet cuddly fellow, but lord knows what she tells her girlfriends after class? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
I would like to think this forum actually exists when that student of Unnameable graduates and can speak for herself with no regard to what her former teacher thinks or can or cannot do about her thoughts.
Somehow though, unless I am greatly mistaken, she will say he was very incredible, a stellar teacher and a great human being.(oh be quiet Unnameable, quit trying to change my mind about you. You might be 'in your face' strong and pushy, but I am quite unmoveable myself when I believe something to be true. your eyes don't lie )
Ok here goes:
Persuasion by Jane Austen= captain fred and anne elliot meet, anne is persuaded not to marry, fred leaves the town(this happens in the first 4 chapters). for the next 30 something chapters u learn abt every single person that lives in the town, for instance people who happened to break their legs. In the last few chapters fred returns and anne and fred get married.End. (Enough said)
Must agree with the posts about Lord of the Flies. It was unbearable. It tells u the history of the whole setting(eg. leaves, trees, coral reef) and it has a kid called piggy. once again enough said.
To the lighthouse= about a family, they go to lighthouse, an artist starts a painting. after most of the book(ironically called "Time passes"), mum has died and artist goes back to lighthouse and finishes the painting.
Recommended book i found fascinating: [/B]Brave New World, Huxley . Makes you think. Enough said. :nod:
Hope ive spared some people from the loooooooooooooong and utterly boring task of reading the first 3 books. There's more, but these are by far top of the list.
hmmm...just off the top of my head... Jane Eyre, Emma, The Rule of Four, The Shipping News (I think that's it for now...I'm sure I know more) :)
i can't BELIEVE that you think jane eyre is one of the most boring books you've ever read. you're insane!
i'm going to have to say The Great Gatsby. terrible.
Well actually I never finished reading Jane Eyre so I don't really know if IS boring or not. But I did attempt to read it...twice...and twice I got as far as the first few chapters but had to stop because I found it boring. Whether or not it gets better after the first few chapters, I have never discovered.Quote:
Originally Posted by MissJaneEyre19
i think you should try again, you won't regret it! it's such a good book, i promise. ;)
alright then...when i finish reading it...you'll be the first to know :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by MissJaneEyre19
The Scarlet Letter. It probably wouldn't be as bad if we hadn't analyzed it as much as we did in school, but whatever, I didn't get a whole lot out of it. <><
I was bored reading the "Scarlet Letter" but it was ok...
Dicken's Pickwick, completely boring.
Wow ... i go away for about five days and theres a whole bunch of new users. Hey there everyone!
I enjoyed Lord of the Flies, and I thought Jane Eyre was okay...they seem to be two of the most hated books. And I loved the Catcher in the Rye.
I made the mistake of reading 'A Child called it' a while ago. Luckily it was quite short, so it didn't waste too muchof my valuable reading time, but I really hated it.
I haven't really read enough to judge, but from what I have read, I find Dickens very dull.
well, the most boring book i ever ever read was Robinson Crusoe....never got round finishing it!!!! on top of that, i had a very boring professor talking about it!!!!! it was like uuughghghgh!!!!!!!!!
to top it all i had this course on the Fallen Woman literature(if u can call it proper literature at all!!!). it had books ranging from George Eliot's "Adam Bede" to Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary"....and "Scarlet Letter", Hardy's "Tess of the d'Ubervilles" (i loved that novel before i studied it for this course!!!)....and to top all that I had Mrs. Gaskell's "Ruth"!!!!!! im sure to gain sympathy!!!!
i guess i'll differ with people who do not like Hamlet....i think after Macbeth it is Shakespeare's best tragedy. though im sure King Lear and Othello count too. It is Hamlet's character and his moral conflict within himself that actually engages one's interest. the way he battles with himself...he almost seems schidzophrenic....a character that has some very strong attraction and tensions within and without!!! all those who dont like Shakespeare are entitled to their respective opinions but i think one can only appreciate him if read in the right way and under some great guidance!Quote:
Originally Posted by emily655321
I see lots of folks disliking "Wuthering Heights" on this thread....but i love the character of Heathcliff. there is something very dark, dangerous and attractive about him. i also love the book "Gone With The Wind". Rhett Butler has become my classic idea of a hero. though one can also appreciate Scarlett O'Hara's never-say-die attitude.
I Love Dickens!!!! his "A Tale of Two Cities" is the best!! i also love "Hard Times" and "Great Expectations" though the character of Pip sucks!!Quote:
Originally Posted by imthefoolonthehill
After reading "Pride and Prejudice" one will agree "Emma" is irritating!!!
Anything by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Oh, Tender is the Night is my favorite Fitzgerald... ay, how it stings ;) but to each his own :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Zooey
I would say most Hemingway works are pretty dry and boring... also, every time I try to read it, I just cannot seem to get through it-- Heart of Darkness I feel like many people might think that's blasphemous, but my god, Conrad is just so unexciting....
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers.
Really? I've heard Wuthering Heights called a lot of bad things...poorly written, melodramatic, two-dimensional, a rough precursor for Jane Eyre, but never EVER boring. I've found that people either love or hate the book (personally I love it) but they've all, without exception, had strong reactions. I've never heard anyone say 'eh'.Quote:
Originally Posted by electric_kool_aid
I'll agree that I don't remember Moby Dick being too exciting a book, but then again, I read it in the 10th grade. I doubt my reaction reading it now would be the same.
Okay, I'll say it. Dickens is a boring writer to me. I can never get sucked into his novels. I was bored sick by Great Expectations in high school. I've started and stopped read Oliver Twist (which is, I'm told, his most accessible novel) at least three times. And I've never gotten past chapter three of A Tale of Two Cities. I just don't understand his appeal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilde woman
I agree with Moby Dick since I could barely get through it, but I was also pretty young when I read it, perhaps middle-school, so I probably missed a lot of the point...
But I for sure agree with Dickens. I actually loved Great Expecations when I read it in high school, but have never been able to get through Oliver Twist or A Tale of Two Cities... I keep giving him a chance, he is unable to capture my attention every time.
Hmmmm... I found it very, very interesting. Gripping, actually.Quote:
Originally Posted by imthefoolonthehill
I'd say the most boring novel I read of late is 'Austerlitz', by W. G. Sebald. I know he's something like a cult novelist, but for the life of me I couldn't make heads or tails of it :(
I'm going to sound like a barbarian here, but most marriage plot novels bore me to distraction. I remember having to endure Emma as an undergraduate. . . .probably the boring reading experience I've ever had. But I was much younger then; I might have a different view now.
But generally, if the plot of the novel is "the course of true love never did run smooth" I'm going to be looking for something else to read quite quickly. :)
I don't read boring books, because I check them out beforehand and buy accordingly, and that is why I have managed to avoid wasting time on Beckett, Joyce and other writers who seem to be presenting a philosophical view of life when there are already many books on philosophy for those who are so inclined. I prefer writers who inform me about the human condition without people sitting in dustbins or holding interminable interior monologues on their totaly uninteresting lives.
I do like reading your posts Brian Bean -- They're not boring. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Sorry, but that's silly. You can't 'check a book out beforehand' because you can't know what it's going to be from someone else's description - which is probably how you've managed to get Beckett and Joyce so wrong. (Reading either of these two and reading philosophy are entirely different things.) The only way to know what a book is really like is to read it. You can't, unfortunately, even really do it by reading bits of it. There are quite a few books I didn't really get while I was reading them, or even disliked, but at some point, during the reading or after, something changed and I became very glad I'd read them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean