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worst/best english novel you have ever read in school? (3 Viewers)

wendus

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nah the texts get better as you progress through high school!
catcher in the rye is my alllllll time favourite. some of the shakespeare wasn't that bad either.
all the stuff we read in year 7 was crap (i.e. goodnight mr tom, etc.)
 

wardiej

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BEST: Vampire Lestat (year 11)

WORST: Taronga (year 8)
 

Brontecat

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worst: the hobbit (from what i recall the teacher loved it, but then gave up on reading it with the class :) )
best: the island of the blue dolphins (i remember reading this in year 5 and absolutely loving the idea that i could be an island girl too :))
 

Zedez

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I'm really enjoying Dracula at the moment, its a great book. Midsummer's Night Dream was the first Shakespeare I actually liked (I know its a play but oh well). We didn't study the Tomorrow series by John Marsden but I really liked it anyway. (Studying it probably would have put me off it anyway).

Animal Farm was quite funny to study, I had already read it in like year 6, and thought it was a bit random, and then my English teacher told us we were studying it and that it was about Stalin and the USSR, and I was kinda sitting there going "WTF??? How does that relate to Communism???." But once we started looking at it, it was intersting to read a book and then find out the whole history behind it instead of it being explained to you at the start and not being able to draw your own opinions.

I've found a lot of books I enjoyed reading, but then having to analysis them sort of took away from the enjoyment of the book. Midsummers for example, I really like watching the play, but by the end of the year I had gone back to the same old opinions I had about Shakepeare in all the other years, which was disapointing because I had finally started to appreciate it.

But some books I've really liked analysing, its gives you a much different perspective on them.
 

nhoustonrocks

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Best: To Kill A Mockingbird (Year 9) and The Age of Innocence (this year).
A Streetcar Named Desire comes in close after the above.

Worst: Blueback by Tim Winton (year 7)
 

spoonbender

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Best: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Worst: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad :burn:
 

Absolutezero

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Worst: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Nothing so much wrong with the text, it just dragged on to much in the end.

Best: To Kill A Mockingbird

Fantastic. 'nuff said.

I never had to read any Orwell for school. But both Animal Farm and 1984 are great.
 

kaz1

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Best- Catcher in the Rye
Worst- Frankenstein- most boring piece of crap ever.
 

0hNivlek

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The Catcher in the Rye is fantastic!!!!!!

Worst: Emma by Jane Austen
Best: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
 

technicolour

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The best was either Animal Farm or To Kill A Mockingbird. Worst was Artemis Fowl in year 7. To this day I have no idea what the point of studying that was.
 
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Worst: Merryl (sp?) of the Stones in Year 8 and A Cage of Butterflies in Year 9, both by Brain Caswell. DO NOT READ HIS WORK.

Best: Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah in Year 8. The only book that has ever made me cry.
oh god! i did merryl of the stones. AGREED! DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! IT IS CRAP!
i also did chinese cinderella...not too bad.


my favourite, although its sort of written in a poetic style is "The Simple Gift" by Steven Hettrick. Did it this year for the AOS. Loved it!
 

lurveNpeace

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LOL
Year 11 animal farm.

gosh, that book made my class fall asleep LOL
but then it got interesting lol *sshifty*
 

technicolour

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I know this is going on a bit of a tangent, but I'll say it anyway. The problem with Shakespeare isn't the actual play, it's the shitty BBC versions you have to watch along with it. That's the worst part of English for me.
 

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