# At least READ the damn book! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 5, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992 "2003-02-05T17:24:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/21 "2003-02-06T23:45:52Z")
Um, I thought John Savage was basically mobbed/lynched? ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/22 "2003-02-07T01:18:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Um, I thought John Savage was basically mobbed/lynched? \*\* Well, in the book, he hanged himself. In the 1999 miniseries, he was mocking the reporters by dancing on a wall, and hooting like an ape when he apparently lost his footing, and plunged to his death. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/23 "2003-02-07T02:16:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Legomancer \* > I can go you one better than that. In a college class I was in, people were bitching and moaning because the professor assigned _70 pages_ to read by next time. This was a Tuesday-Thursday class, and was assigned ona Thursday, so that gave them several days, including a weekend, to do it. Nevertheless, they all whined about how shitty this was. Jeez. Even for a _slow_ reader, that sounds like a relaxing way to spend a few hours. > [@](#): > > Oh, hang on, forgot a point. This was an Education class. > > Oh…and several of the whiners were English Ed people. They supposedly wanted to teach high school English. I think that’s gonna be tough to beat, **Legomancer**. Our future HS English teachers, griping about being asked to read 70 pages over a Thursday-to-Tuesday weekend. Can hardly wait for them to share the appreciation of literature with our children someday. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/24 "2003-02-07T06:25:13Z")
Hm. I’ve found the book. It was an NBC miniseries (made by Universal Television) and the cover art and photographs (stills from the TV show) are copyright 1979. Which fits well with the general look of the images and the aging of the paper and so on, IMNSHO. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/25 "2003-02-07T07:53:28Z")
Sheesh! I bet those girls don’t even know the rules to Centrifugal Bumblepuppy.😉 ---
**Author:** ![brainfizz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@brainfizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainfizz)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/26 "2003-02-07T13:16:56Z")
Wasn’t Demolition Man based on Brave New World? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/27 "2003-02-07T15:44:40Z")
Coming into this thread I was all set to disagree, because based on the title I assumed it was a complaint about people who refuse to read certain books for _fun_. I think people have every right to decide not to read a particular book for pleasure; after all, you can’t read _every_ book in the world, and if there’s one that doesn’t seem appealing then you might as well skip it and read something else instead. But since the OP is about assigned reading, I’m in complete agreement. If you’re taking a class, you do the assigned reading. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fun or enjoyable or not. School is not an amusement park – you go there to learn, not to have a grand old time. Not that you _can’t_ have a grand old time, and learning while having a grand old time is certainly preferable to learning while being wretched, but sometimes in life you just have to stop being a big baby and do something that isn’t fun. And while reading a book you don’t like may be boring or time consuming it’s not as if it’s painful or humiliating or anything. Now, there may be times when circumstanes prevent you from finishing the assigned reading on time, but anyone who doesn’t at least _try_ is IMHO stupid or lazy or both. ---
**Author:** ![Riptor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@Riptor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riptor)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/28 "2003-02-07T17:14:47Z")
The TV series was a news-magazine like show that was rather interesting. I think Charles Gibson hosted it, although I’m probably very wrongabout that. The band They Might Be Giants were on several episodes and sang songs about whatever topic the episode was about (i.e., germs, plants, etc). ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/29 "2003-02-07T17:17:27Z")
I haven’t read the book. I’m happy to be an Epsilon. I don’t have to do any hard thinking. Let the Alphas and Betas do all that hard reading work. I’m so happy to be an Epsilon. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/30 "2003-02-07T17:30:44Z")
It sounds like _Fahrenheit 451_ would be a more appropriate book for the class in the OP to read. I do not understand why people bellyache about having to read books for a literature class–that is, after all, the point of the class, is it not? I could see complaining about having to read 70 pages of a calculus textbook (as useful as calc is, its textbooks do not make for diverting reading), but getting credit for reading novels, and especially one as slight as BNW is, seems like Paradise to me. Jiminy, if people whine about having to read Huxley, what must they do when they are assigned a work by Trollope or Thackeray? (two of my favorite novelists, BTW, but you can tell they were paid by the word) . ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992/31 "2003-02-07T17:56:01Z")
Has anyone seen any high school texbooks recently? They make USA Today look like a phone book - all these photos, graphics, clip art. It’s as though the publisher knows that reading is a tedious chore, so, hey! let give 'em plenty of purty pikturs… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-read-the-damn-book/152992.md?page=1)