Yeah, but did it turn you into an architect?
I’m fairly certain that erislover did read the book w/in the book and expressed disbelief that I a) didn’t read it and 2) didn’t read it because I couldn’t.
But then he’s weird like that 
Heck yeah, the BiB was one of the best parts of 1984 to me. Well, that and the very first page… (because you know: soon I will get to read the book! 
). It puts the whole thing in context. Without the BiB I can’t see how 1984 even rates on anyone’s list of things to read. I tell you, considering Winston versus Julia, you can totally get a feeling for people on that book. 'Cause, you know, Julia couldn’t stand it, either. 
Hated The Royal Tennenbaums.
What was Gene Hackman thinking?
I loved this movie.
I’m curious, what didn’t you like about it?
I was forced to read all these in high school and college, and others I’ve since forgotten.
I hated:
Dante’s Inferno (who cares?)
Heart of Darkness (kill me now)
Beowulf (I am not bilingual)
Ulysses (hu?)
I enjoyed:
Crime and Punishment
Huckleberry Finn
I loved:
An American Slave
1984
Catcher in the Rye
Since I have not seen either of these mentioned:
In the movie category: Saving Private Ryan, After the landing it turns into your typical Hanksian crap of overemoted dreck.
And for books: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, what could have possible been the deal with that?
I have to rethink that movie now. I think I’ll still like it. However, with your permission brownie55, I’d like to use the phrase “typical Hanksian crap of overemoted dreck” as often as possible. 
I loved Wrinkle when I was 13 and I still re-read it every so often. It is a little weaker than her subsequent books in the same series, though.
I pretty well liked all the books I had to read and have read many classics on my own time. However, I will say that I didn’t really like The Time Machine. My step-dad’s told me to read **Great Expectations ** when I was about 13. I got through about 20 pages and haven’t picked it up since. I never really liked reading plays, I’d much rather see them performed.
I had to watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in my college film class. I despise that movie more strongly than anything else I’ve ever watched. I’ll never forgive myself for actually watching the whole thing because I felt obligated to. :mad:
I had to read Lord of the Flies in high school (twice if memory serves). Ugh. I can see how it would be part of a high school English class curriculum; the teacher basically just has to assign the reading and then point at a copy of the book and say, “Look! Themes and symbolism!”. I can see how it’s a useful teaching tool that way. Too bad the book isn’t very thought-provoking. Yeah, yeah, thin veneer of civilization; whatever. The only reason I’m glad I read it is that once during meandering yet high-energy discussion, somebody cited this book; I simply scoffed and said, “I disagree with Lord of the Flies!” and continued making my point without missing a beat. It was a great moment.
I’ve watched several Kubrick films, each time hoping to be blown away. Dr. Strangelove is pretty good, but The Shining, 2001, Full Metal Jacket, and A Clockwork Orange were just plain boring. I do have high hopes for Lolita, though, based on exerpts I’ve seen as part of Film History class.
You could always try the other version. I actually quite enjoyed Harrison Ford’s cheesy Sam Spade voice-overs explaining the plot… without them, I have no idea what I’d have made of the movie. I like watching the directors’ cut now because, y’know, everybody else does and I already dig most of the point. But a cheesy voice-over or two never hurt anybody, and they’re nowhere near as badly done as many will have you believe.
I think I just used the word “dig”. :eek:
It’s long and parts of it are a bit slow, but the final, three-way shootout is one of the best scenes ever made. Starting with a wide shot and cycling through closer and closer shots, even giving each character a different type of holster so you can tell who’s who when the camera shows a hand hovering over a pistol. I need to see this again, but with a stopwatch. I lose track of time during that sequence and I don’t know if it’s 30 seconds or three minutes.
And the music kicks ass.
I don’t think you realize what a wonderful, kind, compassionate woman your English teacher was. Good grief - what I wouldn’t give for someone to have told me to put “Atlas Shrugged” back on the library shelf instead of actually wading all the way through that…that…gah, there are no words. mumbles There’s a bloody 40-page monologue on the evils of socialism, for Christ’s sake. Fourty…horrible…pages.
And I did it all voluntarily. That’s why I am the way I am today.
Yeah, I think that’s kind of how you’re supposed to feel after reading it.
Personally, I hated reading Antigone in high school. In fact, I loathed the entire Oedipus Cycle. I saw a production of Antigone at American U. a couple months ago, though, and it was really quite something.
I did. I want an hour of my life back.
**One Hundred Years of Solitude ** are what I’d rather endure than attempt to read that pile of crap again. Ditto Steppenwolf.
Furthermore, I would like to add to the hatred for Henry James and Charles Dickens. If a sentence is more than, say, a page long, fuhgeddaboutit.
Ah, yes, Thomas Hardy. Hated 'im. There was a joke to the effect that he would spend the morning putting in a comma and the afternoon taking it back out.
I always thought William Burroughs’ *Naked Lunch * was vastly overrated. It’s like wading through a particularly nasty gutter: shallow and somewhat disgusting. (Yes, I know it’s supposed to be funny. It isn’t.)
Yeah, I got subjected to that one freshman year of college. “Countless Hours of Boredom” was my take on the title. Though I must confess, I always like the other play on the title I heard: “One Hundred Inches of Solid Tool.” The clever work of some anonymous wag.
And LP’s dead on about Naked Lunch. I couldn’t get through it. I think I made it to the part where he mentions “Steely Dan” and then gave up.
matt_mcl, I stand by my previous slur. Wrinkle is an atrociously written book. Everything in the book “seemed”: the wall seemed to disappear, the sky seemed this, the weird creature seemed that. Damn, woman, buy a thesaurus. And, even though the family was explicitly stated as American, she kept having them use Britishisms like “old chap” in the dialogue. That’s horrendous characterization. Worst book I’ve read in a long time.