Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

@Muddy_Walker

My kids got really tired of me scoffing at the GCSEs,comparing them as weak  with our old GCEs.

I got distinctions in Lit,and it was my fave sub. I loved Shakespeare,and enjoyed the faceted portraits of characters,even the baddies had some redeming features - or at least great speeches! . We had a brilliant English teacher. She would do performances of important speeches etc,and even taught us versions of the songs in the plays. I still often sing ''Oh Mistress Mine,where are you roaming?''(Twelfth Night),''It was a lover and his lass'' (As you like it) and my all time favourite,''Come away,Death''. (again Twelfth Night)The melody was sad and beautiful but I have fruitlessly tried to find it online. Vaughan Williams,and various famous versions are there,but mine is not anywhere to be seen.

I am not much for many classic authors. Wont go near the Russians,(Brothers Karamazov,Anna Kareninaetc). Thomas Hardy makes me depressed (I remember throwing Tess of the D'Urbevilles against the wall after the last lines!) Cannot get into Middlemarch at all. 30 pages is my limit.Though I did like Silas Marner.

On the other hand I love Austen and Charlotte Bronte..

 I like some plays too,but mostly comedies.

And poertry,though for the most part I STILL like poems to rhyme. That wipes out the whole 20th century!

Katiehound

I can still quote little bits of A.L. English set books: especially Wuthering Heights & Antony & Cleopatra. Don't remember a single quote from Bleak House or the other Shakespeare play which I think was a Winter's Tale.
The syllabus must have also included some poetry- I'm thinking Elisabeth Barrett Browning & / or Robert Browning
Oh yes: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Prologue &-  Miller's Tale- 2 years of study: all gone.

I remember the book that we rejected out of hand was Erewhon by Samuel Butler- what a choice for 16 year olds! satire was way over our heads so we protested- the only other possibility was Bleak House-   however many pages! but at least it had a story, or many of them interwoven. I remember revising and waking up with Bleak house still open on the bed.

weenancyinAmerica

Never could understand why schools choose such strange books as required reading. If my French class would have let me read the Three Musketeers instead of Les Miserables, I might have enjoyed French class. I still think they should teach using Agatha Christie as required reading instead of Silas Marner. I always thought the goal was to get people to enjoy reading. Some people are so turned off by what they had to read in school, they never read a book again. As a former librarian and teacher, that is scary. 

Katiehound

weenancyinAmerica said:

Never could understand why schools choose such strange books as required reading. 

what I've mentioned above is what was required for Uni of London exam board- not actually the school!
Although I recall Silas Marner, Mayor of Casterbridge, Cranford, Jane Eyre and masses of Shakespeare (which I did not like!) at school.  Fortunately I read a lot out of school, and especially as a primary child.

I also remember with some loathing having to plough through Jason & the Golden Fleece & the Oddessy and enacting the pediment? of the Acropolis. Not a thrill for an 8 or 9 year old!!!

annieb64

We did Winters Tale for A level along with Othello. The books were Middlemarch, Emma and Great Gatsby. I think it was war poetry for the poetry.

One year the English teacher gave us a reading list for the holidays- two sides of a A4 sheet. I loved it , my parents didn't read but I was a bookworm so it good to have some suggestions of what to read.

dustydigger

Well,well,I seem to have hit a nerve,no one likes set books in English.! ,My school curriculum never touched a book from the 20th century,so naturally once I left school I basically ignored pre 20th century

 books entirely for decades.. I read masses of D H Lawrence,Evelyn Waugh, E M Forster,Joyce's ''Ulysses'',Somerset Maugham. But I never took to VirginiaWoolf,Joseph Conrad,and such drier,more cerebral authors. And unfortunately I could get up little enthusiasm for noted American authors. Edith Wharton,Henry James,Fitzgerald,Faulkner.not my cup of tea. In the last few years I have read a few american books,but only a few.

After been stuck in Africa under a brutal dictator with no book shops or libraries,when I returned to UK in the midst of a recession,with a sick mother and living on the dole I just headed for romance,crime and SF/Fantasy. After 12 years of no books I had 12 years of new crime fiction just waiting for me!. I would stagger home from the library with a dozen books a week. ,no computers or websites back then,I just read nonstop for comfort..I had lots of catching up to do!

Loved the flowering of urban fantasy,paranormal romance etc at the end of the 90s,then in 2012 discovered Worlds Without End,my fave SF site,and have been happily ploughing my way through their lists ever since. Sadly in crime fiction I have read less and less of modern crime,I dont like the style,the whole ambience,and have retreated to golden age crime,or 60s books. Back in the day Victoria Holt,Mary Stewart, Helen MacInnes,Alistair Maclean,Kay Hooper,Iris Johansen,Georgette Heyer,Nora Roberts among others produced a lot of enjoyable books,you could pick one up and at least be assured of a pleasant,enjoyable read.

This year I only read 14 crime/suspense books,and some of those were rereads.. And authors where I can binge read 5,10,15 titles? Forget it.

OK,end of rant. I would love to hear of your fave authors,comfort reads,experience with classic,and any plans for future reading.

For now I'm off to make Mr Dusty's sirloin steak,roasties and carrots.

No cooking tomorrow,and I have one piece of cooked steak to put away and use make a pie on Boxing Day.After that who knows?

I'll say goodnight,and if I cant manage to come here tomorrow may I wish all of you a lovely Xmas. Keep warm and safe!

One last point. Taking a break from Dhalgren till after Xmas.Up to 590/879 pages,going much better than I expected.

 I have already scored £30  worth of amazOn vouchers,so will be sneaking some time to look at any books I would like to buy,and will probably read fluff for the rest of the month.

And no classics!

Wicked_Lady

I remember my 1970 O' level texts as being Romeo and Juliet (I'm sure the Olivia Hussey film was newly out about this time) and I'm pretty sure we did Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory as well as 1984.

For A' level I think it was Troilus and Cressida (read in Old English); WW1 war poets such as Wilfred Owen, Sassoon, Rupert Brooke plus Under Milk Wood. 

Lately I've enjoyed all the Ken Follett novels plus most of Jeffery Archer's, although some of Archer's fall away towards the end. I read all sorts of novels, plus some sporting biographies, usually from our local library or free book swap places. Sci fi hasn't really interested me. DH enjoys the Lee Childs/ Jeffrey Deaver books but I think they both write to a formula and it annoys me.

annieb64

I can remember being taken to a performance of Winters Tale at one of the Cambridge colleges and being very disappointed that they left out the "exit pursued by a bear" bit. The school also took us up to London to see Othello.  There was quite a lot of controversy about the production as Desdemona was naked for the last scene. We were all very impressed as Othello was strangling her and the sheet stayed firmly around her waist.

Floss

I did Romeo & Juliet (loved it) for O level in 1980, with Great Expectations (hated it) & Thomas Hardy poetry (quite liked some of it). Funny how Shakespeare wrote so much, but only a handful are used for exam texts!

MrsCD

I remember wading through The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night at school, and not liking the way they were written, which put me off Shakespeare for life!
We read Animal Farm and Nicholas Nickleby, which I did enjoy, and we had a teacher who encouraged us to read whatever we wanted, just as long as we got into the habit of reading. Amongst others, I've read Jane Austen, Jeffrey Archer, Charles Dickens and lately Jody Taylor's books about St Mary's. They're such fun, pure escapism!