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The Girl on the Train

Cunning Linguist said:
I honestly don't remember all that well how I felt. It's been a year and a half.

My favorite book in the last few years is Descent. A great page turner that is actually very, very well written. The first 75-100 pages are a little burdensome but the last 275 or so are phenomenal IMO.
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Just bought Descent based off your reference. Last time I bought a book based off a jazzfanzers reference i bought John Dies At The End because cy recommended it. Turned out to be a really good read and the sequel was even better.
 
fishonjazz said:
Just bought Descent based off your reference. Last time I bought a book based off a jazzfanzers reference i bought John Dies At The End because cy recommended it. Turned out to be a really good read and the sequel was even better.
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Again, I gotta warn you. The first 75-100 pages are a little burdensome at times. Some of the writing is, well, quite different in style. But once it gets going, it's wonderful. Very poetic despite the content.
 
Cunning Linguist said:
Again, I gotta warn you. The first 75-100 pages are a little burdensome at times. Some of the writing is, well, quite different in style. But once it gets going, it's wonderful. Very poetic despite the content.
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I'm ordering this book right now, I'm intrigue and #hungry.
 
Cunning Linguist said:
The book also has one of my favorite characters ever, in book or film.
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It's so disappointing that at schools we only got to read boring books and I never really got into reading because of that.



Why do they always prescribe boring **** instead of fun/exciting murder mysteries?!?!?!
 
ONE LOVE said:
It's so disappointing that at schools we only got to read boring books and I never really got into reading because of that.



Why do they always prescribe boring **** instead of fun/exciting murder mysteries?!?!?!
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Most murder mysteries are completely void of any real substance. They'd be fine for independent reading because, IMO, reading is reading, and the more kids do, the better. Especially in my district where my 9th graders are reading at about a 4.5 grade reading level on average. But Descent is so wonderful and has some great themes and depth to it.
 
Cunning Linguist said:
Most murder mysteries are completely void of any real substance. They'd be fine for independent reading because, IMO, reading is reading, and the more kids do, the better. Especially in my district where my 9th graders are reading at about a 4.5 grade reading level on average. But Descent is so wonderful and has some great themes and depth to it.
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Yeah but if you give them something with too much 'substance' like Of Mice and Men, and Huckleberry Finn, and kids are put off reading for the rest of their lives, do you want that?
 
ONE LOVE said:
Yeah but if you give them something with too much 'substance' like Of Mice and Men, and Huckleberry Finn, and kids are put off reading for the rest of their lives, do you want that?
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Of Mice and Men is a great book you **** head.
 
I didn't like 1 book I was forced to read as a kid. All of them were boring, set 50-60 years in the past, I couldn't relate to them at all.



I would feel sorry for kids these days being forced to read something like Huckleberry Finn.
 
ONE LOVE said:
I didn't like 1 book I was forced to read as a kid. All of them were boring, set 50-60 years in the past, I couldn't relate to them at all.



I would feel sorry for kids these days being forced to read something like Huckleberry Finn.
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I absolutely LOVED reading books like Huckleberry Finn in school.
Maybe you just lack(ed) imagination/adventure?
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
The Scarlet Letter is the absolutely worst book though.

Sent from my A0001 using JazzFanz mobile app
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Dude. I hate that book so bad. Tried hard to read it and made it about 50 pages and just couldn't. Its extremely rare that i start a book and dont finish it. It has to suck really really bad for that to happen.
 
ONE LOVE said:
Yeah but if you give them something with too much 'substance' like Of Mice and Men, and Huckleberry Finn, and kids are put off reading for the rest of their lives, do you want that?
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I teach urban kids and they truthfully love Of Mice and Men. Had one girl crying two years ago. Had another kid who's really bad into gangs and in our accelerated program now (he's too old for his grade) participating like crazy every day.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Disagree. Its short and easy read. It's one of the only books I liked that we had to read in HS.

Sent from my A0001 using JazzFanz mobile app
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This isn't a commentary on you as much as it is the difficulty of most high school English texts but I think you and most kids like Of Mice and Men because it's not only short but a very easy read. Steinbeck's style is very simple and there's virtually no challenging vocabulary in it. Compare that to anything by Shakespeare or Hawthorne or many other common high school texts and it for the most part stands apart. Honestly, it's really 4th-6th grade level in difficulty but the substance of it, and the fact that it's a book I suppose, and perhaps most of all, because it's so engrained in high school curriculums, is why it's still read there.
 
Cunning Linguist said:
This isn't a commentary on you as much as it is the difficulty of most high school English texts but I think you and most kids like Of Mice and Men because it's not only short but a very easy read. Steinbeck's style is very simple and there's virtually no challenging vocabulary in it. Compare that to anything by Shakespeare or Hawthorne or many other common high school texts and it for the most part stands apart. Honestly, it's really 4th-6th grade level in difficulty but the substance of it, and the fact that it's a book I suppose, and perhaps most of all, because it's so engrained in high school curriculums, is why it's still read there.
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And its really good. Everyone loves it.

Sent from my A0001 using JazzFanz mobile app
 
Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to teach it after Xmas break (we're doing Lord of the Flies in November and December) because it's easy and the kids love it.
 
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