What's A book you had to read in school you couldn't make it through and a book you'd read again?

[soulbabe]

For me I couldn't get through Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

And the Great Gatsby

I couldn't do it I tried and failed I tried reading it I tried listening to it I even tried watching the movie I just couldn't do it I'm simply not sophisticated enough for that.

However I did Love

The runaway children by Sandy Taylor

[abc3643]

When I was in I believe my senior year of high school, I painfully had to take two one-semester English electives.

One was science fiction related and I liked that OK...

But, a painful one was "The Novel" and one of the books we had to read was "Fathers and Sons", the 1862 Russian novel by Ivan Turgenev. I just didn't bother. I really did not like that class and it was a vast waste of my time when I could have taken an AP science or math class, Earth Science, or a social studies elective like "You and the Law", "Psychology", or "Sociology". (Back in 1980-81, New York State only required 3 years of social studies while it required 4 years of English.)

On the upside, I believe in my junior year, I had to read the 1915 book of connected poems "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters.

This is the copy that I have:

You can see a better image here, but the picture is too big to show, so this is the parsed URL:

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ps://vintagebook
seller. myshopify. com/cdn/shop/products/
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It's fascinating because each poem is an epitaph as if written by a dead person in one cemetery. Many of the poems are connected - for instance, spouses - but also some are bittersweet. They are all short one-page poems.

I actually live about 3 hours south of the cemetery of the book and want to visit.

This article from the National Endowment for the Humanities explains it both the book and its impact rather well.

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/novemberdecember/statement/how-the-once-banned-spoon-river-anthology-made-comeback-i

When Spoon River Anthology was published in 1915, Edgar Lee Masters shattered the myth of small-town America as the bastion of American virtue. In his thinly veiled fictional town of Spoon River, situated in central Illinois near Lewistown, where Masters grew up, the honest, hardworking, chaste, and churchgoing live amidst corrupt bankers, abusive husbands, unfulfilled wives, sexual deviants, and failed dreamers.

Anyway, once I got out of high school, but was in college, I bought a mass paperback copy of the book. I believe it was the first work of fiction that I ever paid for, but I could be wrong about that since I also began to buy Isaac Asimov books, but I never was required to read them in high school. (I "inherited" a copy of The Foundation Trilogy" by Asimov and that was the first work of fiction that I was not required to read. By "inherited", I believe I was a junior, maybe a sophomore in high school, and the book was left under the seat of a student desk, likely a kid one or two periods before mine. So, I guess this was a case of "finders keepers, losers weepers".

This is the copy I have:

Since "Spoon River Anthology" is so old, the copyright has expired and it is in the public domain, thus you can read it online for free.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1280

[abc3643]

I want to give an example of two adjacent poems from "Spoon River Anthology".

=======
Elsa Wertman

I was a peasant girl from Germany,
Blue-eyed, rosy, happy and strong.
And the first place I worked was at Thomas Greene’s.
On a summer’s day when she was away
He stole into the kitchen and took me
Right in his arms and kissed me on my throat,
I turning my head. Then neither of us
Seemed to know what happened.
And I cried for what would become of me.
And cried and cried as my secret began to show.
One day Mrs. Greene said she understood,
And would make no trouble for me,
And, being childless, would adopt it.
(He had given her a farm to be still.)
So she hid in the house and sent out rumors,
As if it were going to happen to her.
And all went well and the child was born—
They were so kind to me.
Later I married Gus Wertman, and years passed.
But—at political rallies when sitters-by thought I was crying
At the eloquence of Hamilton Greene—
That was not it. No! I wanted to say:
That’s my son!
That’s my son.

Hamilton Greene

I was the only child of Frances Harris of Virginia
And Thomas Greene of Kentucky,
Of valiant and honorable blood both.
To them I owe all that I became,
Judge, member of Congress, leader in the State.
From my mother I inherited
Vivacity, fancy, language;
From my father will, judgment, logic.
All honor to them
For what service I was to the people!

=======
So, we have a young woman who, in her self-written story, was raped and becomes pregnant. She secretly gives up her baby who becomes prominent and well-respected in the community. In his self-written story, he thanks his parents who he believes are his birth parents. He never knew who his real mother was and you can read the despair in her story as she forces herself to keep quiet about the truth.

[abc3643]

There are many such interconnected stories within this book. While it is a book of poems, it is more like a novel.

[stepyo99]

The book I couldn't finish and absolutely hated was "Silas Marner". What an awful boring story. "The Great Gatsby" I finished but didn't enjoy either.

"Beowulf" I had read an abridged, illustrated version as a kid before I ever read it for school and I loved it. "Lord of the Flies" was also great. I reread that one several times. The poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is so eerie, mystical, and wonderful.

[soulbabe]

Not going to lie I do love to read I do tend to lead more towards romantic fantasy but I do like other stories that don't have love in it at all but I personally think my uncle must have had higher expectations for me because for my birthday he got me a book of all of Edgar Allan Poe's work along with this massive other book like thicker than a dictionary
He presented me with these with such pride and I'm just thinking to myself what kind of literary scholar does this man think I am Just because I don't like Twilight doesn't mean I am not a useless teenager the amount of family members I let down because I wanted to be a homesteader and not like a doctor The amount of souls I must have crushed

[soulbabe]

I've heard of Lord of the flies But I haven't had to read it yet And I also have Beowulf in the picture format

[stepyo99]

I can get that. I was gifted the Count of Monte Cristo years ago and I still haven't gotten around to reading it because it's absolutely massive - like 1500 pages.
Lord of the Flies is kind of a tough read - pretty cynical - but the author pulls me into the world of those boys shipwrecked on the island so it was overall enjoyable.

I haven't read really any romantic fantasy. Probably the closest would be Louis L'Amour's "The Walking Drum" which I loved but that's more historical fiction with romance subplots.

[soulbabe]

Yah everyone likes to read different things I typically like books that have demons, aliens, shapshifters, mutants , but I do like some historical fiction like again the run away children

Which has some of my favorite things because there is like a love interest in it but it doesn't show up a lot and they kill off a vile character that reminds me of my cousin who tried to rape the little girl in the story.

I know in school we had to read a short story called The necklace by guy de maupassant and the teacher asked what we thought of the main character and her actions.

Everyone in class said they felt bad for her that she had nothing so on so forth

When the teacher got to me I said she got what she deserved because she was pety selfish and tried to live outside her means while treating her husband like shit.

I felt bad only for her husband who had his life dragged through hell for a materialistic snob without so much as a thanks he did everything he could to bring her happiness working himself to the bone and all she can do is complain about what she doesn't have so to some up she is a gold digger and he's a love sick fool who lost a expensive necklace because she can't be content in life.

This was a very unpopular opinion in my class amongst the other girls

[stepyo99]

lmao, I bet that was an unpopular opinion. I actually had to read that story in school too but had forgotten about it until you reminded me of it. Reading a summary I think you've got it completely right. They also wasted a good chunk of their lives and happiness trying to "keep up with the Jones's" but in the end the aristocracy they were trying to emulate were faking it as well.

I don't think I could read "The Runaway Children" those kinds of books are too heavy for me. I remember reading "The Kite Runner" which had a similar event happen in it and it angered me so much I couldn't finish it.

[soulbabe]

From what I remember her friend actually was well off and let her barrow what the girl thought was a diamond necklace but in reality it was fake because her friend didn't trust her with the real thing but when she goes to the gala she lost the necklace and her and her husband were trying to figure out how to pay for it.

Yah for some reason the fact that I called her irresponsible greedy inconsiderate etc really set off a lot of kids in that class the teacher just said it was a interesting view on it but I feel like it's the only way someone could see that story

The runaway children didn't really go into detail or anything about the guy trying to rape her the sister kinda wacked him with a shovel before he got the chance and the 2 girls runaway after that trying to find their mother 2 brothers and their dad who was reported dead in the war the end up at some womans house who trys to use the sister as a replacement for her daughter they escaped her and ended up spending the winter with a old man in the country on their journey home he was a kind man who offered to let them stay but the girls were determined to make it home once they made it back to their home town and their old flat they found that it had been bombed and believed the rest of their family had died during the air raid so they left with a widowed woman and the older girl started working as kinda like waitress kinda until she is 18 and the war ended but they found their family at the end they were all still alive and looking for them.

But traumatic or graphic books don't really bother me be because my entire life is trauma so I don't feel triggered by it

[stepyo99]

I'm sorry you've had to deal with a lot of trauma.
Maybe it's something I could read then. Although I generally prefer to read lighter stuff so I'm not sure if I will.

[soulbabe]

Lol you don't have to read it I just enjoyed it I actually have a audio version of it because I love listening to the little voices don't know why just do

[stepyo99]

That's cool that they got people to do the voices for the audiobook. Stuff like that helps with the immersion usually. I've been following this guy "exploring series" on youtube who usually reads SCP short stories or Warhammer 40k but kinda recently he's also been making Lovecraft audiobooks which are great.

[soulbabe]

Oh that's cool I tend to listen to audiobooks a lot because it helps with my anxiety a lot.
I'm actually going to publish a short story soon and a been talking to narrators to have a audible version partly just because I think it would be interesting to hear my story read

[stepyo99]

That's really cool. Is that going to be your first story you published?

[soulbabe]

Yep it's just a test run so I can learn everything I need to know without as big a risk since the main story I'm doing is like 69,000 words I want all my fuck ups to be on a small scale

[stepyo99]

Haha, good idea to do a test run. Hopefully it goes smoothly for you.

[soulbabe]

Yah not going lie it's a lot of checking editing checking again editing checking again editing then sending it to different people who didn't Jobs kinda a pain honestly

[stepyo99]

I'm sure. All those little details are always a pain to deal with, but usually the work and time you put into it is worth it once you're done.

[soulbabe]

Yah there's the writing the formatting the editing the proof reading then editing then proof reading again then editing again getting the artwork done for the cover and even when it's all done you still have to get it published get a isbn and just bluh so complicated

[stepyo99]

Wow, when you first said publishing I thought you were talking about self-publishing an ebook on amazon or something, but it sounds like you're basically doing it professionally. Or is self-publishing still that involved? I have no experience at all with that stuff.

[soulbabe]

Oh no I'm self publishing actually publishing is a lot harder along with getting everything perfect like the spelling the grammar the formatting. You have to send it to a bunch of different agencies and what's called a slurry and hope to God one of them notices and likes it If you get an offer from an agent and you then have to send a letter to everyone you sent the book to and inform them that you've had an offer so they're not wasting their time If you don't you will be blacklisted from the other companies then once you've decided on an agent If you were lucky enough to be chosen. Agent then goes and talks to the publishers that he's in contact with And then the publisher will read it So once again you're hoping and praying that he likes it and makes a offer If a few publishers decide they like it then you get to choose which publisher you'll go with depending on the publisher you may lose the rights to your story forever but most the time you only lose the rights to your story for one or two years And then it's agreed upon how much profit you'll make off each sale of a book but again this is only if you're lucky enough to be chosen by an agency they have to go through thousands of books a day So anything that doesn't match the genre that they work with or have perfect grammar and formatting is immediately tossed out And then they hope to find a few good gyms in the clusterfuck that they have in front of them

[stepyo99]

Geez, what a headache. And on top of that you lose the rights to your work for a year or more. Self-publishing seems like the better route unless you're all ready famous and can have publishers competing for your book.

[soulbabe]

Well most the time they won't even look at it unless you have at least 3 finished works that has been published to something or and you also have to have a resume like thing for yourself and your book

[stepyo99]

I guess that makes sense from their perspective though since like you said they're getting thousands and thousands of submissions from people.

[exitseven]

I did not like Les Miserables. i Don't think I know how it ends. I have read The Sun Also Rises several times.

[Billlewis]

'A wrinkle in time'

[soulbabe]

You had to read that for school?

[Billlewis]

Yeah, and when we were really young, too -- it was like third grade or something. The book was way too complicated for me to even get an idea of what it was about -- and I was one of the top reading/grammar students in the entire state of Texas at the time.

[EaterPeter]

Many and I rather have them out of curriculum 😂