First of all, while you may admire people for having strong opinions or finishing school, I think it's just as admirable to want to continue your education on your own.
Secondly, I agree with other posters that "common knowledge" is subjective, especially once someone has graduated college. For example, I graduated with an English degree and promptly forgot nearly everything I ever learned about math or science. Also, due to my elementary school changing the math curriculum halfway through my years there, I never even learned how to do long division despite it being common knowledge. Someone who graduated college or grad school with a Physics degree probably doesn't remember much about reading a Tale of Two Cities.
I also agree with a previous poster that if you dislike a classic don't bother finishing it. One of the objectives of reading classics in High School was to develop critical reading and thinking skills, such as recognizing and learning how to utilize rhetoric; being able to figure out the symbolism in imagery; figuring out an author's message on a certain subject through their prose; and knowing how to decipher complex and/or plain ridiculous syntax. You can get that just as easily by reading books you actually like.
Here is a list of some popular and classic novels I enjoyed:
Dracula, Bram Stoker Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens Chronicles of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez Dante's Inferno The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde Macbeth, Othello, the Tempest, and Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, unknown author Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory (very difficult to get through, and not common knowledge) A bunch of Stephen King novels (his books' value as literature is debatable, but I consider him to be a skilled writer) The Great Gadsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami The Southern Vampire series, Charlaine Harris The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco The Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I prefer his short stories to the novels) Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card Beowulf The Lais of Marie de France, Marie de France Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury Little Women, Louisa May Alcott Wicked, Gregory Maguire Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden Ordinary People, Judith Guest
Novels and authors I did not enjoy:
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemmingway Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Wolf The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro Martin Eden, Jack London The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (the last thing someone with depression needed was to read a novel by and about a depressed person) Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (it really isn't necessary to spend two pages describing Jane putting clothes on and walking down the stairs) On the Road, Jack Kerouac Twilight has been read by a large number of women, but it is probably the worst example of English literature I have ever read.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 05:49 am (UTC)First of all, while you may admire people for having strong opinions or finishing school, I think it's just as admirable to want to continue your education on your own.
Secondly, I agree with other posters that "common knowledge" is subjective, especially once someone has graduated college. For example, I graduated with an English degree and promptly forgot nearly everything I ever learned about math or science. Also, due to my elementary school changing the math curriculum halfway through my years there, I never even learned how to do long division despite it being common knowledge. Someone who graduated college or grad school with a Physics degree probably doesn't remember much about reading a Tale of Two Cities.
I also agree with a previous poster that if you dislike a classic don't bother finishing it. One of the objectives of reading classics in High School was to develop critical reading and thinking skills, such as recognizing and learning how to utilize rhetoric; being able to figure out the symbolism in imagery; figuring out an author's message on a certain subject through their prose; and knowing how to decipher complex and/or plain ridiculous syntax. You can get that just as easily by reading books you actually like.
Here is a list of some popular and classic novels I enjoyed:
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Chronicles of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Dante's Inferno
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Macbeth, Othello, the Tempest, and Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, unknown author
Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory (very difficult to get through, and not common knowledge)
A bunch of Stephen King novels (his books' value as literature is debatable, but I consider him to be a skilled writer)
The Great Gadsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami
The Southern Vampire series, Charlaine Harris
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I prefer his short stories to the novels)
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Beowulf
The Lais of Marie de France, Marie de France
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Wicked, Gregory Maguire
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
Ordinary People, Judith Guest
Novels and authors I did not enjoy:
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemmingway
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Wolf
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
Martin Eden, Jack London
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (the last thing someone with depression needed was to read a novel by and about a depressed person)
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (it really isn't necessary to spend two pages describing Jane putting clothes on and walking down the stairs)
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Twilight has been read by a large number of women, but it is probably the worst example of English literature I have ever read.