A little help?

[luco]

I have a question for you guys.

As most of you know, I never finished High School. I got to the middle of Grade 10 and then everything else became too overwhelming. And, even though I've gone to College, an Animation course is NOT your typical College experience.

Add that all to the fact that I've been lost in my own world for most of my life and well, I'm more then a little out of touch. It hadn't bothered me before, but lately, it has. There are books and plays and writers and musicians that I don't recognize. There are historical facts and events that are common to everyone else that I have no clue about. There are shows and myths and trends that escape me and don't even get me started in maths and sciences!

I've recently been wanting to basically teach myself all that I missed out on, but I don't even know where to begin! So, that's where you guys come in. Because all of you are intelligent, talented and thoughtful people. All of you have such strong opinions and you can't even begin to know how much I admire you for that. How young and childish I often feel...

So, I was wondering if you guys could help give me a direction. Can you name books you think should be read, or were asked to read. Plays and poetry, writers, history, myths, sciences, just ANYTHING! What were you guys taught? What would you consider common knowledge? And not just school-wise, but world-wise as well! I don't even know how to properly describe what I'm asking, but hopefully you guys can figure it out. I just need a good starting place. A list of something to work from because I'm tired of my own little world, but am not quite sure how to step outside.

And even if you're still in High School, please don't hesitate to add your own input. I wasn't able to be where you are now.

Thanks.

Comments

[devlinnreiko.livejournal.com]

Well, going to a Ontario highschool, maybe I can help in relating to what might have been similar. I'll list all of what I remember reading.

Shakespeare

The Twelfth Night
MacBeth
Othello
King Lear
The Merchant of Venice
Hamlet

The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird
Not Wanted on the Voyage - Timothy Findley
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
The Chrysalids ( I rather enjoyed this one)
Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Heart of Darkness (as difficult as it may be I really liked it)
Lives of the Saints
Emma
Jane Austen stuff of course
Animal Farm
Fahrenheit 451
Wuthering Heights
Wrath of the Grapes
Jane Eyre

For poetry:

The Highwayman (personal favourite)
The Interlopers
Lamb to the Slaughter
Shakespeare's sonnets



Also I would recommend Greek mythology and my favourite authors that I was starting to read in high school were Piers Anthony (his Incarnation of Immortality series was what I read in the library throughout grade 11), also Agatha Christie.

If I remember anything else I'll post. I hope that helps with the basis of the English front of high school.

[dragonsong12.livejournal.com]

"Wrath of the Grapes"
Is that the sequel to The Grapes of Wrath?

Kidding! Kidding! Don't hit! :D

To Luco, I add a +1 to what everyone has said about Shakespeare, but if you haven't read a lot of it, make sure you get a copy with a Modern English translation as well, because Middle English is tough to slog through if you're not prepared.
I'll also throw a vote in for Candide because it's amusing in addition to being a classic, which is the best of all possible worlds.(see what I did there?

I'll also add a comic to the fray, since I LOVE sequential art, I do. You should read Maus, because it is an amazing story about the holocaust, even if it is cripplingly depressing. Seriously, read it, but during the day, and with a box of tissues.

[devlinnreiko.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha! Niceeee. I'm going to go with I was still on my first cup of coffee at that time. I seriously have no idea what I was thinking at that moment...maybe I was hungry. LOL.

But, yeah The Grapes of Wrath is what I meant....kinda wishing now there was a book titled that. LOL.

And I will agree with getting a translation copy.

[dragonsong12.livejournal.com]

Now I can't help but wonder what Wrath of the Grapes would be like...
...it seems like it would be like one of those cheap direct-to-DVD Cheapquels, where they take something time-honored and awesome and totally wreck it up. Like...Giant grape monsters menacing poor folks during the great depression, and the hero has to find food for his family while fighting off the fruity horde...

...or maybe I'm just hungry too. haha!

[ouri.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a spin-off movie from "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes."

[karitwilight.livejournal.com]

The Highwayman is a personal favorite? O_O I LOVE YOU!!! Most people don't even know it exists!

[devlinnreiko.livejournal.com]

*gasp* This is awesome!!!! Another person!

I remember the first time I read it was in grade 7. It's had me since then. And I did like cartwheels in grade 10 when the teacher used it for our ballad class.

Have you ever heard Loreena McKennitt sing it? If not I would totally check it out.

[karitwilight.livejournal.com]

She was how I found out. She left out what is it? Three verses? For time which sucks because the one about Tim is kinda vital to the story. The second one about the gun is a bit redundant and so is the final verse if you're stretched for time but in the song it seems like the redcoats popped up with no Intel whatsoever.