- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- " So, I just explained to her how Bill gives me special books to read outside of class and how To Kill a Mockingbird was the first one. And how it was special to me."
- " I have finished To Kill a Mockingbird. It is now my favorite book of all time, but then again, I always think that until I read another book. My advanced english teacher asked me to call him “Bill” when we’re not in class, and he gave me another book to read. He says that I have a great skill at reading and understanding language, and he wanted me to write an essay about To Kill a Mockingbird."
- " I don’t have a lot of time because my advanced english teacher assigned us a book to read, and I like to read books twice. Incidentally, the book is To Kill a Mockingbird. If you haven’t read it, I think you should because it is very interesting. The teacher has assigned us a few chapters at a time, but I do not like to read books like that. I am halfway through the first time."
- This Side of Paradise, Scott Fitzgerald
- “How about your favorite book?” / “This Side of Paradise by from Scott Fitzgerald.” / “Why?” / “Because it was the last one I read.”
- "I couldn’t remember where I heard it or read it. I said maybe it was in This Side of Paradise by Scott Fitzgerald. There’s a place near the end of the book where the main kid is picked up by some older gentleman. They are both going to an Ivy League homecoming football game, and they have this debate. The older gentleman is established. The kid is “jaded.” Anyway, they have this discussion, and the kid is an idealist in a temporary way. He talks about his “restless generation” and things like that. And he says something like, “This is not a time for heroes because nobody will let that happen.” The book takes place in the 1920’s, which I thought was great because I supposed the same kind of conversation could happen in the Big Boy. It probably already did with our parents and grandparents. It was probably happening with us right now."
- The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald
- "In the last month or so, I have read The Great Gatsby and A Separate Peace. I am starting to see a real trend in the kind of books Bill gives me to read. And just like the tape of songs, it is amazing to hold each of them in the palm of my hand. They are all my favorites. All of them."
- A Separate Peace, John Knowles
- "I gave Patrick On the Road, Naked Lunch, The Stranger, This Side of Paradise, Peter Pan, and A Separate Peace. I gave Sam To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, Walden, and The Fountainhead."
- Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie
- "Incidentally, the book Bill gave me was Peter Pan by Just. More. Barrie. I know what you’re thinking. The cartoon Peter Pan with the lost boys. The actual book is so much better than that. It’s just about this boy who refuses to grow up, and when Wendy grows up, he feels very betrayed. At least that’s what I got out of it. I think Bill gave me the book to teach me a lesson of some kind. The good news is that I read the book, and because of its fantasy nature, I could not pretend that I was in the book. That way I could participate and still read."
- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
- "Bill gave me one book to read over the break. It’s The Catcher in the Rye. It was Bill’s favorite book when he was my age. He said it was the kind of book you made your own. I read the first twenty pages. I don’t know how I feel about it just yet, but it does seem appropriate to this time."
- "My family gave me some really nice birthday presents. My sister was still mad at me, but she got me a Smiths record anyway. And my brother got me a poster signed by the whole football team. My dad gave me some records that my sister told him to buy. And my mom gave me some of the books she loved when she was a kid. One of them was The Catcher in the Rye."
- "The day after I wrote to you, I finished The Catcher in the Rye. I have read it three times since. I really didn’t know what else to do."
- "Things have stopped moving for the most part ever since. I haven’t skipped another class. And I guess now I don’t feel like a big faker for trying to put my life back together. Bill thought my paper on The Catcher in the Rye (which I wrote on my new old typewriter!) was my best one yet. He said I was “developing” at a rapid pace and gave me a different kind of book as “a reward.” It’s On the Road by Jack Kerouac."
- On the Road, Jack Kerouac
- "On the Road was a very good book. Bill didn’t ask me to write a paper about it because, like I said, it was 'a reward.'"
- Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs
- "Then, he gave me my next book to read. It’s called Naked Lunch. I started reading it when I got home, and to tell you the truth, I don’t know what the guy is talking about. I would never tell Bill this. Sam told me that William So. Burroughs wrote the book when he was on heroin and that I should “go with the flow.” So, I did. I still had no idea what he was talking about, so I went downstairs to watch television with my sister."
- "...so I went up and finished Naked Lunch. After I finished, I just laid around in my bed, looking at the ceiling, and I smiled because it was a nice kind of quiet."
- "The essay I wrote was very similar to the past few essays I wrote because everything Bill tells me to read or see are similar. Except the time he had me read Naked Lunch. Incidentally, he told me he had given me that book because he had just broken up with his girlfr and was feeling philosophical."
- Walden, Henry David Thoreau
- "That’s when I started reading the book Bill gave me. It’s Walden by Henry David Thoreau, which is my brother’s girlfr’s favorite book, so I was very excited to read it."
- "I wrote a paper about Walden for Bill, but this time I did it differently. I didn’t write a book report. I wrote a report pretending that I was by myself near a lake for two years. I pretended that I lived off the land and had insights. To tell you the truth, I kind of like the idea of doing that right now."
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare
- "Bill gave me Hamlet to read for the break. He said I would need the free time to really concentrate on the play. I guess I don’t need to say who wrote it. The only advice Bill gave me was to think about the main character in terms of the other main characters in the books I’ve read thus far. He said not to get caught up thinking the play was 'too fancy.'"
- "I have spent the whole vacation reading Hamlet. Bill was right. It was much easier to think of the kid in the play like the other characters I’ve read about so far. It has also helped me while I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with me. It didn’t give me any answers necessarily, but it was helpful to know that someone else has been through it. Especially someone who lived such a long time ago."
- The Stranger, Albert Camus
- "I went up to my room and started reading the new book Bill gave me. It’s called The Stranger. Bill said that it’s “very easy to read, but very hard to `read well.’” I have no idea what he means, but I like the book so far."
- The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
- "So, in school Bill gave me my final book to read for the year. It’s called The Fountainhead, and it’s very long. When he gave me the book, Bill said, “Be skeptical about this one. It’s a great book. But try to be a filter, not a sponge.” Sometimes, I think Bill forgets that I am sixteen. But I am very happy that he does."
- "I’ve been reading The Fountainhead for the past few days, and it’s an excellent book. I read on the back cover that the author was born in Russia and came to America when she was young. She barely spoke English, but she wanted to be a great writer. I thought that was very admirable, so I sat down and tried to write a story."
- "The Fountainhead is a very good book. I hope I am being a filter."
- "Incidentally, I finished The Fountainhead. It was a really great experience. It’s strange to describe reading a book as a really great experience, but that’s kind of how it felt. It was a different book from the others because it wasn’t about being a kid. And it wasn’t like The Stranger or Naked Lunch even though I think it was philosophical in a way. But it wasn’t like you had to really search for the philosophy. It was pretty straightforward, I thought, and the great part is that I took what the author wrote about and put it in terms of my own life. Maybe that’s what being a filter means. I’m not sure."
- "There was this one part where the main character, who is this architect, is sitting on a boat with his best friend, who is a newspaper tycoon. And the newspaper tycoon says that the architect is a very cold man. The architect replies that if the boat were sinking, and there was only room in the lifeboat for one person, he would gladly give up his life for the newspaper tycoon. And then he says something like this 'I would die for you. But I won’t live for you.' Something like that. I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and then make the choice to share it with other people. Maybe that is what makes people “participate.” I’m not really certain."
dec 1 2017 ∞
dec 1 2017 +