Originally Posted by arathbon

21.25/100

I'm not well read apparently. I feel kinda gyped at the fact that many of my favourite novels are not listed. I'm also more of a nonfiction guy. My favourite book series has probably been Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples.

You read war and peace in middle school? The entire thing? That's doubtful, and stupid because I doubt anybody understood it at such an age.

Originally Posted by andrewjdg

You read war and peace in middle school? The entire thing? That's doubtful, and stupid because I doubt anybody understood it at such an age.

I agree it was stupid. To be honest I don't remember most of what happened in it anymore. I do remember some very weird details though, about stuff like how they wrote with chalk on the back of cards or something like that. But there were a few reasons I did read it:

1) To prove to people who didn't believe me that I read at a much high level than most other eighth grade students.
2) Because I thought it would be interesting.
3) We had to read a certain number of "classics" each year in the gifted class as part of our "Reading Log" and book report program. I managed to get the teacher to agree if I read War and Peace that I wouldn't have to read any other classics that year. That made me very happy as it meant that I spend the rest of the year reading Tom Clancy novels. Of course reading War and Peace took much of the year, and by the end I decided the next time the first 100 pages of a book didn't truly interest me I wouldn't keep going.

Originally Posted by arathbon

I agree it was stupid. To be honest I don't remember most of what happened in it anymore. I do remember some very weird details though, about stuff like how they wrote with chalk on the back of cards or something like that. But there were a few reasons I did read it:

1) To prove to people who didn't believe me that I read at a much high level than most other eighth grade students.
2) Because I thought it would be interesting.
3) We had to read a certain number of "classics" each year in the gifted class as part of our "Reading Log" and book report program. I managed to get the teacher to agree if I read War and Peace that I wouldn't have to read any other classics that year. That made me very happy as it meant that I spend the rest of the year reading Tom Clancy novels. Of course reading War and Peace took much of the year, and by the end I decided the next time the first 100 pages of a book didn't truly interest me I wouldn't keep going.

Wow, even my highschool English teacher said she couldn't get through War & Peace, she said it was pretentiously long and needlessly complex. Not really sure how to respond to the idea that you read it in 8th grade, but damn, you're like a literary masochist or something.

Originally Posted by arathbon

I agree it was stupid. To be honest I don't remember most of what happened in it anymore. I do remember some very weird details though, about stuff like how they wrote with chalk on the back of cards or something like that. But there were a few reasons I did read it:

1) To prove to people who didn't believe me that I read at a much high level than most other eighth grade students.
2) Because I thought it would be interesting.
3) We had to read a certain number of "classics" each year in the gifted class as part of our "Reading Log" and book report program. I managed to get the teacher to agree if I read War and Peace that I wouldn't have to read any other classics that year. That made me very happy as it meant that I spend the rest of the year reading Tom Clancy novels. Of course reading War and Peace took much of the year, and by the end I decided the next time the first 100 pages of a book didn't truly interest me I wouldn't keep going.

Alright, fair enough, I was getting the vibe that a middle school teacher assigned that book to be read.

I'm surprised none of Ken Follet's books are on there, I thought The Pillars of the Earth or World Without End would make the list for sure. Definitely one of my favourite authors.

Awesome suggestions! I've only read 1 novel the entire break.. I'm hoping to actually get through more of these books soon, especially with school starting soon :(

Just wondering, are there any book clubs or something similar at Mac? I don't think I've ever heard of any.