Theme day - Required reading that shouldn't be required
I have three books in all, all of them were set books for O'level English (UK 1980's ish) I really don't want to start any controversy here but I hate these books with a fiery passion and have never read anything else that these authors have written.
1 - George Bernard Shaw 'The Devils Disciple'
I have no idea why I hated this so much, I suspect it was because I had to write A LOT OF VERY LONG ESSAYS on the story, twelve I think over the two year course.
2 - Wilfred Owen 'Dulce et Decorum Est'
I had to analyse every darn line of this, every darn line. There are only so many times you can read and re-read descriptions of mustard gas and world war one battlefields.
3 - The third one is a bit hazy, all I remember is that the book concentrates on a very gloomy man who is deeply in love, she dies of consumption, he gets even gloomier and the rest of the book concentrates on him being gloomy and pining, poetically for his dead love and that goes on for ever and ever and ever. (Think Mill on the Floss/Tess of the D'urbevilles gloomy)There was also something about turnstyles and lanterns and how it was an anology for time passing and how life and love is fleeting *sigh*
I had to write 12 essays on this thing.
When I finished my exams all three books went in the bin and I never read them again.
1 - George Bernard Shaw 'The Devils Disciple'
I have no idea why I hated this so much, I suspect it was because I had to write A LOT OF VERY LONG ESSAYS on the story, twelve I think over the two year course.
2 - Wilfred Owen 'Dulce et Decorum Est'
I had to analyse every darn line of this, every darn line. There are only so many times you can read and re-read descriptions of mustard gas and world war one battlefields.
3 - The third one is a bit hazy, all I remember is that the book concentrates on a very gloomy man who is deeply in love, she dies of consumption, he gets even gloomier and the rest of the book concentrates on him being gloomy and pining, poetically for his dead love and that goes on for ever and ever and ever. (Think Mill on the Floss/Tess of the D'urbevilles gloomy)There was also something about turnstyles and lanterns and how it was an anology for time passing and how life and love is fleeting *sigh*
I had to write 12 essays on this thing.
When I finished my exams all three books went in the bin and I never read them again.