Year 12 Reading Log
While cleaning out my room, I found my year 12 (sixth form - I was 16) reading log. To earn some extra credits for NCEA, students at our school had to read nine full-length adult books which I had not read before. At least five books had to be chosen from list A, and all nine books had to be from list A and list B. There had to be a gender balance of sorts - five of one, four of the other.
So here is what I read that year:
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (Required Category: Pre-20th Century Writer)
- Long Walk To Freedom - Nelson Mandela (Required Category: Auto/Biography)
- The House Of The Spirits - Isabel Allende (Required Category: Contemporary Author)
- Once Were Warriors - Alan Duff (Required Category: New Zealand Author)
- Falling Leaves - Adeline Yen Mah (Required Category: Book Dealing With Another Culture)
- I, Claudius - Robert Graves
- The Shelters of Stone - Jean M. Auel
- The Origins of Humankind -Richard Leakey
- Voyage To Atlantis - James W. Mavor
Some notes I have gathered from re-reading the reviews:
- My review of Jane Eyre was a very polite “WTF?!” That book put me off classics for a good while.
- I read Long Walk To Freedom in about five hours, using a technique that would later be used on the days of Harry Potter releases - I locked myself in my room and didn’t come out until I was done.
- I read House of the Spirits during mock exam week. I made notes on language and the use of third vs first perspective, and the evolution of the narrator’s voice.
- I didn’t like Once Were Warriors‘ use of coarse language - “maybe I am overly sensitive to the language” I see there.
- I may have been sensitive to coarse language, but from my memories of Shelters of Stone I didn’t seem bothered by all the sex scenes. I remember sitting and giggling over the naughty bits with friends.
- I was very clearly in a major archaeology/history mode that year.
I don’t read as much adult fiction as I used to, partially because I am no longer required to and partially because since that time there has been major booms in YA and I have discovered the YA book blogging community (and so I am introduced to YA books that I otherwise wouldn’t have been).
Interesting though what you find when cleaning.
Mirrored from Catherine-Haines.com.