starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)

Too cool for subject

posted by [personal profile] starwatcher at 04:09pm on 22/02/2009
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Well, I've read 25 (I'm not going bother to do the edit work to put the list in my LJ), but I must admit that 5 were "have to" for school, that I wouldn't have read otherwise.

I'm always surprised at the strange juxtaposition of some of the books on lists such as this. How can "Secret Garden" and "Charlotte's Web" (lovely books) be on the same list as "Heart of Darkness" (yuck!) and "Lord of the Flies" (double-yuck!)? I know, there are people who enjoy those I consider yuck-worthy. But some of these books are pleasant children's stories, and others are (supposedly) deep, thoughtful, meaning-of-life cautionary tales. Putting them on the same list just seems weird. I mean, "Winnie the Pooh" compared to "Animal Farm"? What mental contortions do you need to go through to list them together?

And why don't they list "The Scarlett Pimpernel" by Baroness Orczy? It's the one "have to read" from my school years that I actually enjoyed, and it does as much for social commentary as "Oliver Twist".
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I know.

posted by [identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com at 05:11pm on 22/02/2009
I read all the books you cite at school actually - not sure I would have read LotF without having to. There are lots of books that imo should be on the list and others that shouldn't, it sems arbitrary.#

It does appear that the list has nothing to do with the BBC per se anyway and might have come out of a 'most read' list from the Big Reads campaign they run each year. I just don;t know! *g*
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