Well, look at me remembering to keep up with a book meme! This weekend has been absolutely crazy, today is no different, so I’ve got next to know reading done. I know I said I would have a lot of free time sitting on a bus, but they were night buses so I couldn’t see the screen of my nook once the lights were turned off, and I needed to try and sleep!
Today is visa run day (fingers crossed) so I will probably do a massive post about the whole weekend, or two separate ones about the different weekend events, we’ll see. For now, it’s *just* Making up for Monday. I enjoyed this a lot last week, so I’ve decided to do it again.
This week’s theme is What books did you hate reading in school? When it came to school, I was a little bit of a nerd, and pretty much enjoyed everything I did and read. Well, at least I didn’t hate it. That said, three things jump straight out at me that I really didn’t like. I don’t actually think any of them are books, but they are tales, stories.
A Midsummer Nights Dream William Shakespeare: Old Bill is pretty famous for his writing and all that, but I really didn’t like this at all. It’s all airy fairy (literally) and I think is what has put me off Shakespeare completely. It has taken nearly 10 years, a brilliant adaptation of Coriolanus (which I had previously never heard of) and some passionate discussion with Emma to realise it’s just about finding your brand of Billy. The Dream is most certainly not mine.
Johnny and the Dead Terry Pratchett adapted by Stephen Briggs: I don’t remember anything about this, which probably says a lot, other than wishing beyond anything we could read something else, anything else, dnd that says something, as number 3 on this list was the alternative. We didn’t even read the book, we had to read the play adaptation. It has put me (possibly unfairly) off Terry Pratchett for the foreseeable future.
Beowulf Unknown: I know this is a poem, well an epic poem, but I really didn’t like it. I wasn’t old enough to appreciate it (we had to read it aged 11), understand it, and didn’t like it. It was only better than Johnny and the Dead because it wasn’t a play, and I hated reading plays (still do), and had weird monsters in. About 12 months later I read To Kill a Mockingbird (not as a school read, just because) and it remains my favourite book, that should have been on our syllabus instead!
In other news, that same school did introduce
me to An Inspector Calls, which despite it being a play, I really really liked, and to Sherlock Holmes. Reading, and analysing Sherlock Holmes was one of my favourite pieces of coursework.
What did you hate to read at school?
I’m touched that you would reconsider Shakespeare after Coriolanus and talking to me. I’m going to feed my own ego and pretend like it was all me that changed it and not, oh I don’t know, Tom Hiddleston’s impressive figure. No but seriously, I love Shakespeare but even I have ones I can’t stand, it’s all about finding the one(s) that work for you. 🙂
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Of course you and that performance has slightly changed my incredibly negative opinion in Shakespeare for the better. It had nothing to do with how Tom looked either, which I think says a lot in itself. I’m definitely realising it’s all about finding the right play with him!
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Eleven is way too young to have kids reading Beowulf! Twenty may even be a little too young, ha ha ha. Epic poems are always so difficult to understand.
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I’m still not sure we read it so much as listen to our teacher talk about it and stare at the pages when we were asked to read some. I can’t believe to this day the first 4 things I studied in English at school were Johnny and the Dead, Beowulf, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
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