Saturday, August 25, 2007

Book Binge Contest

Book Binge is having a back-to-school contest you should read all about.

The Assignment:

Tell us what your favorite read in school was. What book was required reading that you just loved? Something you completely devoured. Or, if you can't think of one, what was the WORST read you had in school?

The Prize:


Leave your answer in the comments or on your own blog with a link and in honor of this being a Back To School contest, we're giving one lucky winner:

The entire Susan Elizabeth Phillips Stars/Bonner Brothers Football Series (Who didn't love a jock in HS? Even if he was an ass, he was still good to look at, right?)

or

Perfect and Paradise by Judith McNaught (A teacher, in keeping with our theme, and an old High School Flame)

Or

if you're not interested in any of those...2 books of your choice.


The Homework:

We're asking that you do a guest review for Book Binge for at least one of the books (or all of them, if you prefer).

Deadline:

The contest ends Friday, August 31st and the winner will be announced Saturday, September 1st.

Due Date:

Homework review is due no later than two weeks after you receive your package of books (We'll be flexible about this, however, because we know real life intrudes on reading time now and again).

My answer:

Tell us what your favorite read in school was. What book was required reading that you just loved? Something you completely devoured. Or, if you can't think of one, what was the WORST read you had in school?

Most of my 'favorite' reads were ones I chose to read myself. Some of these *were* classics, they just weren't assigned classics like The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and The Sea and Death Be Not Proud and A Separate Peace. (For example, I loved, loved, loved Gone With The Wind.) I liked the kinds of assignments that were open-ended. Choose a book and write a report. That's how I got away with writing up things on Miss Scarlett and Miss Melanie. But oddly enough, one of my all-time favorite books which I didn't come to appreciate until much much later was Frankenstein. Frankenstein was an assigned reading in high school. But I didn't fall in love with it until college--graduate school to be precise. I have often found that rereading these *awful* books is quite a different experience as an adult. One though that didn't particularly change was Great Expectations. The first time through--in high school--I managed to block it out of my mind afterwards. Reading it in college once again, I found that I didn't remember anything about it. It was foreign to me. It is just an in-and-out kind of read. A yucky read at that.

2 comments:

Holly said...

I completely agree that some reads are much better as an adult, although some are much worse. lol

I think I might be the only person alive who enjoyed (and still does) Great Expectations. I remember reading it the first time in HS and just devouring it.

Later, I read it again and enjoyed it just as much. Now that I think about it, however, it's been years since I read it. I wonder if my feelings will change if I read it again?

Thanks for entering and GOOD LUCK!

Anonymous said...

Very cool. The only book-stuff I particularly remember from school was a lucky break of having a teacher who actually put one of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books on the reading schedule! That started quite a long binge of Pern reading for me, as well as other McCaffrey discoveries.