21 replies to this topic

[husker]

I have to read, Of Mice and Men for school (I'm going into ninth grade). I was trying to take the easy route and buy sparknotes, but my mom wouldn't let me. So far it's pretty boring. I have to take notes on it too. Has anyone read this book? Is it a good book?

[ghostrider]

I've never read it, the title sounds boring to me. Sparknotes work really well, we had to do a book report for Composition I this year and I picked a book, read some of it, and then just used sparknotes for the rest. The teacher was impressed at my level of understanding of the book, because it was a really high-level book (Fahrenheight 451). The parts I read were pretty understandable. What do you mean by Sparknotes? I just googled Fahrenheight 451 and found a huge amount of summaries.

[BOAW]

ive read the book in 9th grade, i began to like it, if you was to really understand and pay attention to the book and give it a chance. It would prolly begin to like it yourself, its honestly not that bad. At the end i think Lenny dies hah I THINK its been so long. That was back in 9th grade and im not graduating this year heh

[husker]

Ok, sounds good. Was it hard to understand the old time writing?

[BOAW]

well i understood it really good when the teacher read it to us, she would always put as much expression into it as much as she could. and plus she goes over what we read so we completely understand. So heh just try lookin up on the sparknotes and read carefully because they should show you a free summary of the book chapter by chapter and explain what every little scene is about.

[tonyused]

husker, on Jun 13 2006, 08:21 AM, said:

Ok, sounds good. Was it hard to understand the old time writing?

Even if you do not like the book you should read it just for the excellent old time writing it is. You will then understand how creative and well written thes books are at the highest level. You do not get this level of writing exellence with current day authors.
John Steinbeck is one of the best.

[Paul]

I read this book this year (last semester). Personally I found the book exciting until the end, and in the end the story was just ruined (IMHO). For an assignment, I requested if I could do an alternative ending and I did do one.

John Steinbeck is a great author and I liked his other books like 'The Pearl'. So, overall reading this book is a great thing, and just make up an alternate ending for your satisfaction

[rejected]

It's not a bad book at all, it's actually pretty good, and fairly short at that. I read it a few years ago and it would be really easy to just go ahead and read the book. I remember my incoming freshman year I had to read three books, and they were all extremely long and boring, so be happy . Sparknotes won't work after a while.. you're probably going to have to write essays and such, and sparknotes don't have that much detail.

[Hadi]

Is that the only thing they give to do while reading, taking notes!!! Lucky you, they give us in 8th grade to read a book plus to summarize it and then memorize the summarize to represent it orally in front of the class, the teacher (very tough) ask also questions on the story and if you don't know the answer then you will be lucky to stay alive. The story is usually 200 pages minimum. So thank God that your teacher give as much as that to do. I wish I could get out of my school.
P.S: Sorry for getting out of the subject of the topic.

[matto]

I'm going into 10th grade, and I read Of Mice and Men in 8th grade. It wasn't a very exciting read, though the book was definitely not boring. It was quite short and to the point, so it didn't lag around explaining pointless stuff as much as some other books do. I liked it more than disliked it.

But yeah I would never suggest not reading a book you and everyone else are reading. My friend held off reading all the books that he read in his Honors english class (at the most academically challenging school in San Francisco), and had to read The Oddesy along with like 4 other novels/books for his final at the last minute and like got a D or maybe an F. So it isn't the smartest thing to do.