I’m enjoying reading “The Brazilians”, a book I mentioned a while ago.
I’m still on the first part of the book. This part is divided into 3 parts: The Portuguese, The Africans, and The Natives. Each chapter discusses how each group contributed to Brazilian culture and society. The Portuguese chapter was facinating, as it focused mostly on the Brazil’s two Emperors, from the Portuguese Royal Family. Now I’m in the Africans chapter.
We finished 1984 today. I love it. I don’t know what to say, I just love it. Very disturbing part 3, though. 
I want to reread Life of Pi again, because all the religious stuff was so interesting and I loved the ending. After Harry Potter…almost done though 
Sooner or later, I’m going to read the script Aida. I’m wondering if I should read the story that inspired this musical.
I’m afraid they might have a few fans here, but I must admit that How to Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies are my two least favorite books of all time. They both bored and confused me, and I don’t want to read them ever again.
I had a chance to see that, but I didn’t go, something came up.
Virginia: I LOVED How to Kill a Mockingbird. I DESPISED Lord of the Flies! I’m glad someone else shares my sentiments on that book.
I loved Lord of the Flies! I have A LOT of books that I haven’t read yet, and How to Kill a Mockingbird was going to be my next book (I’ve been wanting to read it since I was a kid) after I finish Flowers For Algernon. But I decided to read Out of the Inkwell Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution instead. Growing up I was a Disney and Looney Tunes kid. I had seen a few things with Betty Boop and Popeye the Salior Man, but they didn’t really hold my interest. But as I’m now starting to get more and more into film, animation and really, just reading about people who were innovators and who left their marks on this world, I knew I had to read about Max. And so far, I am LOVING this book! I will start looking at the stuff he created soon.
Uggh Lord of the Flies. We spent about five months on that this year in school. The conch = civilization = Piggy… headache
I knew How to kill a Mockingbird had a strong following. I’m just glad I’m not the only one who hates LotF.
Don’t forget about the non-Pixar Planet friendly symbolism…I really, really do not like Lord of the Flies.
Or that terrible, terrible book that people assume EVERY GUY likes…Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield is awful. He deserves to be slapped ten ways to Sunday. He is so full of angst.
I dislike that one too! It’s just a whole book of Holden complaining how lame he is.
I hated Catcher in the Rye when I read it for English class in High School. But I enjoyed it when I read it a few years ago.
Has anybody read Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue? It’s the story about this five year old who was born and raised in this 11 x 11 foot room with his mother. His mother teaches him, plays games with him and creates this world full of imagination. He’s never seen the outside world. He believes that what he see’s on tv is make believe. What he doesn’t know is that his mother was kidnapped by a man, locked in a room and she had his child. It’s a really good book. It had me on the edge of my seat and it made me cry. The only thing about the book is that the story is told by the five year old boy, so it reads as if a five year old is talking, and it took me 20 pages to get use to that.
theoutsider1983, I like how your name is almost two books put together, minus an S and one number short, The Outsiders and 1984.
I never thought about that! I read The Outsiders in high school and did a book report on it. And the end of the movie always makes me cry when that Stevie Wonder song starts playing. Speaking of 1984, that’s a book I have in my closet, stacked on top of How to Kill a Mockingbird that I need to read.
Wasn’t there a (stupid) conspiracy theory that the John Lennon’s shooter was inspired by Catcher in the Rye?
Yes, only I think the shooter said that was inspired, I don’t think it was a conspiracy. But I’m not an expert on the subject what would I know?
Reminds me of Eric Cartman’s response when he found out that they’d be reading that book at his school in South Park.
“Wait, wait, wait? This book is extremely offensive AND killed the King of Hippies? Can we read it right now!?!!?”
Reposted from the ‘You know what really grinds my gears?’ thread:
I must credit Terry Deary and Martin Brown for their excellent ‘Horrible Histories’ series for awakening my interest in world history. I bought several of his books as a teen (“The Barmy British Empire”, “France”, “USA” and “Horrible History of the World”) and I still have them now! I hope to write a history book for kids like that one day, maybe for Singapore, because that’s the country whose history I’m most familiar with.
I believe there’s an ‘American Horrible Histories’ spin-off, though I haven’t read any of the books yet. You should also check out ‘Horrible Science’ (although Nick Arnold is less matured and sophisticated than Deary and Tony De Saulle’s illustrations are more over-the-top disgusting) and ‘Horrible Geography’ (I like Anita Ganeri’s prose and Mike Philips’ style).
Has anyone read these ‘terrible tomes of tyranny’ before?
thedriveintheatre- I MUST read these books! I love history immensly, as everyone should know by now. I especially like things thatgive an eye opener of history to the younger generation. As shown by my enjoyment of the animated TV shows Histeria! and Liberty’s Kids. Thanks for letting me be aware of these books!
I’m currently reading a book called Little Heathens. It’s a woman’s memoirs growing up on an Iowa farm with her grandparents during the Great Depression of the 1930s. I like this book, how its chapters are set up, and learning about day to day life of a farm child in the midwest during that troubling time.
So you never heard of this series before, EJE? Well, I think you’re gonna love it! Terry Deary’s irreverent tone is very charming, and I’ve emulated Martin Brown’s ‘dry’ art style for my works. You might like the books I mentioned, though Deary focuses mostly on Brit history. But there are a couple of other ancient cultures he’s covered, like the ‘Awesome Egyptians’, ‘Angry Aztecs’, ‘Cut-throat Celts’, etc. (You can tell he’s a huge fan of alliteration)
There was also an animated series many years ago in 2001 (around the time I discovered the books). I watched a few episodes as a kid, and it’s quite amusing, but the latest live-action reboot that ran from '09 to last year is even funnier. The live-action version is like a sketch show like MAD, but with various segments. Here’s some samplers:
The Cowboy song (Look out at 2:08 for a cameo by the author!)
The last one was my favorite! I’ll need to watch more of the videos. I like how one of the cowboys was black. Considering the little known fact that 1/4th of all cowboys were African American.
And the Henry the VIII song was great, and so informative! It reminds me of Histeria’s own Henry song
And here a couple other Histeria! Gems.
