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/lit/ - Literature

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3182791 No.3182791[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I'm supposed to choose a book to read from this list by tomorrow...

http://wikis.engrade.com/juniorap/aplitbooks

I'm not familiar with all of these titles, and I want to pick something worth my time.

I'm looking for a book that will teach me something, not just entertain me.
I need some suggestions.

Cheers.

>> No.3182818

if you're in junior ap english, aren't you under 18, and therefore not supposed to be posting on here

anyway, read Madam Bovary, Eliot's "Wasteland", Heart of Darkness, Goethe's Faust, or something else, i dont' know

>> No.3182839

>>3182818
not a junior. not under 18.
this list is used for different classes, I just happened to use a website where it was listed under "junior ap".
thanks for the suggestions though!

>> No.3182842

I would recommend The Aeneid, but my love of epics is a definite bias.

>> No.3182843

Use Crime and Punishment or Hamlet. Those could be applied to any of the questions the AP test will throw at you (I got a 5).

To cover your bases, Beloved by toni morrison can be used for racism

Feminism- Jane Eyre or Tess of the D'urbervilles

>> No.3182887

>>3182791
read The Brother's Karamazov
Kurt Vonnegut said that book "contains everything you need to know in life"

>> No.3182888

Hmmm, on my AP english test I wrote on The Old Man and the Sea. The actual prompt eludes me now, but no matter.

Just pick a work that covers many topics of interest to you (from a literary standpoint). Makes it much more easier to back up your claims with supporting evidence from the work.

What topics interest you?

>> No.3182904

Brothers K

>> No.3182915

The Brothers Karamazov

>> No.3182919

>>3182888

Oh, as an example, I was always very keen on writing about the roles of gods and destiny in greek epics, and at what point the two become mutually exclusive. Also consequences of disobeying the gods, analysis of the portrayal of gods' personalities/meddling/choices etc

>> No.3183010
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3183010

Huck Finn is one of the best and easiest books on there to write about. I used it quite often in my AP Comp class, among others.

>> No.3183077

>>3182888
philosophy. Brothers K definitely interests me, but I don't know if I'll have time to read it in the amount of time I'm given.

>> No.3183126

>>3183077
>>3183077
Crime and Punishment is shorter and by the same fellow

It would make sense to read it first and TBK later

>> No.3183146

>>3183126
this is terrible advice on principal, but you can't go wrong with C&P (as long as you use the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation)

>> No.3183154

>>3183077
it can easily be finished in a week or two

>>3183126
it is slightly shorter, but is by no means a short novel

>>3183146
McDuff's is quite good as well.

>> No.3183189

The Odyssey, Iliad, and Aeneid are all wonderful. And you can't go wrong with Shakespeare. Vonnegut is also fantastic.

So many great options on this list. Just pick whichever one grabs you.

>> No.3183225

Great Gatsby and Brothers K are clear choices here

>> No.3183239

No need to go beyond the first choice. I didn't even bother reading the list

>> No.3183300

Infinite Jest

>> No.3183384

>novels
any of the Nabokov [too bad Ada or Arbor isn't on here]
Song of Solomon
Mrs. Dalloway
The Inheritance of Loss

>poems
Prufrock

>plays
Ibsen (Ghosts, Hedda)
Faust
Rhinoceros [The Chairs is great as well, but not on here]
Pinter (Homecoming, BD party) [Dumb Waiter is good too, but not on here]
Godot
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Albee (Woolf?, Zoo Story)

>> No.3183431

that's a pretty good list; most of them are worth your time

>> No.3183467

And here I was thinking my school was the only one that used this list

>> No.3183520

>The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (01, 08)
No.

>Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (71, 76, 91, 94, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 09, 10)
>The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (06)
>The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (97, 03)
>Lord of the Flies by William Golding (85, 08)
>1984 by George Orwell (87, 94, 05, 09)
>Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (01)
>The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (02)
>A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (87, 90, 94, 96, 99, 07, 09)
>The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (71, 77, 78, 83, 88, 91, 99, 02, 04, 05, 06)
>A Separate Peace by John Knowles (82, 07)
Yes.

>The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseinii (07, 08, 09)
Wow, YES

>> No.3183548

>>3183520
Really? I found The Kite Runner to be either trite or too unbelievable, depending on the chapter. The entire sequence in the second half with the lieutenant and the child... I'm sorry, Hosseini, but I can only suspend my disbelief so far.

>> No.3183555

>>3183384
>any of the Nabokov [too bad Ada or Arbor isn't on here]

did he write a novel about incestuous trees which I was unaware of?

>> No.3183556

>>3183548

The funny thing is, I cannot disagree with you on either of those things. Yet I still enjoyed the book.

It may have just been the writing style, not the subject matter.

>> No.3183625

>>3183556
That's fair. Song of Solomon (which I highly recommend to OP, as it's on the list) was one of my favorite reads to date, but I'll be damned if I understood a damn thing about what the message was.

Anyways, OP, my recommendations are:

"The Dead" by James Joyce
Brave New World by Alduous Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
Macbeth (if you feel up to Shakespeare)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
A Separate Peace by John Knowles (if you feel up to blatant homoeroticism in schoolboys)

Disappointed that Zamyatin's We isn't on the list. I find it compliments 1984 and BNW well as the third part of a dystopian trifecta.

>> No.3183668

>>3183520
>The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
ahahaha this must have been the worst book I had to suffer through in HS

>> No.3183713

Gatsby is really good to write on because it's simple, but I would personally pick The Stranger because of the depth you can get from it.

>> No.3183718

>The Awakening
>As I Lay Dying
>1984
>Doctor Faustus
>The Trial
>Slaughterhouse V

Good list