Re reading a Leaving cert book

Anyone re read a leaving cert book as an adult, now I liked school and like poetry but I could never warm to the tedious novels we forced to read The mayor of Casterbridge has got to be one of the most boring book ever and I would rather chew it that reread it, yet I know a few people who reread the boring Victorian book that were forced on us and love them.

mikhail

People have different tastes.

In particular, people who read a lot will have very different tastes from someone who doesn't.

It's pretty much the same thing as film critics having a load of obscure stuff on their annual 'best of' lists.

Duggy747

I find myself doing this typically in my nightmares when I realise I'm back in Leaving Cert, I haven't studied for the bastard English exam and I have no idea what's going to come up in the paper.

I wake up relieved to be back in reality.

Then I realise I have to get up for work so I go back to sleep and sit the Leaving Cert........naked............while trying to get my Macbeth back from McHammer because I stole his Twix.

Rubberlegs

I'm a total weirdo, and kept all Junior Cert / Leaving Cert plays and novels. I have them on the shelf. I've re read Silas Marner since school, can't remember if it was Junior or Leaving Cert. I even loved Peig, such a nerd !

Woshy

I've re-read the novel I did a couple of times since leaving school. It was Margaret Atwood Cat's Eye which I enjoyed.

To Kill A Mockingbird was our Junior Cert book so again, has definitely been re-read! I kept them both

The Peanut

I had very little interest in most of the literature we read in school except for the poetry. I actually bought the Soundings poetry book when it was re-issued a few years ago. Always loved most of the Irish poems and appreciated them more as I got older.

KatW4

I loved all of my LC books apart from the Shakespeare plays. I've read them all more than once and have read Wuthering Heights about 10 times (own about 6 copies too).

bee06

We did Emma for leaving cert and I have re-read it a few times. Jane Austen is one of my favourite writers. For JC we did to Kill a Mockingbird and Summer of my German Soldier, both fantastic books that I have re-read since. Can't wait for the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird.

mikhail

The Peanut wrote: »

I had very little interest in most of the literature we read in school except for the poetry. I actually bought the Soundings poetry book when it was re-issued a few years ago. Always loved most of the Irish poems and appreciated them more as I got older.

It was very popular at the time, I think. Possibly more out of nostalgia than anything else, but maybe that's cynnical.

I probably got more into the plays I studied than the novels.

dodderangler

See spot run.
Run spot run!!
Man that was so much harder in me leaving cert

bodice ripper

Soundings FTW.


Still have mine from school.

anncoates

Persuasion will always be sh1te, sorry.

WoollyRedHat

Whatever about leaving cert, how about old school, bit of Tara and Ben, that was were it was at.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~seaghan/book/intro.htm

razorblunt

Had Tuppence to Cross the Mersey for JC, never going near it again.
Can't remember the name of the LC book, it was to do with two friends joining the army, once the son of a Lord the other, a stable hand of some sort. Was decent enough, wouldnt mind going over it again.

Tonyandthewhale

Brian Friel's 'Philadelphia here I come' was our leaving cert play. Read it there recently enough, it holds up.

Turtyturd

Lord of the flies, and death of a salesman are two I have revisited since.

Collie D

Turtyturd wrote: »

Lord of the flies, and death of a salesman are two I have revisited since.

Might re-read Lord of the Flies. Read Animal Farm in school. Can't remember whether it was Leaving or Junior. Reread it a couple of years ago and finished it on return six mile bus journey to work. In hindsight no idea how the teacher dragged that one out for a whole term

namloc1980

Hard Times by Dickens for the Leaving Cert. What an excruciating read it was. It was so bad I actually never read it. Relied on the notes/summary book. Got a good grade as well!

JohnMearsheimer

We read This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff in transition year. I have re-read the book since and the movie isn't bad. I've read 3 other books by Wolff as well.

ArnoldJRimmer

Still have a copy of Soundings lying around and appreciate it more now than I did back then. Its a nice collection of poetry

But Silas Marner still makes me shudder. It really is an awful pile of steaming turd, only made tolerable at the time by having a young Patsy Kensit play Eppie in the BBC version

LoonyLovegood

razorblunt wrote: »

Had Tuppence to Cross the Mersey for JC, never going near it again.
Can't remember the name of the LC book, it was to do with two friends joining the army, once the son of a Lord the other, a stable hand of some sort. Was decent enough, wouldnt mind going over it again.

How Many Miles To Babylon? Did that for my leaving, if the teacher hadn't gone on about homoerotic subtext I might have liked it more.

razorblunt

CTYIgirl wrote: »

How Many Miles To Babylon? Did that for my leaving, if the teacher hadn't gone on about homoerotic subtext I might have liked it more.

Yes! That's the one.
Our teacher was hinting at the homoerotic subtext to a classroom of 32 lads, some brave lad was the first to suggest it openly. The teacher took it as a sign of maturity that we all agreed with him

conorh91

I didn't think HMMTB had a homoerotic subtext at all. The relationship between Gerry and Alec is one which is supposed to contrast with Alec's cold relationship with the rest of his world, perhaps as a symbol of wartime solidarity between soldiers. There is nothing erotic about it.

super_furry

Did Great Expectations, always thought it was a decent book. Did the Mayor of Casterbridge too and honestly can't remember a single thing about it - just tried to read the wikipedia summary and my eyes glazed over through boredom halfway through.

We did read a Steinbeck book one year and it did prompt me to read the rest of his books and would still rate them so it wasn't all bad.

Cookie_Monster

Would never read any of the books / play I did again. They were terrible at the time and will still be terrible now. Especially Of Mice and Men, utter drivel.

xLisaBx

namloc1980 wrote: »

Hard Times by Dickens for the Leaving Cert. What an excruciating read it was. It was so bad I actually never read it. Relied on the notes/summary book. Got a good grade as well!

I thought that was only something I did, never heard of anyone else not reading the book

razorblunt

conorh91 wrote: »

I didn't think HMMTB had a homoerotic subtext at all. The relationship between Gerry and Alec is one which is supposed to contrast with Alec's cold relationship with the rest of his world, perhaps as a symbol of wartime solidarity between soldiers. There is nothing erotic about it.

Nah it did alright, or at least you could argue it was there at the very least.

HeidiHeidi

bodice ripper wrote: »

Soundings FTW.


Still have mine from school.

There was nearly a fist fight over our family's one - youngest sister got it, possession being 9/10ths of the law and all that. I'd love it if only to see all the scribblings in the margins again.

xLisaBx wrote: »

I thought that was only something I did, never heard of anyone else not reading the book

I managed to pass Hons English LC without ever finishing Persuasion. Started it up again recently and once again never quite made it to the end, even though I found it entertaining enough. Same with Wuthering Heights - never made it across the finish line. I've read and re-read Great Expectations a few times though. Don't know why, it's a bit on the grim side.

I keep meaning to try the Shakespeare plays again, but until Google comes up with a Shakespearian translate programme I suspect I'd be wasting my time

I've re-read a lot of the short stories again, and some of them were brilliant - The Confirmation Suit and First Communion being two of the standouts.

Prose and poetry leave me cold. Apart from some Patrick Kavanagh.

xLisaBx

I managed to pass Hons English LC without ever finishing Persuasion. Started it up again recently and once again never quite made it to the end, even though I found it entertaining enough. Same with Wuthering Heights - never made it across the finish line. I've read and re-read Great Expectations a few times though. Don't know why, it's a bit on the grim side.

I keep meaning to try the Shakespeare plays again, but until Google comes up with a Shakespearian translate programme I suspect I'd be wasting my time

I've re-read a lot of the short stories again, and some of them were brilliant - The Confirmation Suit and First Communion being two of the standouts.

Prose and poetry leave me cold. Apart from some Patrick Kavanagh.[/QUOTE]

I didn't read How Many Miles to Babylon, just detested it for some reason! If you get a Leaving Cert Shakespearean play edition there are translations in a seperate column at the side of each page Really helps me as I love Shakespeare!

JohnMearsheimer

I read To Kill a Mocking Bird for my Junior Cert. I'll definitely give Harper Lee's follow up a read when it comes out later this year.

Donald73

I would read Lord of the Flies again or Animal Farm or even Great Expectations but not a chance in hell would I ever read Peig again. She did my head in back then, much better things to read that enduring that again.

JohnMearsheimer

donna35 wrote: »

I would read Lord of the Flies again or Animal Farm or even Great Expectations but not a chance in hell would I ever read Peig again. She did my head in back then, much better things to read that enduring that again.

I think she is off the new Irish syllabus. We did A Thig Ná Tit Orm in Irish class. I thought it was an enjoyable enough read. Who knows, I might even pick it up again some time.

Donald73

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I think she is off the new Irish syllabus. We did A Thig Ná Tit Orm in Irish class. I thought it was an enjoyable enough read. Who knows, I might even pick it up again some time.

Thank goodness. Wouldn't fancy helping my son get through Peig when his time comes. Long way away though haha he is 5 and we are reading 'Up! Up! Up!' - I think Anne and Barry are languishing on the same shelf as Peig. All new now.

vanderlyle

I remember disliking Empire of the Sun by Ballard intensely, but loving Death of a Salesman. Many years after the LC, I went to see the play Death of a Salesman, it was excellent.

Might dust off my Text & Tests 4 & 5 - that was more my thing

RedPandaDan

Of Mice and Men for my Leaving Cert, must say I enjoyed it though it was a bit short. Certainly could have been a more fleshed out story.

Junior Cert we did To Kill A Mockingbird. To this day, it is right up there with Atlas Shrugged as one of the worst books I've ever had the misfortune to read.

A_smurf

Lies Of Silence for my Leaving Cert. Only read through the book in class and never read it again before the exam, just studied the notes. I think we were supposed to re-read it over the Easter holidays but no one in my class did. It was an awful depressing book, being set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles of course. Don't think I would ever purposefully go looking for it again.

LoonyLovegood

I hated To Kill a Mockingbird in class. We'd a teacher who kept going on about how Scout wasn't REALLY a child, and she did my nut in. Now it's my favourite book.

cml387

Did Treasure Island in first year back aeons ago.

Read it recently (it being free on Gutenberg) and my word the version we read in school was well censored. A much darker and more violent book than the yo ho ho and a bottle of rum pirate caper we got.

Grayson

xLisaBx wrote: »

I managed to pass Hons English LC without ever finishing Persuasion. Started it up again recently and once again never quite made it to the end, even though I found it entertaining enough. Same with Wuthering Heights - never made it across the finish line. I've read and re-read Great Expectations a few times though. Don't know why, it's a bit on the grim side.

Sounds like you did the same cycle as me. was it Henry IV or Romeo and Juliet for the inter the year you did it? (yes people I sat the intercert)

I thought Wuthering heights was great up to about 2/3 of the way through. I completely lost interest at that point.

It was only a couple of years ago i read To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember the younger lads and my younger sister carrying it around. Now that was a very good book.

Grayson

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Whatever about leaving cert, how about old school, bit of Tara and Ben, that was were it was at.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~seaghan/book/intro.htm

Tara and Ben? Are they some kind of reincarnation of Anne and Barry?

TheBeardedLady

mariaalice wrote: »

Anyone re read a leaving cert book as an adult, now I liked school and like poetry but I could never warm to the tedious novels we forced to read The mayor of Casterbridge has got to be one of the most boring book ever and I would rather chew it that reread it, yet I know a few people who reread the boring Victorian book that were forced on us and love them.

Thomas Hardy is in my top 5 favourite writers and I got into him just after the LC (Jude the Obscure). I've read all his books but I couldn't go near Mayor of Casterbridge again - the boring overanalysis of every single line turned me off that one for life . I'd probably love it again if I did but I can't bring myself to do it.

When I was in secondary school in the 70s, we read far more books in school than my children did in secondary school.

HeidiHeidi

Grayson wrote: »

Sounds like you did the same cycle as me. was it Henry IV or Romeo and Juliet for the inter the year you did it? (yes people I sat the intercert)

I thought Wuthering heights was great up to about 2/3 of the way through. I completely lost interest at that point.

It was only a couple of years ago i read To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember the younger lads and my younger sister carrying it around. Now that was a very good book.

Yep, sounds like the same era alright! Henry IV Part 1 and Great Expectations for the Inter, then Hamlet/Persuasion and King Lear/Wuthering Heights for the Leaving (I did two, being the dizzy age of still 16 getting my first set of results - DO NOT send your kids to school at age 4, people, it's a really really bad idea!)

Have exactly the same feelings about WH - it's a rollercoaster for so far, and then just meh.

Sounds like there's an incredible amount of variety these days in the curricula - back in our day it was the same three or four cycles over and over and over again.

conorhal

vanderlyle wrote: »

I remember disliking Empire of the Sun by Ballard intensely, but loving Death of a Salesman. Many years after the LC, I went to see the play Death of a Salesman, it was excellent.

Might dust off my Text & Tests 4 & 5 - that was more my thing

I have to say I loved Empire of the Sun, Ballard is a brilliant writer. Perhaps you might give the movie a go, it's probably Spielbergs most under appreciated work and stars Christian Bale, who even at that young age delivered an absolutey hypnotic performance. I got stuck with the mayor of Casterbridge. Now that WAS a dreary and dreadful novel.