English classes are strange beasts. They're fun because, hey, you're reading stories. That's gotta be worth something, right? But more often than not, the stories are garbage. It's a sad truth. Who knows why these crappy tales have come down to us from these authors who are teachers insist are good?
Anyway, here are the things I remember from the stories I had to read from English class.
The Tale of Two Cities
More than anything I remember that while I was reading this book I was focusing on how the pages went by. New page... 1/3 done... 2/3 now... ok, almost done... on to the next page.
The only scene that stuck in my mind is where she goes to her father's cell and he's making shoes. For some reason that's all I remember, seriously. And I think I can vaguely remember them crossing over the channel at one point. I'm not sure though.
The Count of Monte Cristo
I remember parties. They seemed cool. And the part where he's getting money from the bank, and the banker's tripping over himself to get the money. And for some reason I remember the part where they're having a celebration where you have a lit candle and you try to put out everyone else's candle. There's only one way to get your candle re-lit, but a thousand ways to extinguish them. It struck me as quite a good metaphor for life.
A Separate Peace
I remember way more of this book than I wish I did. If there's any book I absolutely, positively hate from having had to read it for school, this is it. This book is total crap. Avoid it like a rampaging rhino on steroids who has the plague. And the movie's even worse.
The Scarlet Letter
I remember quite a lot of this book. It's wordy and overcomplicated, but hey, it's not that bad in the end. Okay, then the characters are all stereotypes. So what? Hawthorne was just trying to make a point, and he made it. I wouldn't recommend this for fun reading, but if you have to read it for class, you could do a lot worse.
1984
This book might have been quite good if Orwell weren't so obsessed with putting sex into everything. Also, the main character is totally unsympathetic at many points. But I would be doing this book a huge injustice if I didn't at least mention that the world that Orwell presents is one of the most realistic and terrifying views of a future gone wrong that any author has ever given us. All around us we see the workings of what may someday develop into a Thought Police. We don't trust our neighbors, we don't trust the government, and sometimes we don't even trust ourselves. Big Brother is watching you, indeed.