posted
ok so i have to read one of these books, tell me which one i should to read and why. Thanks 1. Billy Bud - Herman Melville 2. The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper 3. Walden - Henry David Thoreau 4. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - (lol u should know) 5. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass - (one again)
Benjamin Franklins auto sounds the most interesting to me. discuss
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Number 4 will be the most "fun" read, I recommend it as an excellent tale as well as important work of literature.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'll second number 4. And the first two are pretty painful in my opinion- I'd advise against picking them.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
If you are the existentialist like me, then 3 is great. It is one of my favorites and I love to quote it.
Posts: 457 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
A kick of a story that you can get a lot of mileage out of philosophically. Plus -- it's Melville. His prose style blows the others out of the water (including Thoreau). But really, other than Cooper, you can't go wrong with any of the choices.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I say 3 myself. Definitely not Billy Bud. That's one of the worst books I was required to read. I actually enjoyed Walden for the most part.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, at least you have a consensus. Pick the shortest one (Walden, I think), read it first, then go back and read as many of the rest as you can. I don't see why it is necessary to chose only one of the five.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I pick 5, followed by 4, followed by 2, followed by amputating your least-used limb to get out of reading the other 2.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
All five are decent, although Last of the Mohicans is the worst of them.
I'd recommend Billy Budd, but Walden has some interesting philosophical ideas that it's possible to fit onto a sweatshirt. And Ben Franklin tells a pretty good story, even if it's about himself. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think you will get a good recommendation for you unless you mention what you enjoy in a book. Some people will like Walden, for instance, and some will be totally bored by it.
Although, why not make the decision easy and read them all? Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I chose to read Billy Budd outside of school, and I enjoyed it. It was reallllly short, and it was an interesting enough story. Of course, not being required to dissect it, I'm sure I enjoyed it a lot more.
The only other I can speak to is the Autobio of Ben Franklin. While I have not read it, I did do a few projects on Ben Franklin during school and found his life to be fascinating. Whether it will translate when told from his own POV, I don't know. I know nothing of his style.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I second the call for 3 or 4. Depends on what you are looking for, a fun and interesting read, or a real thought provoker? Franklin could provoke thought too, but not deep, life pondering, existentialist questions like Thoreau's transcendentalism (is that right?) would pose.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Pick the shortest one (Walden, I think), read it first, then go back and read as many of the rest as you can. I don't see why it is necessary to chose only one of the five.
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
