Great Expectations - better than you remember from High School!

[rlparker]

I recently got a Kindle and thought "Great Expectations" would be an appropriate first read. I originally got the one from manybooks, but then found out about MR got the version here ( HarryT), which seems to be superior in several ways. I'm really enjoying reading it and look forward to reading other classics that I was supposed to read in High School!

On a related note, I've looked in the forums but can't find the answer to this question--is there a way for me to volunteer some time on a book project?

Thanks,
R.L.

[Elsi]

Welcome!

I don't know if there are any formal or organized projects. I took it upon myself to grab a set of books from Project Gutenberg and format in MobiPocket, BBeB, and IMP and then upload here. Since no one had tackled the Bobbsey Twins, I chose to do those. I think that many of the people who have contributed books have chosen those that they are particularly interested in reading.

[Timoleon]

I remember having to read Dickens "Bleak House" in High School and absolutely hating it. But with the passing of years (30+) and an increased maturity --- I picked up the book again on a lark --- and couldn't put it down. It was wonderful!!

Funny how things change...

Tim

[Falbe Publishing]

To answer your question about helping with an ebook project, I can suggest distributed proofreaders.

http://www.pgdp.net/c/default.php

I sometimes help out here.

As for Great Expectations, I did not like it in high school at all. I suppose it's possible that the book has literary merit, but basically it was dull as dishwater. Looking back, I've come to the conclusion that teenagers aren't really ready for the "literature" teachers think will expand their minds. Maybe if I'd read it now, I'd think it was awesome, but I'll never find out. All I remember from Great Expectations was that crazy lady in a wedding dress. Oh, and not caring at all about any of the characters or what happened to them. That really stands out.

I'm glad you're enjoying the novel and please forgive my complaining. It's just the combination of the words "Great Expectations" launches me into a fit of complaining. I have a theory that English teachers choose this novel so that kids will be DIScouraged from reading.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by rlparker

I recently got a Kindle and thought "Great Expectations" would be an appropriate first read. I originally got the one from manybooks, but then found out about MR got the version here ( HarryT), which seems to be superior in several ways. I'm really enjoying reading it and look forward to reading other classics that I was supposed to read in High School!

On a related note, I've looked in the forums but can't find the answer to this question--is there a way for me to volunteer some time on a book project?

Thanks,
R.L.

If you mean a formal book project, then Falbe Publishing's suggestion is very helpful.

If you mean contributing a Public Domain book, on that you've assembled yourself, and making it available on MobileRead then just find a book that someone has not done. Myself, Harry, Madam Broshkina, Patricia and others can offer a mix of advice for that.

Thanks,
Don

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Falbe Publishing

I'm glad you're enjoying the novel and please forgive my complaining. It's just the combination of the words "Great Expectations" launches me into a fit of complaining. I have a theory that English teachers choose this novel so that kids will be DIScouraged from reading.

I wonder if it's the teachers, rather than the books, who are the problem.

I'll always be grateful to a series of great English teachers I had. They made reading classic literature an adventure that really engaged my imagination. I loved those books then, and I love them now.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Falbe Publishing

To answer your question about helping with an ebook project, I can suggest distributed proofreaders.

http://www.pgdp.net/c/default.php

I sometimes help out here.

As for Great Expectations, I did not like it in high school at all. I suppose it's possible that the book has literary merit, but basically it was dull as dishwater. Looking back, I've come to the conclusion that teenagers aren't really ready for the "literature" teachers think will expand their minds. Maybe if I'd read it now, I'd think it was awesome, but I'll never find out. All I remember from Great Expectations was that crazy lady in a wedding dress. Oh, and not caring at all about any of the characters or what happened to them. That really stands out.

I'm glad you're enjoying the novel and please forgive my complaining. It's just the combination of the words "Great Expectations" launches me into a fit of complaining. I have a theory that English teachers choose this novel so that kids will be DIScouraged from reading.

As an English teacher currently certified in English, Reading, Drama, and Speech (7-12) and also as an adjunct Professor of English, I can definitely state that there are good teachers and there are bad teachers.

Any teacher who cares about the education of children (or teenagers/adults on the university level) and can learn how to teach and present literature (and reading) in an interesting and creative way that allows students to connect their lives to the reading experience can be great teachers.

It is disingenuous to suggest that teachers want to discourage the reading of "Great Expectations" in order to discourage the process of reading. However, having said that, there certainly are some bad teachers - teachers who flaunt their educational background and assume an air of superiority when they teach. This is unfortunate, but it happens.

Don

[rlparker]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I wonder if it's the teachers, rather than the books, who are the problem.

Yes, agreed. I had a horrible chemistry teacher in high school--put me off chemistry until well into my adulthood, when for reasons that I can't recall now, I decided to take a chemistry class at a community college. I was fascinated by it.

Originally Posted by Falbe Publishing

To answer your question about helping with an ebook project, I can suggest distributed proofreaders.

Thanks for the suggestion! I signed up yesterday, read the guidelines, and then proofed a couple of beginner pages.

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

If you mean contributing a Public Domain book, on that you've assembled yourself, and making it available on MobileRead then just find a book that someone has not done. Myself, Harry, Madam Broshkina, Patricia and others can offer a mix of advice for that.

Thanks,
Don

Don, Thanks for info. Originally I did mean contributing, but the distributed proofreading is more my speed for now. I hope I'll be back to take up your offer of advice before too long.

Regards,
R.L.

[Katiesue]

Within the last couple of years, I have re-read Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities and loved them both. I had read them in high school and liked them, but I really enjoyed them as an adult. You get totally different things out of a book as an adult. Life experience gives you a different perspective.

Regarding high school kids, it seems to vary all over the board. My 16 year old, 11th grade daughter, reads and enjoys very challenging classic books. My son, who is a year and a half younger doesn't enjoy reading much at all and never has. We have to make him read the required reading books for English classes.

[bill_mchale]

Just a thought, but some of us, for example, me, immediately find any book that is required reading incredibly dull. In High School, just for fun, I read Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory. So you would think that when I got to college and took a course in Arthurian Literature (both for fun and to continue my then intended pursuit of a career in Medieval Studies) and had to read it for class, I found it almost impossible to pick up. I am sure if I picked the book up again now, I would probably go through it like a hot knife through butter.

Actually, I am thinking about reading a number of these old classics now that 1. I don't have to, and 2. I can appreciate them more.

BTW, this thread reminds me a little of an advertising campaign that the Baltimore Opera did a few years back...
"Opera, it's better than you think, it has to be!" .

--
Bill

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Just a thought, but some of us, for example, me, immediately find any book that is required reading incredibly dull. In High School, just for fun, I read Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory. So you would think that when I got to college and took a course in Arthurian Literature (both for fun and to continue my then intended pursuit of a career in Medieval Studies) and had to read it for class, I found it almost impossible to pick up. I am sure if I picked the book up again now, I would probably go through it like a hot knife through butter.

Actually, I am thinking about reading a number of these old classics now that 1. I don't have to, and 2. I can appreciate them more.

BTW, this thread reminds me a little of an advertising campaign that the Baltimore Opera did a few years back...
"Opera, it's better than you think, it has to be!" .

--
Bill

hee ! clever campaign. i agree with you : even if it's a book i enjoy, any book i feel *obligated* to read i have trouble with. i just hate that pressure, i guess !

[winspiration]

I love Dickens too, but hadn't read any for a few years. I'm now part way through a Tale of Two Cities downloaded from here (so from me too to HarryT) and very much enjoying it

[HarryT]

Dickens is not a childrens' author - you need to be an adult to appreciate his wonderful satirical view of Victorian society. I wonder how many children have been put off his works by having them "force fed" to him in school? What a tragedy .

"Great Expectations" vies with "Bleak House" for the place as my favourite Dickens novel. Both are wonderful books.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I wonder how many children have been put off his works by having them "force fed" to him in school?

Me, for example.

I was reading almost a book a day while I was in school, yet, I can't remember a SINGLE "compulsory" book I was forced to read giving me smallest amount of pleasure. I haven't be able to overcome my distaste for Dickens and classics (and ESPECIALLY classics written by authors of my nationality) in general ever since.
I can not understand this policy of force feeding books that are generally not appreciated by young people.
Pupils should be offered books that would make them to want to read. You can introduce them to great works of literacy later. Gently. Gradually.


Even as I was adult, almost thirty years old, I was forced to read some classics "of my choice", as a compulsory reading for my "English Language State Exam". At that time I had had read several hundred books in English, but those did not count. They force you to read "classics" - understand books that your teachers have read (or that were force-fed to them while they were in school), so they can ...aehmmmm... "discuss" the book with you during exam. No. Even authors like Terry Pratchett, James Clavell, or even JRR Tolkien (gasp!!!) do not count.

So I have "voluntarily" selected from the library of old, Soviet printed "students classics edition" Moonstone by Wilkie Collins ... and had to force myself to read. Every. Single. Page.


Many people tell me that Dickens was a great author, and if I keep hearing this for several more years, and I run out of other free content for my reader, I might, perhaps, one day, ...

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Dickens is not a childrens' author - you need to be an adult to appreciate his wonderful satirical view of Victorian society.

I think that's where a good teacher is invaluable.

I remember as a child waiting for that fateful day when I would wake up as an 'adult', and everything would become easy to understand - decades later and I'm still waiting .

I'm glad I got introduced to classic lit at school - the earlier, the better imho.