I'm almost finished with "Fahrenheit 451', it is an incredible book! I feel that it should be on the students' curriculum in high school as required reading. There are schools that don't even have this book touching shelves in their classrooms...

I have been reading the Gospel of filth,its by Gavin Baddeley with Dani Filth.it states on the cover.........A Bible of Decadence & Darkness,i can tell those who have not read it that it truly is that.it has a bit of everything from ancient formulae for conjuring the goddesses of hell to horror films, literature,lots on places in old england and witchcraft etc it also has Modern masters of the Gothic arts such as Guillermo Del Toro and my favorite the legendary clive Barker,Tim Burton Marilyn Manson and Doug Bradley who plays the greatest horror figure in film history PinHead from the Hellraiser films,my favorite by the way.A great fascinating book jam packed with pictures,i have only read half so far and my brain needs a rest lol

I love the book and would love everyone to have the opportunity to be exposed to it, so I agree with what you're saying, but I have little quibble. The concept of schools having required reading irks me. When kids are made to read things it can turn into a chore, and reading shouldn't be a chore. Maybe that's just me, but I hated being told what I had to read in school. Don't get me wrong, I actually liked a lot of what we had to read, but some of the stuff I was not at all ready for. The Scarlet Letter is one example I can think of, but there were many others. And because I didn't want to read it, I can honestly say I didn't get much out of reading it. I would have been so much better off reading something I actually wanted to read. Now, I'm not quite sure why I've gone on this whole rant like this. Maybe I need a slap across the face, like when somebody is freaking out, and that's the only thing that will bring them back to reality. Smack! Thanks, I needed that.

I do agree with you about the issues that come with being forced to read certain literature in school. Along with the irritation, rests a silver lining which you already mentioned...being better off reading something of interest. I'm sure for a lot of students, this one fact makes what's necessary a little less irritating because outside of mandatory, they have a choice. I'm glad for this, yes I am.

Oh yes, there's nothing like finding a good book to use as escape from the minimum security prison that was high school.

Since the turn of the year I've worked my way through...
- Bram Stokers Dracula
- Frankenstein
- Sherlock Holmes (Study in Scarlet, Adventures of, Sign of the Four, Return of)

and I have some Edgar Allan Poe short stories queued up.

gp

As I see you're going through the classics, I'll ask have you ever heard of Arthur Machen? He's a classic author of weird fiction.

http://cn.penguinclassics.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780143105596,00.html

Actually, no I haven't.
Unfortunately I already have a recommendation of The Last Werewolf to locate before I can get round to this !!!
No to worry, I have a few more weeks off work to fill with something

ps - I missed off my initial list Dracula's Guest, some short stories by Bram Stoker.

gp

I'm currently reading "Jane Eyre", I'm about 1/3 of the way through.

gothicpreston, "Dracula's Guest" is one of my favorite short stories. It's got that creepy vibe that I really love.

Well, when you get the chance, you can read and enjoy his story The White People free online,
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/whtpeopl.htm

I just finished the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I found all three books to be brilliant, with only some minor reservations. Has anyone else here read all three books? Anyone interested in a separate discussion topic on the books? I don't want to post any spoilers here in this thread, and there's so much to talk about with those books, such as symbolism, starting with the name of the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem.

-- Nephele

I polished off The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes yesterday.

I only just read this now. Would love to talk about Hunger Games. I bet other people would too, but, like me, just missed seeing this. I love the Latin in Hunger Games: panem, avox, cornucopia. And all the Latin names, too. I'm actually teaching myself Latin, just began last June. Slow going. Am using the Dowling Method (you can Google it if interested). One day I hope to read The Golden Ass, the only surviving Latin novel. And there are fun translations, they translated the first two books of the Harry Potter series into Latin.

A friend of mine wrote a review of P.G. Walsh's translation of The Golden Ass, and if you like you can read it here.

Latin is such a rich language. I had three years of it in high school, but I'm by no means conversant in it.

And, yes, there is a lot of Latin in The Hunger Games trilogy -- but I believe it's only the citizens of the Capitol that have the Latin names and use Latin words to describe aspects of their society. I think the author did that to draw a parallel between the citizens of the Capitol and the ruling class of ancient Rome. The citizens of the outlying districts have more common names, I believe to show how they are an underclass (or slave class) to the citizens of the Capitol.

Bug, we have to find more Goth.net members who would like to join in on a book discussion of The Hunger Games.

-- Nephele

Latin has always fascinated me, I'm not even sure why exactly. Part of it is that it's a dead language. The idea of learning a dead language is somehow intoxicating to me. (But I may be using that word also because currently I'm slightly intoxicated on this new hard apple cider I just bought, Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Hard Cider. There is a picture of this evil looking tree on the box the six pack came in. Like something out of a horror novel.)

I think you are very right about what you say above about the names in the capital and so forth. Have you ever read the book or seen the TV mini-series I, Claudius?

Yes, it would be cool to get people to talk about Hunger Games. My book club recently read it and we talked about it, but there's a lot we didn't cover. Like, I'd love to talk about how hunting is written about in it.

PS Thank you for the book review thingy!