I've got to read the colour purple for A-level, I don't know if shes up for that BUT she might enjoy it if shes able to read it and understand it. Its about paedophilia, lesbians etc. Was also made in to a film.
I read it a couple of years ago, and I got to analyse it now :@ About 250pages.
Private_ColemanPhD in Video GamesJoin Date: 2002-11-07Member: 7510Members
edited October 2004
Alright, book spam time
The Watchmen House Of Leaves A Wild Sheep Chase Dance Dance Dance (any Haruki Murakami, as a matter of fact.) Gaiman. All of it. Minor Lovecraft. The News.
EDIT: Ok, that wasn't really a spam of books... but thats all I can think of right now.
<!--QuoteBegin-Dubbilex+Oct 24 2004, 09:51 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Dubbilex @ Oct 24 2004, 09:51 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Perhaps some Tolkein? Or is that too in-thine-face?
Obviously anything by Tolkein is literary gold (for readers and nonreaders alike). <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'd only do some Hobbit if anything from that category, seeing as how the actual LOTR trilogy really isn't that much fun to read.
You could also try some Stephen King classics - they usually make rather easy reading. Hell if you want to go really short, Green Mile used to be released in little booklets seperated by chapter or something silly. All the Stephen Kings are available in german though, and well translated.
Unfortunately I didn't read the whole thread, so I'm sure 'The da Vinci Code' (rather shallow, fast-paced, short and an easy read) was already suggested and/or shot down.
A good way to improve reading attention span would be to find magazines on any subject matters of her interest - obviously if those interests consist mostly of whats printed on a centerfold, thats not much good either.
<!--QuoteBegin-tankefugl+Oct 25 2004, 02:45 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (tankefugl @ Oct 25 2004, 02:45 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Hm, Anne Rice's vampire chronicles? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Bleh. She'd do better to read something a little less... Well... Horrible.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Also, don't be afraid to introduce her to graphic novels (ie. Sandman) or comics (Lenore)?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Yes! Sandman rules! (Though I've only read a bit of Brief Lives, so far... I'm going to work on reading the rest.)
I love Sandman to bits, but seriously doubt she'll be interested in comics, especially since the German Sandman edition has long run out of print. More proof that my country's cultural 'elite' is so snobbish it hurts.
Thanks for your pointers. A lot of the stuff will simply fall out on the 'length' criterium, though <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
People have been recommending Redwall, but I doubt she'll like that from what I can remember - isn't it about mice fighting foxes? That's probably too close to fantasy.
Not to mention it's pants.
Would she like the No.1 Detective Agency Books? They're rooted in reality, and are nice "feel-good" books. All my sisters enjoyed them.
<!--QuoteBegin-coil+Oct 24 2004, 06:02 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (coil @ Oct 24 2004, 06:02 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Orson Scott Card: -Ender's Game -Ender's Shadow -Enchantment -Treasure Box
Jasper Fforde: -The Eyre Affair -Lost in a Good Book
James Redfield: -The Celestine Prophecy
The Ender books are a bit heavier sci fi. Enchantment and Treasure Box are both stories of real-world people encountering the gray area between fantasy and reality, and as such are grounded but still fantastical.
Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book are interesting -- they exist in a sort of alternate reality where the barriers between reality and *literature* are flexible.
Celestine Prophecy was a Davinci-Code-like hit about 10 years ago (maybe?), but is still an easy-to-read and very interesting book with some engaging elements. I quite enjoyed it, and have been meaning to pick it up again. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I'm going to second the ender's series. Every person I have met loved them.
My only experiences with german literature stem from German class which would result in:
Die Leiden des jungen Werther by Goethe -which, though I have a limited knowledge of german, is pretty boring. Then again, I don't like tradgedy romances <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> . Also, depending on how long is long, it's a bit long winded.
Die Physiker by D?rrenmatt -is actually a play, but if you want books, it's pretty short and has decent comedy going on.
M?nchhausen by Rudolf Raspe -I remember reading it in 3rd year or something, maybe it's to fantastical...however, I'd guess many german students have read the books in my list already, anyway.
Im Westen Nichts Neues/All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque -the only book in German I've read part of not for class; if it wasn't read for school, it'd be a pretty good choice. Maybe a bit too graphic at some parts, it's also a bit long.
Well, off of my crazy German suggestions that anyone in Germany probably read in their earlier years...
Jurassic Park (...I believe it's 'Dino Park' in German) by Michael Chrichton -my favorite book, ever. Perhaps it's a bit gruesome, or long...or maybe even a bit philisophical with a bit too much preaching about genetics when you get further in there. I suppose it would be a higher level book (I tried it out in 4th grade, heh. Granted, I was a bit immature and it was like, hey, this book says [euphamism for poop] a lot! And it was a bit more for the action...but the ideas conveyed are fairly fleshed out and without much intelligence you can get the point).
-~400 pages -Genetics/Plausible storyline, a bit sci-fi-ish -Moderate/Advanced reading level (for English)
[Coincidently, The Lost World, also by Chrichton (no idea what it is in German), is also pretty nice - and far better than the movie.]
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells -maybe it's a bit to fantastical, also, it should work at least. It's not really that much fantasy once you get past the Morlocks and stuff...
The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (not sure if it is even translated) -sort of like Jurassic Park, plus it's got an unpronouceable Mbwun or something going on. I think it has awesome horror and cool imagery. For all my love of Jurassic Park, it has one of my favorite description in a book ever. [If you ever saw the movie...just kind of ...forget that you did...]
-~300+ pages (haven't read it in awhile) -Modern Horror, with a bit of fantasy (explained with genetics and stuff) -Moderate reading level (for English; maybe a bit higher for the genetics, but they're not overly important)
...I have to go to work, but I'm sure I can think of some more crazy English suggestions to throw out their later...
Side note: <!--QuoteBegin-Liku+Oct 24 2004, 06:19 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Liku @ Oct 24 2004, 06:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Of Mice and Men</i> by John Steinbeck, short but good. Like, maybe 150 pages or so? I don't know if there's a German translation, because it uses a lot of 1930's slang and whatnot.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> I also loved this book. Good recomendation.
____________________________________________
I loved reading when I was young, but stoped reading around 4th grade, and didn't pick up a book again until about 8th grade. Still to this day I have little patience with slow moving books, so maybe my recommendation will help. Two series of books got me back and interested into reading. Harry Potter (which I know you said was out of the running), but the other, and a little bit later was the Med Center Series. They are a series of medical "romances" (I use the term lightly because it’s not that bad). Each book centers around a disaster of sorts (book one being Virus, two Flood, Fire, Blast (chemistry explosion), Blizard, and Poison). I have always been interested in medicine and medical type things, but even if that wasn't the case I think these books are awesome for many reasons. First of all even though it is a series, where all to often the first book is normally very descriptive and packed so full of details you feel like you could skip the first half of the book and miss nothing, this book brings you directly into the action. It was like this for all 6 books, you learn the characters a little bit at a time on the way, and they don’t drone you with details, but you find out enough to have a good sense of each chartacter. It is also exciting (though predictable at times), and is an easy read (but not to the point of being juvenile). The romance part is more vaguely explained sexual tension (at best) between volunteers at the hospital (17-19 yr olds). The closet thing to a sex scene the novel has is people dancing, or the mention of someone kissing someone, and the only reason I am mentioning this is because I don’t want you to think I read cheesy romance novels. The Author of these books is Diane Hoh, and I was recommended to read her books because I liked R.L.Stine. She has a whole “horror” series as well if your sister is not interested in the medical type books, though it would be a shame if she ended up really liking Diane Hoh, not to read those. The Horror books by Diane Hoh that I really enjoyed were Funhouse, The Accident, and Fever, and various other books from one of her other series “Nightmare Hall.” I am not intirely sure how you get translations of these books, and some of her books are more obscure and hard to find in English which is why I recommended Med Center because that was her more popular set of books. I figured you would know more about looking for copies of books in German than I would.
I also would have recommended The Chronicles of Narnia, except for that “no” to “in your face fantasy.”
I asked my friend Rob what books he would recommend (after a quick explination of your post). He loves reading and knows a lot about books, and he recommended Myst (especially the book of Atrus and T’iana). I have read neither, and I know nothing about it, I just wanted to pass that on to you.
If you want me to detail a little bit on any of these books let me know.
The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell are good. (<i>The Winter King</i>,<i> Enemy of God</i> and <i>Excalibur</i>). It's a good re-telling of the Arthur legends.
Comments
I read it a couple of years ago, and I got to analyse it now :@ About 250pages.
The Watchmen
House Of Leaves
A Wild Sheep Chase
Dance Dance Dance (any Haruki Murakami, as a matter of fact.)
Gaiman. All of it.
Minor Lovecraft.
The News.
EDIT: Ok, that wasn't really a spam of books... but thats all I can think of right now.
Obviously anything by Tolkein is literary gold (for readers and nonreaders alike). <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'd only do some Hobbit if anything from that category, seeing as how the actual LOTR trilogy really isn't that much fun to read.
You could also try some Stephen King classics - they usually make rather easy reading. Hell if you want to go really short, Green Mile used to be released in little booklets seperated by chapter or something silly. All the Stephen Kings are available in german though, and well translated.
Unfortunately I didn't read the whole thread, so I'm sure 'The da Vinci Code' (rather shallow, fast-paced, short and an easy read) was already suggested and/or shot down.
A good way to improve reading attention span would be to find magazines on any subject matters of her interest - obviously if those interests consist mostly of whats printed on a centerfold, thats not much good either.
Bleh. She'd do better to read something a little less... Well... Horrible.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Also, don't be afraid to introduce her to graphic novels (ie. Sandman) or comics (Lenore)?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes! Sandman rules! (Though I've only read a bit of Brief Lives, so far... I'm going to work on reading the rest.)
Thanks for your pointers. A lot of the stuff will simply fall out on the 'length' criterium, though <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Not to mention it's pants.
Would she like the No.1 Detective Agency Books? They're rooted in reality, and are nice "feel-good" books. All my sisters enjoyed them.
also the other orson books are great too (although not as great as ender's game!)
some other great ones are the ringworld trilogy
good story about 6 mit students who hustle vegas for millions, it's a great read
-Ender's Game
-Ender's Shadow
-Enchantment
-Treasure Box
Jasper Fforde:
-The Eyre Affair
-Lost in a Good Book
James Redfield:
-The Celestine Prophecy
The Ender books are a bit heavier sci fi. Enchantment and Treasure Box are both stories of real-world people encountering the gray area between fantasy and reality, and as such are grounded but still fantastical.
Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book are interesting -- they exist in a sort of alternate reality where the barriers between reality and *literature* are flexible.
Celestine Prophecy was a Davinci-Code-like hit about 10 years ago (maybe?), but is still an easy-to-read and very interesting book with some engaging elements. I quite enjoyed it, and have been meaning to pick it up again. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm going to second the ender's series. Every person I have met loved them.
Ps: If you dont like them I dont know you.
Die Leiden des jungen Werther by Goethe
-which, though I have a limited knowledge of german, is pretty boring. Then again, I don't like tradgedy romances <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> . Also, depending on how long is long, it's a bit long winded.
Die Physiker by D?rrenmatt
-is actually a play, but if you want books, it's pretty short and has decent comedy going on.
M?nchhausen by Rudolf Raspe
-I remember reading it in 3rd year or something, maybe it's to fantastical...however, I'd guess many german students have read the books in my list already, anyway.
Im Westen Nichts Neues/All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
-the only book in German I've read part of not for class; if it wasn't read for school, it'd be a pretty good choice. Maybe a bit too graphic at some parts, it's also a bit long.
Well, off of my crazy German suggestions that anyone in Germany probably read in their earlier years...
Jurassic Park (...I believe it's 'Dino Park' in German) by Michael Chrichton
-my favorite book, ever. Perhaps it's a bit gruesome, or long...or maybe even a bit philisophical with a bit too much preaching about genetics when you get further in there. I suppose it would be a higher level book (I tried it out in 4th grade, heh. Granted, I was a bit immature and it was like, hey, this book says [euphamism for poop] a lot! And it was a bit more for the action...but the ideas conveyed are fairly fleshed out and without much intelligence you can get the point).
-~400 pages
-Genetics/Plausible storyline, a bit sci-fi-ish
-Moderate/Advanced reading level (for English)
[Coincidently, The Lost World, also by Chrichton (no idea what it is in German), is also pretty nice - and far better than the movie.]
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
-maybe it's a bit to fantastical, also, it should work at least. It's not really that much fantasy once you get past the Morlocks and stuff...
-~200 pages
-Moderate Sci-Fi/Fantasy
-Easy/Moderate reading level (for English)
The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (not sure if it is even translated)
-sort of like Jurassic Park, plus it's got an unpronouceable Mbwun or something going on. I think it has awesome horror and cool imagery. For all my love of Jurassic Park, it has one of my favorite description in a book ever.
[If you ever saw the movie...just kind of ...forget that you did...]
-~300+ pages (haven't read it in awhile)
-Modern Horror, with a bit of fantasy (explained with genetics and stuff)
-Moderate reading level (for English; maybe a bit higher for the genetics, but they're not overly important)
...I have to go to work, but I'm sure I can think of some more crazy English suggestions to throw out their later...
<!--QuoteBegin-Liku+Oct 24 2004, 06:19 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Liku @ Oct 24 2004, 06:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Of Mice and Men</i> by John Steinbeck, short but good. Like, maybe 150 pages or so? I don't know if there's a German translation, because it uses a lot of 1930's slang and whatnot.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I also loved this book. Good recomendation.
____________________________________________
I loved reading when I was young, but stoped reading around 4th grade, and didn't pick up a book again until about 8th grade. Still to this day I have little patience with slow moving books, so maybe my recommendation will help. Two series of books got me back and interested into reading. Harry Potter (which I know you said was out of the running), but the other, and a little bit later was the Med Center Series. They are a series of medical "romances" (I use the term lightly because it’s not that bad). Each book centers around a disaster of sorts (book one being Virus, two Flood, Fire, Blast (chemistry explosion), Blizard, and Poison). I have always been interested in medicine and medical type things, but even if that wasn't the case I think these books are awesome for many reasons. First of all even though it is a series, where all to often the first book is normally very descriptive and packed so full of details you feel like you could skip the first half of the book and miss nothing, this book brings you directly into the action. It was like this for all 6 books, you learn the characters a little bit at a time on the way, and they don’t drone you with details, but you find out enough to have a good sense of each chartacter. It is also exciting (though predictable at times), and is an easy read (but not to the point of being juvenile). The romance part is more vaguely explained sexual tension (at best) between volunteers at the hospital (17-19 yr olds). The closet thing to a sex scene the novel has is people dancing, or the mention of someone kissing someone, and the only reason I am mentioning this is because I don’t want you to think I read cheesy romance novels. The Author of these books is Diane Hoh, and I was recommended to read her books because I liked R.L.Stine. She has a whole “horror” series as well if your sister is not interested in the medical type books, though it would be a shame if she ended up really liking Diane Hoh, not to read those. The Horror books by Diane Hoh that I really enjoyed were Funhouse, The Accident, and Fever, and various other books from one of her other series “Nightmare Hall.” I am not intirely sure how you get translations of these books, and some of her books are more obscure and hard to find in English which is why I recommended Med Center because that was her more popular set of books. I figured you would know more about looking for copies of books in German than I would.
I also would have recommended The Chronicles of Narnia, except for that “no” to “in your face fantasy.”
I asked my friend Rob what books he would recommend (after a quick explination of your post). He loves reading and knows a lot about books, and he recommended Myst (especially the book of Atrus and T’iana). I have read neither, and I know nothing about it, I just wanted to pass that on to you.
If you want me to detail a little bit on any of these books let me know.