Comments on: Stupid High Schoolers.

By: christyiam

christyiam — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:57:31 +0000

I’m totally with you guys! There are several books I read in high school and college (part one) that were totally lost on me. I re-read Catcher in the Rye in my 30′s, as well as discovering Hemmingway (The Sun Also Rises was my introduction) and others. I feel like I am just now, at nearly 35, starting to be able to really read well.

Scary, when I think about the fact that Hemmingway was writing these masterpieces in his early-mid 20′s, Chinua Achebe wrote his seminal classic “Things Fall Apart” when he was 26, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Orange Prize for Fiction when she was 29, having had her first novel published when she was just 26 also.

Buncha Smarty Pantses.

By: Matt Kirkland

Matt Kirkland — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:34:43 +0000

The silly thing is that I LOVED reading in high school and college. I think the biggest factor is that I didn’t know how to read attentively. There’s a lot in Hemingway that’s very direct, but only if you’re paying attention.

PS, I won’t tell your old English instructors, Lindsay.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:41:01 +0000

“Sometimes I think I just didn’t know how to read when I was 17.” I don’t think you’re the only one. I was totally averse to reading in high school and college (and I was an English major! — Don’t tell).