Friday, June 26, 2015

FF Friday: In Which Books Are Forced Upon Me


Feature & Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

This week’s question: Is there a book that you were required to read in school that you actually loved?

Answer: Nothing ruins a book faster than being forced to read it (and then write about it). Luckily, now that I’m in graduate school, I get to choose the majority of my reading list. I usually like the books that I pick for myself, so writing about them is tolerable.

While I was getting my bachelor’s degree in English literature, I wasn’t so lucky. Most of the books that I had to read were torturous. However, there were two that I really loved:




The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.



Interpreter Of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri's stories show the lives of Indians in exile, of people navigating between the strict traditions they've inherited and the baffling New World they must encounter every day.  




~*~

The follow part: If you are a book blogger and you leave a link to your blog in the comments below, I will follow you on Bloglovin’. I’d love it if you also followed me. If you want to be friends on Goodreads, TwitterBookLikes, or G+, that would be awesome, too. Click the links to go to my pages on those sites. I’m looking forward to “meeting” you.

8 comments:

  1. I only one I read was The Things They Carried and I didn't really like it. I think I only read the first two chapters and then stopped reading. Just wasn't my style. Old follower!

    My F&F

    Lizzie @ Lizzie the Sarcastic Blonde

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  2. Yes!!! Someone else who has read "The Things They Carried"!!! I had to read it for my US history class in college and LOVED it!!! It made my FF too :)

    Old follower :)

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  3. We read The Things They Carried my Junior year of high school. I really enjoyed reading it, which didn't happen very often with assigned reading.

    My FF: http://onceuntold.blogspot.com/2015/06/feature-follow-friday-required-reading.html

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  4. I haven't heard of either of these books, but they sound interesting. I've seen The Things They Carried picked by a lot of bloggers so I'll definitely need to check it out. Thanks for sharing, AJ.

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  5. I always HATED being told what books to read!! I mean, I didn't mind the reading, but I hated all the projects that came afterwards, and the analysis. >-< It sucked the joy out of reading for me!
    Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!

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  6. Thanks for Stopping by my page following back!

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  7. Hopping through. I don't think I've read either of those. I may have read the Lahiri book about 10 years ago, but I can't remember. That means I should read or re-read it.
    My FF

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  8. Yeah that you enjoyed those books, they look pretty great! New Bloglovin' follower! Thanks for stopping by! Happy reading!

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