Although I was done reading, the poem hit close to home.
My father would not let us use a buzz saw and I have seen many accidents caused by distractions.
Yeah, saws scare the s**t out of me, and I was using a table-saw quite a bit today. That poem is disturbing, to say the least.
And JB, I'm sorry if my earlier post was a touch snappish. I did that post in a bit of a hurry, as I had/have a long list of shop projects I was working on during my break, and was in so much of a hurry to get back to them that I didn't attribute the quotes, which would have saved the confusion and me getting my panties in a twist.
A brilliant example, thanks! I'm about at that scene again in the audio book I posted earlier. Lately, I've been putting in the earbuds and using "A Moveable Feast" to lull me to sleep at night. That narrator has a silky smooth voice to my ears and within 20 minutes or so, the sandman is dragging me into the land of nod.
Not at all a problem. I had a high-school teacher who was (like me) a fan of Procol Harum, and when they released "Shine on Brightly" (1968, my senior year) he would often quote this line from "Look to Your Soul":
For the lesson lies in learning and by teaching I'll be taught
I'm sure you work-to (and succeed-in) bring that into your classroom.
Thanks.
My favourite Author has to be Ken Follett and my favourite book is Pillars of the Earth. I am going to get the new prequel that recently came out but I'm waiting or my Kindle Paperwhite to arrive so I will get it for that.
I'm also a Robin Cook fan.
I used to read a lot of Stephen King but I went off of him, I don't know if I out grew him or if my taste changed. I found Stephen King, Dean Koontz etc good authors and great stories but Ken Follett seems to have a more intelligent writing style.
Yes! There are two more that follow in the Knightsbridge series, and an enjoyable 8-part mini-series was made from POE. I had the prequel on hold at my local public library, but Covid-19 restrictions prevented me from picking it up... another thing to live for.
Ditto. Unfortunately, he's getting [getting? he's gotten!] a little "long in the tooth," and I wonder if we'll see more from him.Quote:
I'm also a Robin Cook fan.
And... ditto, again. Dunno why, although my suspicion is that it was -- at least, in part -- due to the glut of movies-based-on-his-novels. That is, I felt he began writing more with an eye to future motion-picture adaptations, than to the readers' enjoyment or written quality. In any case, I haven't read anything by either of them in at least a decade, with no plans to re-read any.Quote:
I used to read a lot of Stephen King but I went off of him, I don't know if I out grew him or if my taste changed. I found Stephen King, Dean Koontz etc good authors and great stories but Ken Follett seems to have a more intelligent writing style.
OTOH, as long as we're talking about contemporary authors, I just yesterday finished [the late] John le Carre's penultimate novel, "A Legacy of Spies"; and, before retiring for the night, began his final work, "Agent Running in the Field". Now his novels are ones I would re-read; in fact, I just placed holds on the first two (in the "Smiley" series). So well-written! Even the violence is "genteel".
As a near-obsessive Stephen King fan in high school, I of course read all of his brilliant 70's works: The Stand, The Bachman Books/Different Seasons, The Shining and the others. Like many artists, his early work was his best IMO. I think it was somewhere around 1982? that he signed a $40 million dollar deal with Random House, started writing for money, and lost me. Someone feel free to correct me if I've misremembered the specifics of that deal. I didn't really enjoy the whole Dark Tower series, Tommyknockers, or anything after that.
JB, ever since I heard about LeCarre's death, I have been wanting to read some of his spy thrillers, as I'm certain I would love them. The last time I got completely lost in a genre was with Golden Age science fiction of the 60's era. Some of those guys bent reality in such mind-blowing ways (Sturgeon, Phillip K. Dick, et al).
I didn't think much of the Shining but I liked Tommyknocker, Pet Cemetary, Needful Things, I hated IT.
I was thinking after you gave the reading list for your students.
I went to Boarding School from 11 years old in 1973 and we did English Lang and English Lit as two separate classes. I remember we read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, 1984, Animal Farm , The Go Between, Keats and Wilfred Owen among others.
It was a long time ago and I don't remember much but I remember liking George Orwell but not Shakespeare and I hated The Go Between. The Poets were good though until we were told to write a poem of our own experiences and i got a D because I rhymed instead of writing prose, it ended up sounding more like Pam Ayers then Keats or Owen. I got the cane because I thought it was funny.