it's that time of year again: my son is entering his second year of hippie school and i've been working on his reading list for literature.

definite:
- one flew over the cuckoo's nest
- beowulf
- grendel (beowulf told from the creature's persective

i need another 6 or seven.
i think catcher in the rye would bore him.
1984 bored me silly.
i want him to be a little older before he reads slaughterhoiuse five because i think he'll appreciate it more.

any thoughts?

Wait, how old again? I would also assume you are looking up the ladder rather than the exact age recommendations, i.e. high schoolish books?

A Clockwork Orange
A decent anthology of Saki (I recommend "The Complete" but it may prove a tad long for a school read)
A decent anthology of Somerset Maugham
Jack Whyte's The Skystone (a take on the Arthurian legend and how it all could have happened in Roman Britain, it's the first in a series that's up to about 6 volumes now. This first is the best.

Oh hell, I'm just gonna start recommending shit and hope something sticks. Most likely, what sticks will the be rotten tomatoes thrown my way.

Richard Wright, Native Son: I love this book, but I know plenty who don't. I need to get my ass in gear and read Black Boy.

Arthur Miller, The Crucible

George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion or Don Juan in Hell: The former is pretty standard issue, while I enjoy the latter and have made it a habit of reading it while traveling by aeroplane.

Yes, I know I put three plays in there, but I don't give a shit. Just don't subject the poor child to The Red Badge of Courage or The Scarlet Letter.

Ooh! John Hersey's Hiroshima, or are you looking for straight up fiction?

he'll be 13 at the end of october.

Jack Whyte's The Skystone-this sounds good. my 16 year old might enjoy this too.
i don't think i want him to read clockwork orange just yet.
elvis, he's reading hiroshima as part of his history plan.
we need fiction.
i loved native son and black boy but not sure it would interest him right now.
he's enjoying cuckoo's next a lot, if that helps.
we need fiction cuz it's for his literature requirement.

Crap. I hate fiction. How about some Mark Twain?

I also liked H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, but I don't remember when I read it and it's probably pales in comparison to all the movie/tv shit out there.

The original movie was phenomenal though.

The Count of Monte Cristo, a great book for a 13 yr. old

at 13 i just read (and failed toget) stuff that made me feel like i was 16. except for the Beat bullshit. age him up a bit. go ahead and give him some ayn rand, make him insufferable NOW so he'll be a decent person by 20.

Fahrenheit 451 -Bradbury
Gulliver's Travels -Swift
Kindred-Octavia Butler
Catch 22-Heller
Beloved-Toni Morrison

I'm having a much more successful time of thinking of things not to read. For example, A Tale of Two Cities.

catch22 is an excellent idea.

Ralph Ellison - The Invisible Man
Isabel Allende - The House of the Spirits
Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

I need to read this myself.

Steve

Its pretty long and very involved, but I highly recommend it.

Feed---M.T. Anderson

I think I recommended this one the last time you asked this question, so maybe you looked at it and didn't think it appropriate. I think it would fit nicely in your curriculum, though.

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead (I read it at 14. Its less political than Atlas Shrugged, and one of the best books Ive read)
AHWOSG - Dave Eggers (Best thing Ive read in the last 6 or so years)
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace



(the last one is a joke)

Only problem being that since it's well over a 1,000 pages he would be starting college before he finished it.

H. G. Wells was a good suggestion. Any of his classics would do 'War Of The Worlds', 'The Invisible Man', 'Island of Doctor Moreau', 'The Time Machine'...

13 sounds about like the age he may enjoy Keroac's On the Road.

Animal Farm
10,000 Leagues Under the Sea

One of my favorite books read in high school. I have always identified with teh Sidney Carton character.

Catch 22 is good. On the Road is a good one for that age as well.

I'd wait a few years before giving him "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

I have no idea what I read and actually 'got' at that age.. but what about some of the Roald Dahl for some 'light' reading? Also, what about Philip K Dick? the stories would keep him interested (Id imagine) but the philosophical issues Dick deals with are 'high-brow'.

I do remember reading a lot of Dostoievski, I read Vonnergurt, Farewell Mr Chips (I have no idea why I remember that), and the usual stuff.

good lord people have you no decency? Recommending Ayn Rand?
Let the child NOT look back on childhood and be embarassed for their pseudo-intellectual views based on Rand.. might as well go out and tell him to listen to Tchaikovsky when he asks for classical music;)

Agreed. He is 13. Let him read some fun stuff too.