Frankenstein...Really?!?

So my students this week were given an AP reading list that I finally was able to get compiled and printed off for them. Yes, it's pretty extensive, but I figure I better give them A LOT of options. Anyway, as I pointed out a few things here and there on the list, I had one class ask about Mary Shelley's famous novel Frankenstein. Hmm...how do I tell students I HATED it because I hated listening to the monster gripe endlessly about being a freak, being alone, and needing a companion! What's wrong with that? Hello!?! Why should I want to feel any comraderie with a monster described as being watery eyed and freaky enough to make people scream? Not a healthy comparison! :)


To close, I very diplomatically expressed a personal appreciation for Shelley's ability to create one of the first science fiction novels that explored the dangers of using science without an appreciation and respect for human life; however, I also told them I wasn't a fan because of the "conditions I read it under." That seemed to satisfy them...thankfully. Oh, and they also wanted an "estimate" of how much I read. (Teen translation: "Just how nerdy are you?") I don't think I read enough, based on the amount of time I feel I often waste, but I still manage to get through 4-5 novels a month throughout the school year. During the summer, it depends. On a good vacation/break, I can get through about one every two to three days??? Yes it's a hobby, but there's a part of me that feels like it's part of my job, right? Thank goodness I love to read. :)

Well, it's a three-day weekend, and although I have stacks of work to do for school, and an entire online course to revise, I'm off to keep reading Anna Godbersen's novel The Luxe. I'm kind of liking it, but am also finding that it's a little too 90210 for turn of the century, upper-class New York society. I don't think it's exaggerating the double standard many of these uber-rich people were living, but this jury of one is still out on the true "YA" stamp on the novel. Since I've been trying to finish Jude the Obscure and rereading Don Quixote with my AP students, a good pleasure read is highly in order. I'm off to go do some judging! :)

P.S. I just finished checking out a few reader/author blogs and have now found that people are comparing Godbersen's series to The Gossip Girls? I didn't ever read the series, but am not feeling so comfortable with that comparison. Is that meant to flatter or criticize? I'll have to see!