When I was at Grammar school from what is now year 7 ( ie., when we were 11 ) we were forced to read classic books in English. Despite the fact that I fell in love with Tholmas Hardy and remain so, I am ashamed to say, that for the greater part I was put off classic books forever !
My personal view is that many kids are simply too young at that age to truly appreciate what fine works these books are. That said I did study ( and pass ) English Literature at both "O" and "A" level.
A few years ago I went with two friends to the cinema to see "Pride and Prejudice" starring Matthew Macfadyen,(only I have to confess, because one of the friends I went with happens to be a cousin of Matthew). I really enjoyed it - but alas, had no desire to read the book for myself as my grammar school mental block on classic books was still well and truly with me !
In March of 2011, whilst travelling to Yorkshire on business I took with me a box full of classic tales on CD. One of them was "Pride and Prejudice". Surprisingly, I became so absorbed in the story that I actually had to stop at a petrol station on the A1 to inquire if in fact I had missed my turn off.
Last October, my eldest son who is studying A Level English Literature had to read "The Great Gatsby". Recognising that in all honesty it is not all that appealing a story on the face of it for a 16 year old lad, I vowed to read it and in fact I read it to him, just as years before I had read Enid Blyton , Anthony Horowitz, Darren Shan ,J K Rowling amongst others to him ! Once again, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. In addition to enjoying it I could see exactly why it is the type of book an examining board would chose for an A Level book.
So, the point of my tale is this, in 2012 , I will leave the mental block of "classic books " in 2011 and I have made a New Years Resolution to at least give these gems a fighting chance to make their way to my bedside cabinet.
Happy New Year and Happy reading !
We have plenty of classic titles available for sale. Visit our website at www.stortbooks.com for email Stortbooks@sky.com for more details.
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