>walk into local bookstore
>see this
Wut Do?
walk out because i realize i am in a bookstore and not on amazon.com or bookdepository
>>7898509
wow, thats triggering
Why would you even need one for Animal Farm, the book takes a morning to read at most?
>hunger games
>>7898509
1. Step to the left
2. Keep walking
3. Pick up one of those McCarthys on the top shelf. No Country for Old Men looks nice. Try that one.
4. Feel superior because you don't need pleb shit like Coelho, Rand, or the Hunger Games spoon fed to you by someone who managed to sustain a 2.6 GPA during their undergrad at Ohio State.
>>7898509
>3.33 MB, 5312x2988
>>7898526
Holy Christ. What have we come to as a society?
>>7898509
these look like pretty big books, so I would probably look up the sparknotes
>>7898513
>Not going to an actual bookstore
Why? Used book stores usually have like $2 clearances, I got a huge collection of Thomas Jefferson writings the other day for $2. it was based to say the least.
>tfw I used to read sparknotes back in High School
I'm sorry ;_;
>>7898509
spark notes for the hunger games? lol wut?
>>7898573
This, at least the other ones are common curriculum for high schoolers, so it's at least somewhat justifiable. But why would anyone need to get a summary of the Hunger Games? To understand the movie better? To look cool? I don't get it tbqh
>>7898509
>the hunger games
>>7898586
popular books are taught in schools you know
>>7898509
I don't know what's worst about this: the Hunger Games copy or the fact that it'd all freely available online
>>7898545
Ultra competitive society where you have a limited amount of time to maximize scores on superficially marked tests, assignments, and essays. It's a time economical tool which can serves a purpose.
>>7898531
Spoken like a true pleb
Still don't even know what the fuck spark notes really is.
>>7898526
>>7898545
>>7898573
>>7898586
>>7898853
>>7898870
I've had to read both Hunger Games and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for a class at my university. Not even joking. It's very common.
>>7899757
>university
hahahaha I bet you go to a shit school!I bet there are classes at my uni that do the same
>>7899768
>I bet you go to a shit school!
This is true.
To be fair, it was a class aimed for future high school English teachers.
American schools really are shit. They don't teach popular shit like Hunger Games probably anywhere in Europe.
>>7899791
>They don't teach popular shit like Hunger Games probably anywhere in Europe.
Life in Europe is like Hunger Games so there'd be no point
Be disappointed they don't have one for Buddenbrooks because I am looking for a family tree as German names are hard for me to keep straight.
>>7898531
The only true pleb here is the person who thinks Mccarthy is better than hunger games.
>>7898509
At first I thought it was kind of strange that The Alchemist has one, but then I realized that if you're the sort of person to enjoy it, you're probably the kind of person to need the sparknotes guide for it.
Theses covers look interesting, but I'm buying them just for keeps
>>7899757
I had to read The Lovely Bones last year.
>>7899807
Just make one as you go
Nothing wrong with having a guide by your side and you're genuinely trying to get the most out of the book, if your reading comprehension is not quite up to par. That being said, I'm concerned the main demographic for these books are students who didn't do the assigned reading and the report is due tomorrow. In which case this is not okay. I'm conflicted man.
>>7899774
>high school English teachers
so this is why my English teacher was so horrendous.. she had great trouble comprehending nuanced opinions.
>tfw sparknotes are the only resource you have for finding good literary analyses
All I know is sparknotes, /lit/ and good reads, and the last two certainly don't help at all.
>>7899740
LMGTFY
>>7899945
>...
>>7898509
Maybe it will help unexperienced readers grasp great works, preparing them for their own journey that is about to begin
Let's be honest with ourselves, newer readers need to be handheld when beginning with the classics otherwise they'd be lost.
Do a 360° and walk away.
>>7898509
I find a clerk and request the Sparknote for "Pounded in the butt by my own butt".
>>7900144
>curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
>great works
>>7900179
That's exactly why we have secondary and tertiary education to begin with. So that students can actually read the thing (whatever it is, this week), talk about it, make sense of it in a guided class format (because there is such a thing as a wrong interpretation, a misread, and one of the teacher's tasks is to head these off at the pass), and /write about it/.
Your reasonable response to this is that the class may have the misfortune to have a shit teacher, which is of course common. But both to and against your point, for young people, a decent class beats a fucking cliffsnotes. If it's been done right and often enough, the student, now an adult, will have the "tools" (a stupid word for education and mental wherewithal) to explore most any book they want independently, if they want to bad enough for whatever reason, and are willing to work at it.
>>7900233
>the class may have the misfortune to have a shit teacher
You may also have shit students, shit reading list, shit education in general all ruining it as well. Also you need money. Finding a decent class is hard.
>>7899945
I...
Jesus... Jesus Christ.
>>7898509
At first I though those were cheap releases of good books
(I would jump out of my pants from happines if I came across good books for cheap)
But those are just notes/guides you can buy for school?
They seem rather expansive,but I have to ask what is the point?
>>7900411
>They seem rather expansive,but I have to ask what is the point?
It's only for high school students who don't want to read the actual book for english class. They give you a plot summary and the most general interpretation of themes and characters and stuff.
>>7900440I could have killed for one.
But why is "The Hunger Games" there if students need it?
>>7900449
Even when it comes to obvious shit like Hunger Games, there are still many students who need to be told what the symbols and themes are. Also these books pretty much tell you how to write your book report.
>>7900465
I never had problems with simbolism.
I just always said the most pretentious shit I could come up with and it worked.
Walk past it?
>>7899861
came here to say exactly this, gj
>>7898509
I have absolutely zero qualms with telling somebody to SparkNotes 'The Canterbury Tales'.
If they're not the type of person to enjoy reading Chaucer aloud and try to puzzle out the old rhyme-schemes, being assigned any Tale is already a death sentence for them.
>>7898545
I don't know. Look at you. NEET. On the internet all fucking day. Pretending you are superior to people who actually do shit for a living besides sitting on 4chan.
Indeed, what have you caused this society to become?
>>7899945
i cant believe i just recently found them in my book store.
>>7899757
I no joke I had read the Fault in Our Stars for a class in uni last year. I did indeed read a summary, I refused to spend money on it or waste time reading it. Got a C+ on the test for it :^)
Make a big scene about it on /lit/ so I can enjoy feeling superior and acting like I'm le authentic book reader heroically against society
kys OP and everyone here except me
>>7899929
I could argue it helps to have sparknotes if you were picking up The Brothers Karamazov for the first time. But so much of this is light high-school reading.
>>7899945
What the shit? I honestly have no problem with super simplified stuff like this for children, but they don't have to make it sound retarded, no one texts like that.
>>7900562
Wow, project much?
>>7899945
This is why Shakespeare killed himself.
>>7899945
I'm not even kidding when I say that this is more difficult than the original text
What the fuck
>>7898509
>Hunger games amoung some actual books
triggered
>>7900543
>that pun
i moaned loudly for a solid 30 seconds once it clicked
The fact that the Alchemist is there is more worrying than the Hunger Games
What
the
fuck
>>7899800
lmao
>>7899945
this is hilarious
surely the 'writer' is being ironic
right
>>7899791
>Europe
You mean the immigrant continent?
Still don't know why people hate these, they can help students understand assigned books better if they're a bit below average. Also, the summaries are nice to have, especially with long books like The Count of Monte Cristo.
>>7898509
>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
No lie, I used Sparknotes for it when I first read it about ~3 years agoour highschool didn't teach it, rip, mainly because of the technical terms with the ships and the old dialect is confusing in some places.
Like when Jim speaks, with the broken English that is barely able to be comprehended unless you speak it aloud.
>>7900006
Shmoop is fine. I actually prefer it to Sparknotes, with the larger collection. The down-fall is the lack of printed studies, though.
>>7898874
>He fell for the school is meant to educate you meme
You're a fucking idiot. School is meant to test how functioning of a person you are. If you can't do well at school, how are you meant to be an engineer, or a doctor, or lawyer? Those are the jobs society needs. Society certainly doesn't need some inward-minded NEET who thinks he's a genius because he read the first five pages of Infinite Jest.
>>7898509
>Flashback to why I dropped out of high school
>No regret
>>7898526
those are all summer reading books for like 8-12th grade my little brother had to read coelho's alchemist over summer
>>7898526
but it's garbage even with the YA disclaimer. It really is.
>>7899885
I finished reading it at my bookstore. It wasn't hard to guess that the author was raped. The whole thing stinks of author insertion like Twilight.
I think OP's photo is pretty concerning. Why is everything so force-fed in America's education system. You should get good grades because of your ability to formulate original or insightful opinions, not because you can memorize what other people have decided the central points of a a literary work.
That being said, at higher levels, it's almost a necessity to have some sort of accompaniment for works that are incredibly complex; even then, they're an accompaniment, not a summary.
>>7901724
Wow I fucked that up; just came off a surgery yesterday and I guess I'm not 100% yet.
>>7901724
It's because at most high schools the teachers who grade the homework can't tell what is an original or insightful opinion.
They grade based off a checklist, reducing the humanities to rote recitation. It's really quite sad
>>7898509
The spark notes on animal farm is longer than the actual book, what the fuck?
also
>The Hunger Games
top kek, this is real literature now?
>>7901818
Right again, my friends.
>>7900872
I really don't like that "projection" has become the standard defense against ad hom. FUCKING TAKE IT LIKE A MAN YOU PAB (PUSSY-ASS BITCH).
>>7900179
LET'S BE HONEST YOU'RE JUST RETARDED, 110% SINCERE
I've never read a single "spark note" in my life. Why not just read the book? What do people get out of these?
>>7898526
These are truly scary times we're living in
>>7898565
It's fine if you read the book, you often learn something you didn't realize about the book
>>7901977
"Why read a book when I can smoke a joint, MAAAAAAAN?" is why
>>7899791
At least American schools won't be reciting the Quran ad infinitum anytime soon
>>7901636
Murrica's literally made of immigrants, anon. Not sure what percentage of the population are native, but I'd be very surprised if it was more than 0.1%.
>>7898874
Did I ask you?
>>7902834
It's made up of DESCENDENTS of immigrants. Stop repeating platitudes & think for a second.
>>7901962
Yet another projection :)
>>7898526
Atlas shrugged doesn't bother you?
>>7902656
well better than having to study Hunger Games and Atlas Shrugged
>>7898509
Why buy those books when you can just go online?
>>7903602
faggot
>Rape
Reading a guide like sparknotes limits your ability to cultivate your critical thinking skills. Its like looking at a math solution while trying to solve the problem
>>7903602
Atlas Shrugged is laughable garbage, but the sorts of inbred mongs who'd read and value it are exactly the types of """""people""""" who'd need sparknotes so it's appropriate. This is just next-level retardation.
>>7898531
>Thinks Corncob "Tortillas" YeCarthy isn't just edgy YA
You'd actually learn more from these, sad as it is to say.
>>7901643
>Still don't know why people hate these, they can help students understand assigned books better if they're a bit below average. Also, the summaries are nice to have, especially with long books like The Count of Monte Cristo.
Do you not understand the broader implications of this? If crutches like this are the only thing allowing shit students to just barely pass, then the system is encouraging mediocrity. They should be allowed to fail if they're not up to snuff.
>>7901657
Society is a load of horseshit and the sooner it collapses the better. You can fuck right off with your "functioning person" wage-slavery apologia.
>>7898523
i bet it's the same page count
>>7900848
Boy you showed them. Coulda just pirated the eBook, cool guy.
>>7898586
To sound smart around your friends when you bond and talk about YA.
>>7900006
The Greater Courses, Arnold Weinstein is a good lecturer. There is also a Yale playlist on YouTube about 1950~ lit.
>>7905047
>They should be allowed to fail if they're not up to snuff.
Yeah, but that's not going to happen. Almost immediately after being hired as a high school English teacher, I was told that I fail no more than something like 7-9% of my students or else I would have administrators coming at me. And it was actually one of the admins who told me this, although it's usually an unspoken guideline, because he was something of a mentor to me ever since he was a teacher of mine when I was in high school.
Long story short, teachers are actually encouraged to do whatever it takes to give high marks. 3 of the 106 students i teach literally don't do anything, no work whatsoever, not even the assigments that would take 5 minutes and are only graded based on completion. That leaves me about 6 others I am allowed to fail before I find myself having to answer questions.
>>7905365
I know that it's not how the 'Murrican education system works. I'm saying that's how it should work.
>>7905365
From my experience as a kid who literally did nothing in class I can confirm this as being true. I never did any homework or assignments, and I never really did well on tests but somehow I squeaked by.
>>7905429
I realize that, which is why I started my post the way I did. I just meant to offer a concrete example of what you were saying.
>>7905455
Yeah, not surprising. It's just sad. I'm not helping anyone by passing a student who shouldn't pass, least of all that kid. I hope to be in a position to do things differently in the near future. I want to teach a smaller number of students, students who actually want to learn, with more individual time. My favorite part of teaching is when I get to spend time before or after school working with an individual student who has come to me for additional instruction.
>>7899757
I too am at a shit University. Hunger Games was on the reading list for one of my modules too so I boycotted that week.
When I explained why to my lecturer he totally understood. He had this blank look in his eyes like the liberal pleb bullshit
of being a professor had finally gotten to him.
>>7905061
>Telling /lit/ not to sperg over books
>>7898523
Because sparknotes is to aid someone in their analysis, not to substitute reading the book. Animal farm is allegorical, so it actually makes more sense to read notes on it then it would for other books.
>>7905859
>MFW I thought Napoleon was suppose to represent Hitler and not Stalin.
>>7898531
How about:
1. Jump on the left
2. Step to the right
3. Put hands on hips
4. Bring knees inside
5. Do the pelvic thrust
6. Go insane
>>7898509
Jesus, how popular is the book about the autistic kid solving a dog's death? Had to read that shit this semester for a 3000-level Lit course, and I had simply never heard of it until a few weeks back, yet here there's enough SparkNotes copies for that short ass book that it eclipses Atlas fucking Shrugged
>>7899929
Just get the Norton Critical versions of books then, if you want notes and shit. Those shits have actually decent essays for support. Hell, even Oxford's World Classics has deeper notes than the lowest-common-denominator shit in SparkNotes
>>7898509
I have not read any of these books other than the catcher in the rye. Which of these books are worth reading?
