My AP Lit teacher gave us a list of options to choose from: 1984, Brave New World, The Road, Fahrenheit 451, and Slaughterhouse Five. What would you recommend?
All are classics worth a read. My personal favorite is slaughterhouse five. The road is one of the most bleak and depressing books. 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are more relevant than ever these days
PsyferRL on
Agreeing with *Slaughterhouse-Five* a hundred times over. The best novel I’ve read in years. And it shouldn’t take too long to read!
I haven’t taken notes while reading a book since my AP/IB Lit days myself, but *Slaughterhouse-Five* made me **want** to take notes simply to just remember passages that felt important/memorable/hilarious.
Savings-Discussion88 on
Slaughterhouse five is my favorite from those.
It holds up to multiple rereads.
1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are strong thematically.
Not a fan of Brave new world
SteMelMan on
I haven’t read The Road, so I’ll skip commenting on that one.
My personal favorite among this group is Brave New World, but the writing style is kind of clunky. However, it does give some readers hope that they can end their education as soon as possible and just follow the whims of the government as far as work and life choices and live a blissfully unexamined life!
1984 is tricky. Like Lord of the Flies, it can be read as a straight drama with all sorts of villainy and mayhem. Or it can be read as a satire, in which case, readers are laughing at the absurdities.
I’m mixed on Fahrenheit 451 nowadays. It was written at a time when most knowledge was contained in books, which had to be read and studied to gain knowledge. I feel like with the advent of tiny computers everywhere, many people have been forced to be better read and knowledgeable just to access anything. Literacy has transformed, so is the book’s lesson lost?
I remember going through a Vonnegut reading phase, which included SHF. He has an interesting style, but I don’t remember much about the book aside from living with WW2 memories. Didn’t make much of an impact on me.
Good Luck choosing!
Interesting_Space179 on
depends what you like!
1984 and Brave New World are both about futuristic dystopian societies where the govt is kind of pretending to make life better for people while really making it terrible, both have a little bit of romance(?) but that’s def not the point of either
The Road is more apocalyptic I think and the main relationship is more father/son dynamic (no romance) (the author also wrote No Country for Old Men, similar vibes, very different plot), more of a bleak “manly adventure”
Slaughterhouse 5 is the most absurd on the list and like almost funny at times? also the least chronologically linear, maybe the most out-there on that list (was my favorite in hs) kid of hard to follow if you’re not used to non-linear stories
Farenheit 541 I haven’t read in forever, but I guess I would group it more with 1984 and Brave New World
Coffee-with-a-straw on
1984- but you should read all of them at some point.
Jlanc336 on
Do. Not. Choose. The. Road.
LOL! English degree here and I still hate that book.
It’s like the antithesis of National Lampoons Vacation. It sucks all of the joy out of you!
Specialist-Web7854 on
Slaughterhouse Five
Andizzle195 on
Fahrenheit 451. So applicable to today’s world with mass media, instant gratification of social media, shorter attention spans and a society sitting idly by when we can stop things from getting worse
11 Comments
Slaughterhouse 5
1984
All are classics worth a read. My personal favorite is slaughterhouse five. The road is one of the most bleak and depressing books. 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are more relevant than ever these days
Agreeing with *Slaughterhouse-Five* a hundred times over. The best novel I’ve read in years. And it shouldn’t take too long to read!
I haven’t taken notes while reading a book since my AP/IB Lit days myself, but *Slaughterhouse-Five* made me **want** to take notes simply to just remember passages that felt important/memorable/hilarious.
Slaughterhouse five is my favorite from those.
It holds up to multiple rereads.
1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are strong thematically.
Not a fan of Brave new world
I haven’t read The Road, so I’ll skip commenting on that one.
My personal favorite among this group is Brave New World, but the writing style is kind of clunky. However, it does give some readers hope that they can end their education as soon as possible and just follow the whims of the government as far as work and life choices and live a blissfully unexamined life!
1984 is tricky. Like Lord of the Flies, it can be read as a straight drama with all sorts of villainy and mayhem. Or it can be read as a satire, in which case, readers are laughing at the absurdities.
I’m mixed on Fahrenheit 451 nowadays. It was written at a time when most knowledge was contained in books, which had to be read and studied to gain knowledge. I feel like with the advent of tiny computers everywhere, many people have been forced to be better read and knowledgeable just to access anything. Literacy has transformed, so is the book’s lesson lost?
I remember going through a Vonnegut reading phase, which included SHF. He has an interesting style, but I don’t remember much about the book aside from living with WW2 memories. Didn’t make much of an impact on me.
Good Luck choosing!
depends what you like!
1984 and Brave New World are both about futuristic dystopian societies where the govt is kind of pretending to make life better for people while really making it terrible, both have a little bit of romance(?) but that’s def not the point of either
The Road is more apocalyptic I think and the main relationship is more father/son dynamic (no romance) (the author also wrote No Country for Old Men, similar vibes, very different plot), more of a bleak “manly adventure”
Slaughterhouse 5 is the most absurd on the list and like almost funny at times? also the least chronologically linear, maybe the most out-there on that list (was my favorite in hs) kid of hard to follow if you’re not used to non-linear stories
Farenheit 541 I haven’t read in forever, but I guess I would group it more with 1984 and Brave New World
1984- but you should read all of them at some point.
Do. Not. Choose. The. Road.
LOL! English degree here and I still hate that book.
It’s like the antithesis of National Lampoons Vacation. It sucks all of the joy out of you!
Slaughterhouse Five
Fahrenheit 451. So applicable to today’s world with mass media, instant gratification of social media, shorter attention spans and a society sitting idly by when we can stop things from getting worse