<p>Any (potential) Quakers here excited about the upcoming release of the sixth Harry Potter book?</p>
<p>Surely Ivy League students should be reading something of a higher standard than Harry Potter...?</p>
<p>I read those when I was like 13...</p>
<p>or not... I read books that I like not like crap ass books like war and peace that people say they like cause they are too gay to go out and get a real book like HP</p>
<p>Penn has what are called "Preceptorials." These are "classes" that meet about 3 times per semester, with no tests or projects and no credit awarded. They are meant for learning things that you are interested in. Harry Potter Movie 4 and Book 6 is one of the preceptorials. So yes, Ivy students do read HP :) Other preceptorials include the brewing of coffee, architecture in philly, stem cell research, etc.</p>
<p>True_limp, don't be a literary snob. I like Harry Potter but I also read Woolf, Dostoevsky, etc. for fun too.</p>
<p>i've already ordered the sixth book, lol.. i'm that much of a dork :-D</p>
<p>And there is nothing wrong with reading harry potter.. actually, most of the people I know here have read them! Arrogance will get you no where at penn</p>
<p>Praguer, last time i read Woolf, i almost had a stroke. THat **** is intense!</p>
<p>Woolf is *<strong><em>. Tolstoy (thats War and Peace) is *</em></strong>. So is JK Rowling.</p>
<p>Sorry; its the truth.</p>
<p>Read James Joyce.</p>
<p>ps - Im not a literary snob, I am merely right.</p>
<p>pps - im only messing with all of you. ive read all the HP books, and theyre not so bad; i just thought it a slightly immature question to ask...</p>
<p>Go read some Graham Green (my favorite author atm).</p>
<p>already have, if you mean Graham Greene. rather good.</p>
<p>Oh I do, I forgot the E.</p>
<p>I can't wait to read more of him -- The Heart of the Matter is my favorite book (just ahead of The Plague by Camus). Do I have a thing for books taking place in African colonies or what?!</p>
<p>I want to read Ulyses by James Joyce and Middlemarch (to see a different perspective from Jane Eyre).</p>
<p>omg...my reading level seems sooooo inferior to all you guys! i havent even heard of Woolfe...</p>
<p>who is he/she? what kind of stuff does this person write?</p>
<p>Woolf is a she, and she's a good writer. Unusual though; if I had tried to read her outside of school, I don't think I would've "gotten" it all. She does "stream of consciousness" stuff, like James Joyce (whom I haven't read, because we haven't done him in school. I think kids often brag about reading the books they have actually been forced to read.) </p>
<p>BTW, true_limp, JK Rowling rules. You know it, you luv it, accept it. I just hope the next book is more on par with the earlier books than the later ones. They may be kids stuff, but why get rid of your inner child?
Kids' books shouldn't be things you outgrow - on the contrary, those are often the ones that stick with you through life.</p>
<p>HP rules!</p>
<p>And the release date for the 6th book is 5 days defore my birthday!</p>
<p>does not matter if u are goin ivy or not..... anyone can read HP....
are ivy kids to be narrow-minded to say wat kinda books are not gd?</p>
<p>weirdoone - i dont like rowling, especially as a person - shes in the media alot over here and god does she play it up.</p>
<p>As for Woolf, she is essentially an inferior and patronising verison of Joyce. Also, do you really think any school is going to force someone to read a 933-page book? We were forced, as it were, to read Mrs Dalloway, and I was told that Joyce did what she did, but better, so I started reading Ulysses.</p>
<p>Also, I know that 'anyone can read HP' - and everyone does - but yeah, I would've thought that what current and prospective ivy-leaguers would be reading possibly more insightful and intelligent books than a series written for the demographic young girls (ie those who buy whatever the advertisements tell them to). I definitely liked the books, back when I was young, but if I still did everything I did when I was 12, I;d still be listening to the Backstreet Boys, and watching lots of Star Wars movies...</p>
<p>Ill stop my diatribe now.</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>Well, I do have a few things to respond to, here...</p>
<p>First of all, I was required to read "The Count of Monte Cristo" for school this year (an advanced English course). Page count: 875. Dumas is also a very good writer - not the most literary, true, but he spins a h*** of a good yarn. I highly recommend the book - but, doubtless, you've already read it ;)</p>
<p>Second thing: HP is not made to cater to girls. If you want, I'll grant you that the series has changed over time, but it certainly didn't begin that way. J.K. is known as J.K. because her publisher feared that she'd lose her male audience if they knew she was a woman. Ain't it sad?</p>
<p>Third thing: Star Wars (the original series) rules. I won't elaborate here because I don't have to: the stuff speaks for itself. </p>
<p>Fourth thing: I feel inclined to point out that the best literature appeals both to the head and the heart (and neither at the expense of the other). I can't think of anything that has entirely succeeded at doing both, but that's the ideal. There's no need for anyone to restrict themselves in their reading, and "current and prospective ivy-leaguers" especially cannot allow themselves to be limited to and boxed in by "great literature." The idea of reading, after all, is to expand in the mind, and not narrow it. </p>
<p>Eschew snobbery! Ciao.</p>
<p>in my current (regular) english class, we were told for the last project we can read basically whatever we want (as long as its our reading level) so I picked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Its a good book. HP was not allowed - they are just too easy to read, it took me like 2 days (while I was actually doing other stuff) to read the first 4, and another day for the fifth.</p>
<p>How does reading a Harry Potter book expand my mind, when it offers nothing in the way of the escapism that a Lord of the Rings (also a series) would offer me?</p>
<p>Most female authors who use initials instead of forenames throughout the centuries have done so to not lose the male demographic. Why do you think Jane Austen originally used a male pseudonym to publish?</p>
<p>And this is not meant to be snobbery, just the other side of your coin</p>