nice response to yesterday's query, kids... thanks! :-) below, you'll find a list of what you're reading, in the order in which responses flooded in. but before that, i simply have to quote Philip Pullman here, from an acceptance speech he gave when receiving the prestigious Carnegie Medal of 1996, England's highest honor for children's literature. by the way, if you haven't read any of Pullman's work, I highly and thoroughly recommend it. many of you know I've loved the Harry Potter series... well, I like Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy even better! anyway, here's what Pullman had to say in that speech:

Now I don't mean children are supernaturally wise little angels gifted with the power of seeing the truth that the dull eyes of adults miss. They're not. They're ignorant little savages, most of them. But they know what they need, and they go for it with the intensity of passion, and what they need is stories. Why do they spend so much time watching TV? They're not watching documentaries about Eastern Europe or programs about politics. They're watching drama, film, story. They can't get enough of it. There's a hunger for stories in all of us, adults too. We need stories so much that we're even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won't supply them. We all need stories, but children are more frank about it; cultured adults, on the other hand, those limp and jaded creatures who think it more important to seem sophisticated than to admit to simplicity, find it harder both to write and to read novels that don't come with a prophylactic garnish of irony.

"ignorant little savages"?!? bah, not the kids I know and love, Mr. Pullman. (well, okay, perhaps a couple of 'em ::snicker::) anyway, you'll find the complete text of that speech here. and now, for a most fascinating listlog (good question to ask yourself here, as you browse the list -- what seems to be reading for school, and what for pleasure?):

• Cole
  + Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
  + Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Nyogen Senzaki
  + Cole's complete list on this page

• Evi
  + I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  + Othello by William Shakespeare
  + Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  

• Quad
  + The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
  + Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
  + Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
  + Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
  

• Kass
  + Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind
  + Sword of Truth (series) (reread) by Terry Goodkind
  + The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  + Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

• Spark
  + The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  + Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
  + Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

• David
  + The French Revolution by [unnamed]
  + Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan

• Trevor
  + Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  + The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
  + Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

• Anna
  + Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
  + Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

• Tomas
  + The Golden Compass (reread) by Philip Pullman
  + The Subtle Knife (reread) by Philip Pullman
  + The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

• Damien
  + a recommendation:
  + A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
  + "Interesting, well-written fiction about some unbelievably ignorant people!"

• Bigi
  + The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams
  + Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

• Aaron Paul
  + The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato
  + Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
  + The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

• Laura
  + Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers by Niobe Way

• Allie
  + Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford
  + 10th Kingdom by Kathryn Wesley

• Aaron
  + The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte
  + Winged Seed by Li-Young Lee

• Luis
  + Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
  + The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte

• Fletcher
  + The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
  + Five Lectures in Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
  + Tom's complete and pithily annotated list on this page

• Kevin
  + This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
  + The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

• Daniel
  + Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
  + The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

• Shine-Ning
  + The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
  + Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
  + War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

• Tania
  + Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (again) by J.K. Rowling
  + Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (again) by J.K. Rowling
  + The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• Devin
  + Ulysses by James Joyce
  + Hamlet by William Shakespeare
  + Prophecy by Vance Moore

• Fed
  + Hamlet by William Shakespeare
  + Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

• Giancarlo
  + Sports Illustrated
  + Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere by A. Westbrook and O. Ratti
  + The SIMS Guide

• Ozzie
  + The Republic by Plato
  + Oedipus the King by Sophocles
  + The Bible ("from a literary point of view for school")
  + Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

• Maciej
  + Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy
  + Vertical Run by Joseph R. Garber
  + Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

• Jorge
  + Antigone by Sophocles
  + Spaceballs: The Book by R.L. Stine

...probably more to come, to add to this list -- i haven't heard from Kati, Abraham, Yong-Eun, Mike et al. come out, come out, wherever you are! ;-)

interestingly, some guy e-mailed me from out of the blue... David Gagne was "serendipity surfing" and found my weblog, so he responded. check out his weblog... it's pretty cool (he uses blogger, not Manila). but be forewarned: he has a webcam on, and sometimes he's wearing, uh, not too many stitches of clothing. ::snicker:: this is David's list:

• Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
  
• My Goodness: A Cynic's Short-Lived Search for Sainthood by Joe Queenan
  
• A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
  
• bots by Andrew Leonard
• and, of course Sports Illustrated, Visual Basic Programmer's Journal, Harper's, and The Atlantic Monthly

{ net.casting }
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