Saturday, June 13, 2015

2015 Reading Challenge Book 068 1984

TITLE-1984
AUTHOR-George Orwell
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Nope
PRICE-$1

I will assume that most of yall reading this know what this book is about. So not going to bother with a half ass plot synopsis.

I first became aware of this classic when I was 8. One of my older cousins was in a local production of 1984. We went to see him,and the next day while at the library I checked out the book. Over the course of the next week I read the book. And really enjoyed it.

So years later I had started AP English,which was basically a literature class. And the first book we got assigned was 1984. Ever 3 weeks we got assigned a book. Along with the book the teacher gave you a packet of questions. With a page full of questions for each chapter. Quickly someone in the class discovered the questions were copied word for word out of Cliff's Notes. Wait do Cliff's Notes still exist? Anyway once word got out about how the teacher had stolen the questions out of Cliff's Notes every one ended up buying Cliff's Notes and not bothering to read the book. Since I had already read it before and really liked it I went ahead and re-read the book.

The teacher also had taken the time to not only get a copy of the film adaptation from 1984,but also edited out all the nudity and foul language. Yeah cause you don't want a group of 15 year olds seeing or hearing that vulgar stuff :P We watched it in class and because huge chunks of the film were missing every one else had no clue what was happening.

Well at the end of the 3 weeks we took a test on the book. With a bonus question worth 20 points. The teacher wanted us to convert the Declaration of independence into the new English of the novel. I watched as everyone else in the class spend almost the entire period trying to convert it over. I remembered that in my copy of the novel in the afterword the writer mentioned that the Declaration of Independence would translate into two words "Thought Crime". So while everyone else wrote paragraphs ,I wrote two words and made 120 on the test.

But yeah if you haven't read this book,and I am shocked when I meet people that didn't have to read this in either high school or college,go get a copy. Hell I am pretty sure it is in the public domain,so you should be able to find an e-book copy for free.

1984 gets a 4.86 outta 5.

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