All About Books discussion

Week 74 brings us to the 1954 classic, Lord of the Flies.

The Guardian article can be read here. This week's article struck me as unusually interesting (I'm not sure why).

I haven't read this one but it's one I hear about so much. I think it would be interesting to read.

I read this back in school. It strikes me now, as an older adult, that Golding had a very good understanding of boys. It was therefore a sort of "aha!" moment for me when I read in the Guardian article that he was working in a boys school when he wrote this!

I personally thought it was 'rubbish and dull' when I read it a few years ago (just like the article states at the top).

Maybe I should give it a go again

I read this at School and I enjoyed all the work we did around it. I think id like to re read now I'm older.

It took me a couple of attempts to read this. First time around I was thoroughly bored by the halfway point, but when I picked it up a couple of years later I ploughed through and thought it was worth the effort. I agree it's an excellent examination of how teenage boys can behave together in a pack mentality.

I waited a lot before reading it, but I think it is one of the most beautiful novel of the XX century. Terrible, but terribly true ...

I re-read this last summer, many years after I read and loved it at school. I think if anything it was even more astonishing when I read it again as an adult, and absolutely chilling.

Paulfozz wrote: "I re-read this last summer, many years after I read and loved it at school. I think if anything it was even more astonishing when I read it again as an adult, and absolutely chilling."

How I do agree with you Paul. Chilling is the word

I read this at school and thought it was very good. I can even remember the class discussion about it. It's probably time I re-read it!

I asked my sister if she had read it but she said she hated it, then again I wouldn't say she's the best person to ask in the first place. She thinks that about 95% of the books she reads.

LOL

I had to read this book in high school, and I really disliked it. I found the content disturbing and the writing not very attractive. On my own, I would not have ever chosen this book to read.

I read this book twice and both times thought it was really excellent - so incisive, and as Paul and Laura say, yes, chilling. Things don't often happen on this sort of scale perhaps, but the half-buried human impulses explored in this book come out all the time in subtler ways. This book along with A Separate Peace are, in my opinion, two of the best and most revealing looks into the dark underbelly of human psychology that I've ever read.

Has anyone read anything else by William Golding? I've always been curious to try another one by him, but this is the only one I've read so far.

I read it last year, and just fell in love with it! I love how dark and chilling it is. Best of all, I was left obsessing over it for days after I read it. I was so moved by it that I actually wrote a paper about it in one of my classes.

I read it in school and remember enjoying it quie a bit. Then I reread it this year and found it a bit dull and contrived. I can't really reconcile the twovery different reactions.

Albert wrote: "I read it in school and remember enjoying it quie a bit. Then I reread it this year and found it a bit dull and contrived. I can't really reconcile the two very different reactions."

I am afraid of that happening so I have been somewhat reluctant to reread books that I liked in school. Sometimes books speak to us at a certain point in life but then after we age and grow they no longer have the same impact. Of course, the reverse is also true -- books we dislike as teens or young adults might appeal to us later in life. .

I recently read 1984 again after a similar interval. I loved it as much as the first time. It really does vary. I don't re read a lot. Just those books that I read in my teens that I am afraid I might not have fully appreciated at that time.

Albert wrote: "I recently read 1984 again after a similar interval. I loved it as much as the first time. It really does vary. I don't re read a lot. Just those books that I read in my teens that I am afraid I mi..."

I recently re read To Kill A Mockingbird and loved it more than when I read it at school. Not tried to re read this one yet, though. I think it depends on the book!

When I re-read this a couple years ago, I liked it even more than I did the first time!

Greg wrote: "When I re-read this a couple years ago, I liked it even more than I did the first time!"

Me too!

Greg wrote: "When I re-read this a couple years ago, I liked it even more than I did the first time!"

This is why I am in conflict! I don't want to "ruin" a good impression if I don't like it as much but on the other hand, I might like it even more! I acquired an audiobook edition of Lord of the Flies over the summer so I will definitely be revisiting this one, so glad to hear you and Laura both had good rereads!