Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Books with so much symbolism its practically leaking out.
Books that gave you a window to the truth to reality.
Books that lead your mind in circles.
Books that lead you to rethink the aspects life itself.
Or books that just got you thinking harder than the usual book.

Anyone want to share?

Lets see. I'll start off with Feed by M.T Anderson. A future when people have microchips planted in their heads that tell them what to buy, what's in, what's out, what to watch, and what to do. It really hit close to home with its image of the mentality of the average teenager in today's society and where we might be heading, or possibly where we're already at.

Star Split by Kathryn Lasky. Just... wow. My little sister shoved it at me, and after I read it, I was really glad she did.

Every single book you're required to read in high school drips with symbolism: <u>Catch 22</u>, <u>Catcher in the Rye</u>, <u>To Kill a Mockingbird</u>, <u>A Separate Peace</u> (that one was especially bad).... The list goes on and on. It makes me sick, because I'd probably have enjoyed some of those books outside of class, but then we went and overanalyzed everything to pieces; now nothing I've ever read for school is enjoyable.

To Kill a Mockingbird... definately one of my favorite books. And one i'll certainly never forget.
First Riders Call by Kirsten Britain.
Redwall by Brian Jacques (both of the above are for personal reasons)
Moose Magic (can't remember who it's by, but it's another i'll never forget) deals with some really old conservation issues. Has more personal reasons for me loving it. *shrugs*
The Riders Handbook - horse related issues, it's so outdated now, and yet... it's still something I can read front to back and learn something new or remember something i've forgotten.

*shrugs*

At high-school my teachers always seemed to give us books that made you think, I suppose at least that way we can actually write essays about them.

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier - its a psychological thriller that has really significant ending in relation to the entire book.

Who Killed Leigh Leigh? by Kerry Carrington - its an analysis of the mindset of a town and the authorities now and at the time when a young girl was murdered at a beach party. Its based on an actual event.

Animal Farm by George Orwell - once analysed it seems to show the darker side and greed of human nature in relation to the Russin Revolution.

Anything by Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress) gets you thinking too because of all the random facts that are scattered throughout the books.

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta was also quite thought provoking in that it dealt with some of the issues students in their final years of high-school might face.

All up, I wouldn't necessarily say these books were "intellectually" thought provoking (except maybe the legal and evidential analysis in Who Killed Leigh Leigh?) but they are thought provoking on an emotional/human nature sort of level.

Well, 1984, I suppose.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. smurf <- grr
Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
1984 - George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Story of B - Daniel Quinn
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Stranger - Albert Camus

1984, animal farm, the usual suspects as far as philosophy goes realy.

the unusual ones however.

the bridge: (janene ellen young)
again not obvious, but for a few qoutes relating to mankinds rather... obsessive nature (basicly an alien race sends a message to mankind, detailing how to build a hyperspace gateway.
this message is a virus, after it wipes out most of mankind the infected who survived begin to change, and get..well.. obsessive.

i had more but my memorys fuzzed up just now so..

Igg! You told me off for saying "1984" when I mentioned this book in a different topic. Didn't you say it should have been "Nineteen Eighty-Four?"

I'm sorry, it had to be done.

(edited for length reasons)

Yeah, I read that in Year 9, its really good, although our teacher tended to go abit OTT with Mr Orwell and Mr Shakespeare (if they were alive she'd marry them both! :/)

A Child called 'It' Dave Pelzer was the most effective shocking book, changed my life. It made me value my life more and my past, I was a lucky one. Although this is definetely not for the easily destressed or young.

I really enjoyed reading a Midsummer Nights Dream. I once played Bottom, and I found it to be great fun, as well as the obvious symbolism... well it's shakespeare.

A book that helped me deal with change advised to me by a business team developer was Who Moved My Cheese by Dr Spencer Johnson. It's really easy to read and understand.

I've heard readings from a local poet called Janet Paisley... she's widely known through Scotland. Her poems are fantastic and really give a taste of the local culture, whilst staying contemporary and true-to-life. I love it.
One of her radio plays called 'Refuge' was really scary to perform. I did it for a radio class, and it really opened my eyes up to the horrible things that happen to woman that end up in women's refuges. It was disturbing, but yet again, made me thankful for the life that's been given to me.

Actually, I just read that last week. The ending was kinda depressing. And Titus's female friends reallllllly bugged me.

A book that got me thinking was The Giver. I read it for the first time in 5th grade, and again in 7th. We had class discussions, and it really made you...well, think. Especially at the ending. All of us hadn't read the companions (Gathering Blue and Messenger) to The Giver at the time, and we were discussing the different scenarios that could've occured...and...yeah.

Although that'd be illegal considering they both had wives.

Ooo... I've read The Giver before and it really made me think a lot. It was a good book, but the ending (about the echo) I didn't really understand.

Other books that made me think were Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. They really made me think about how other people feel.

All my English teachers seemed to go OTT with one thing or another, year 10 it was forms of torture, year 11 is was war and year 12 it was the criminals. Maybe its just an English teacher thing? Only really normal one I had was in year 8 and he used to come to class with black-eyes after playing rugby.

Nonetheless, I was pretty much driven insane by Animal Farm after we'd analysed it over and over and over again, "Hey, remove the status quo and by the end of the story its back again" *dances* My brother is actually studying it now. I did however manage to get two exam answers out of the one book, I suppose its because I actually spent time memorizing the symbolism and learning about who the characters represented.

Worst bit in that book IMHO is when the older horse (I can't remember his name now) is betrayed.