Books you wish you could've done in the IB

[SC2Player]

Just wondering what books you would've liked to read and discuss in the IB.  My list below (not exhaustive):

• Catch-22: Just finished this; surprisingly potent mixture of tragedy and comedy
• Tono-Bungay: Somewhat obscure novel by Wells, overshadowed I think by his science fiction, but is quite a good criticism of certain facets of Victorian society
• Infinite Jest: Probably too lengthy to actually be part of the IB syllabus, but just a great novel overall (although to nitpick a little after re-reading it about 8 times, some of the math seems a bit strange; I mean, seriously, 'post-Fourier analysis'?  Also, the derivative of xⁿ is wrong, though it may be just a typo)
• 1984/Animal Farm: Dark, but poignant.  
• Anything by Dickens, Hardy etc.
• The Iliad/The Odyssey/The Aeneid: Does depend on translation, I suppose, but I particularly liked Fitzgerald's version - manages to preserve a poetic style while simultaneously .  Pope's version is arguably the best in his use of language, but some of the events in the Iliad are a bit skewed; Achilles is portrayed as antagonizing Agamemnon as opposed to just standing up for the priest, and Odysseus seems both wise and cunning, which isn't really reflected in the other translations (he feels more inclined to be cunning, while Diomedes fills the role of wisdom).  

[Befuddled]

The Great Gatsby

Animal Farm

1984

Any of Margaret Atwood's

[aTeddy]

The texts that I've studied in IB English have been really a mixed bag. Some texts I loved, like Waiting for Godot and Hamlet. On the flipside, there have been a good deal of texts that I've disliked, like Cloudstreet, Kite Runner, The Visit and Wuthering Heights. Overall we've done a good bit of Orwell [1984, assorted essays], but I would love to do more of his lesser known works like Down and Out in London and Paris/The Road to Wigan Pier. I would also love to have done Franz Kafka's Metamorphoses/ Amerika. I'm doing The Trial for my English EE, though I really love his style. My IB teachers for English seem to dislike the big staples for American literature, except for the Great Gatsby which isn't a great picture for the American dream in honesty. So maybe, something like The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger. One more that comes to mind is the Clockwork Orange, which I would love to analyse in a literary context.

 

[Nomenclature]

I have to confess that I don't understand the 1984 obsession. We read it and—well—it's nice for paper two and all, a decent political treatise, but just not my idea of a great novel. I like Animal Farm more, but still I would never let either of them near my top books.

@Befuddled We read Atwood's Morning in the Burned House, a collection of poetry, and it was wonderful. One of my favorite books, and I haven't read much poetry at all. I mention it because I need to read more of Atwood, and it seems like A Handmaid's Tale has really surged in popularity, but MITHB was incredible.

@aTeddy Ditto on Hamlet; and thank goodness, we read the Kite Runner in Pre-IB, and it seemed like I was the only one in my class who shared your feelings toward it. Not a horrible novel, but just not good. I read The Road to Wigan Pier for my History IA, but I'm going to disagree with you on that one. I don't know if you've read it, but the first part of the book about mining is fascinating but then book drags as Orwell goes on to housing. His political arguments are interesting, especially in a historical context, but I could see it as being a boring book for many students.

Personally, I have to argue for my one of my favorite books of all time which is In the Light of What We Know. The book dovetails a lot of issues that pertain to IB and would be superb for Theory of Knowledge. I think it would open up a lot of minds.