I love to read! I got hooked early and the urge stays with me today. I particularly love the classics. But it seems that the classics have fallen out of favor with teachers and students in today’s fast paced society. Perhaps they lack the action or the pathos needed by today’s youth. It makes me sad.
Recently, however, a friend of mine put me in touch with a web site that offers a solution, “Alternatively Combined Books”. So I offer the following for consideration:
- “Jane Eyre Jordan”—Plucky English orphan girl survives hardships to lead the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship.
- “The Scarlet Pimpernel Letter”—An 18th century English nobleman leads a double life, freeing comely young adulteresses from the prisons of post-Revolution France.
- “The Remains of the Day of the Jackal”—A formal English butler puts his loyalty to his employer above all else, until he is persuaded to join a plot to assassinate Charles deGaulle.
- “Singing in the Black Rain”—A gang of vicious Japanese drug lords beat the crap out of Gene Kelly.
- “Planet of the Grapes of Wrath”—Astronaut lands on a mysterious planet, only to discover that it is his very own home planet Earth, which has been taken over by the Joads, a race of dirt poor corn farmers who miraculously developed rudimentary technology and evolved the ability to speak with gorillas after exposure to radiation.
- “Of Three Blind Mice and Men”—Two drifting brothers have their limbs hacked off by a psychopathic farmer’s wife. Did you ever see such a sight in your life?
- “Green Eggs and Hamlet”—Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not kill the king. I could not do that evil thing. I would not wed this girl, you see. Not get her to a nunnery.
I thought of one myself that might be good to add
- “Star War and Peace”—A young Jedi knight and two droids travel back to early 20th century Russia to save the Russian Army from destruction and to lead the Rebellion against the Czar’s Empire.
How about you? Any suggestions??