Views from a frantic angle.
22 Nov 2004
The The C.S. Lewis Bilingual Gymnaziumin in Bratislava, Slovakia.
And there’s the opportunity: to help Douglas and the CS Lewis school bring English-which the students call “the language of freedom”-and a bit of genuine America, which is still widely misunderstood in the former East Block, to the teenagers of Petrzalka. Together, with just a bit of time and energy, we can build an English-language library right in the center of a former Soviet-era apartment complex.
Here’s how we can help strengthen the good: Below is a list of books the school needs for the English and American Studies programs … the items with an asterisk are those for which they need several copies (as many as twenty each to use for literature classes). Anything else they will use to build the library. Douglas also notes that:
... obviously, people shouldn’t feel limited by the list. If they have something in English that they think is worth sending, bring it on.
So if you’ve been waiting to get rid of that Baseball Almanac, here’s your chance.
Here’s Douglas’ list:
* Any Anthology of American Literature * 1984 by George Orwell* * The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain * The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain * The American by Henry James * American Dream by Norman Mailer* * Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt* * Animal Farm by George Orwell* * Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery * Anthem by Ayn Rand* * Beloved by Toni Morrison * Boy by Roald Dahl* * The Call of the Wild by Jack London * The Canterrbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer * The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde * Catch 22 by Joseph Heller* * Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger* * Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko * A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens* * Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau * Color Purple by Alice Walker* The * The Crucible by Arthur Miller* * Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton * Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury * A Death in the Family James Agee * The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank* * Dubliners by James Joyce* * Dune by Frank Herbert * East of Eden by John Steinbeck * Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury * The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories by Edgar Allen Poe * Five One-Act Plays by Donn Byrne * Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes * The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand * Frankenstein by Mary Shelley * Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge* * Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin * The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck * The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis* * Great Expectations by Charles Dickens* * The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald* * Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift * The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde* * Harvey by Mary Chase* * The Hawk and the Dove Trilogy by Penelope Wilcox * The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien* * Holes by Louis Sachar* * In Cold Blood by Truman Capote * Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison * Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte * The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara * Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman* * Little Women by Louisa May Alcott * The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien* * Maus (parts 1 and 2) by Art Spiegelman * The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy * Moby Dick by Herman Melville * The Natural by Bernard Malamud * Night by Elie Wiesel * Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck* * Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway* * Old Yeller by Fred Gibson * The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde* * Pilgrims Inn by Elizabeth Goudge * Poetry by Emily Dickinson * Poetry by T. S. Eliot * A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry* * The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane* * Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe * The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne * Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally* * The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis* * The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett * * Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen * Short Stories by Edgar Allen Poe* * Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway * The Sound and the Fur by William Faulkner * Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls * Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome* * To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee* * Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson * The Turn of the Screw by Henry James * Walden by Henry David Thoreau * A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins * The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot* * Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls* * Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte * Any English Language Dictionary * Rand McNally Goode’s World Atlas by J. Paul Goode, John C. Hudson (Editor), Edward B., Jr. Espenshade (Editor) * DK Atlas of World History by Jeremy Black * The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004 by Editors of World Almanac * Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World’s Wildlife by David Burnie * Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, Third Edition by Mayo Clinic * Roget International Thesaurus Indexed Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer Random House Webster’s College Dictionary by Random House * Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature by Merriam-Webster * Scientific American Science Desk Reference by Scientific American * The Encyclopedia of Science and Technology by James S. Trefil * Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces by Wendy Beckett * Art: The World’s Greatest Paintings Explored and Explained by Robert Cumming * Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English * Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary * Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary * Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia by Bruce Murphy
One way to think of it: send your favorite (or two, or three, or five) from the list above … if it had an impact on your life, it will certainly have an impact on the life of a student in Petrzalka. Me, I’m sending The Fountainhead and The Killer Angels (because Howard Roark laughed, and because Laurence Chamberlain was the man).
You may send books to:
Douglas Dart
C.S. Lewis Bilingual High School
Benadicka 38/A
Bratislava 85106
Slovak Republic
⇑ by Rick Silletti in Column and STG
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