Just thought I'd stick my nose in here since some of the others from my cycle have done so - again, I don't belong in the thread (but couldn't resist having a quick look to see what this year's lot is like!).
Took a gap year and (miraculously) got a place at St Hugh's, Oxford this year, so if anyone wants advice on gap years or Oxbridge, feel free to PM me =).
Pretty much all the non-medieval period papers (although I think it's possible to do the Shakespeare paper).
Also, is it offered by all colleges?
As far as I know, it's technically possible to do Course II at any college offering English. Only a handful of colleges (including my undergraduate college) actually encourage their students to seriously consider it, though. Those colleges tend to have two or three students every year who opt for Course II, whereas others never seem to have any.
I am another Brasenose applicant, mainly because it's the only college I've been to (access day). Or not, seeing as absolutely everyone seems to want to apply there. Might go for St Hilda's instead.
I have finished my PS and am currently trying to read absolutely everything all at once. I've just finished 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers. It's one of those books that hurts your soooul, Grapes-of-Wrath style, and is possibly the saddest, loneliest book I've ever read. Loved it.
On a more cheerful note I read 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard yesterday and didn't stop to look at the page numbers once. It was great. One thing I love about reading plays is that you can finish them in a day and feel like you've achieved something. I was reading 'The Sea, The Sea' by Iris Murdoch but I wasn't enjoying it at all. I will return to it at a later date. Next on my to-read list are the poems of James Berry, Anne Stevenson and Tony Harrison, 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller, 'The Bell' by Iris Murdoch and 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' by Patrick Hamilton. Anyone read any of these? Any good?
So how many books are people reading each week? The Oxbridge coordinator at my school says that Cambridge want you to be reading four. I was like lol no. Obviously reading loads is not the point at all, and Oxbridge would much rather have talented people who have read a little than rubbish people who have read loads, but I am interested all the same.
Just for fun here's a list of my favourite books:
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
As for poetry I like Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Kathryn Simmonds, T.S. Eliot, Carol-Ann Duffy, Yeats, Anne Horovitz, U.A. Fanthorpe, Milton, Andrew Marvell, John Donne, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Benjamin Zepheniah, Wilfred Owen, D.H. Lawrence, Tennyson, Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, Stevie Smith blah blah etc. etc. plus performance poets such as Byron Vincent, Rosy Carrick and so on.
Anyway hai you guyz. Sorry for the essay and for any unintentional dick-swinging.
Welcome!
I seem to have a million books on the go at the moment as well
Currently its: Behind the Scenes at the Museum (A2 text), a re-reading of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Great Gatsby and a crateload of poetry...but it's all good .
and I also love performance poetry- did anybody go and see Benjamin Zephaniah in Solihull in June?
I am another Brasenose applicant, mainly because it's the only college I've been to (access day). Or not, seeing as absolutely everyone seems to want to apply there. Might go for St Hilda's instead.
I have finished my PS and am currently trying to read absolutely everything all at once. I've just finished 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers. It's one of those books that hurts your soooul, Grapes-of-Wrath style, and is possibly the saddest, loneliest book I've ever read. Loved it.
On a more cheerful note I read 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard yesterday and didn't stop to look at the page numbers once. It was great. One thing I love about reading plays is that you can finish them in a day and feel like you've achieved something. I was reading 'The Sea, The Sea' by Iris Murdoch but I wasn't enjoying it at all. I will return to it at a later date. Next on my to-read list are the poems of James Berry, Anne Stevenson and Tony Harrison, 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller, 'The Bell' by Iris Murdoch and 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' by Patrick Hamilton. Anyone read any of these? Any good?
So how many books are people reading each week? The Oxbridge coordinator at my school says that Cambridge want you to be reading four. I was like lol no. Obviously reading loads is not the point at all, and Oxbridge would much rather have talented people who have read a little than rubbish people who have read loads, but I am interested all the same.
Just for fun here's a list of my favourite books:
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
As for poetry I like Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Kathryn Simmonds, T.S. Eliot, Carol-Ann Duffy, Yeats, Anne Horovitz, U.A. Fanthorpe, Milton, Andrew Marvell, John Donne, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Benjamin Zepheniah, Wilfred Owen, D.H. Lawrence, Tennyson, Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, Stevie Smith blah blah etc. etc. plus performance poets such as Byron Vincent, Rosy Carrick and so on.
Anyway hai you guyz. Sorry for the essay and for any unintentional dick-swinging.
Byron Vincent is hilarious - saw him in Cheltenham
Pretty much all the non-medieval period papers (although I think it's possible to do the Shakespeare paper).
As far as I know, it's technically possible to do Course II at any college offering English. Only a handful of colleges (including my undergraduate college) actually encourage their students to seriously consider it, though. Those colleges tend to have two or three students every year who opt for Course II, whereas others never seem to have any.
Which college are you at? I was looking at St Hugh's but haven't decided yet.
I am another Brasenose applicant, mainly because it's the only college I've been to (access day). Or not, seeing as absolutely everyone seems to want to apply there. Might go for St Hilda's instead.
I have finished my PS and am currently trying to read absolutely everything all at once. I've just finished 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers. It's one of those books that hurts your soooul, Grapes-of-Wrath style, and is possibly the saddest, loneliest book I've ever read. Loved it.
On a more cheerful note I read 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard yesterday and didn't stop to look at the page numbers once. It was great. One thing I love about reading plays is that you can finish them in a day and feel like you've achieved something. I was reading 'The Sea, The Sea' by Iris Murdoch but I wasn't enjoying it at all. I will return to it at a later date. Next on my to-read list are the poems of James Berry, Anne Stevenson and Tony Harrison, 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller, 'The Bell' by Iris Murdoch and 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' by Patrick Hamilton. Anyone read any of these? Any good?
So how many books are people reading each week? The Oxbridge coordinator at my school says that Cambridge want you to be reading four. I was like lol no. Obviously reading loads is not the point at all, and Oxbridge would much rather have talented people who have read a little than rubbish people who have read loads, but I am interested all the same.
Just for fun here's a list of my favourite books:
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
As for poetry I like Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Kathryn Simmonds, T.S. Eliot, Carol-Ann Duffy, Yeats, Anne Horovitz, U.A. Fanthorpe, Milton, Andrew Marvell, John Donne, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Benjamin Zepheniah, Wilfred Owen, D.H. Lawrence, Tennyson, Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, Stevie Smith blah blah etc. etc. plus performance poets such as Byron Vincent, Rosy Carrick and so on.
Anyway hai you guyz. Sorry for the essay and for any unintentional dick-swinging.
I really think you'll enjoy The Bell by Iris Murdoch. It’s told from different perspectives, so the way the characters perceive each other and interpret situations in different ways is really interesting and sometimes even funny. The characters are all fascinating; they’re really well-developed and realistic, and to see them try to reconcile their morals and religion with the reality of their daily lives is fascinating. In other words: I loved it, one of my favourite novels!
I'm currently reading Dickens' Bleak House, Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen (re-reading it for a possible essay), Twelfth Night and a lot of poetry, mainly Byron and Keats (my absolute favourites). I always read lots at the same time!
'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' by Patrick Hamilton.
Unbelievably good. One of my interviews was basically the interviewer going: "omg, someone who likes Patrick Hamilton who's not a middle-aged man!" and me going: "omg, I know!", only with a few more vaguely intelligent comments here and there. Patrick Hamilton is terribly underrated, and "Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky" has made a greater impact on me than any other book I've read. The final sentence is devastating.
So yes, read it! And good luck with your application.
I am another Brasenose applicant, mainly because it's the only college I've been to (access day). Or not, seeing as absolutely everyone seems to want to apply there. Might go for St Hilda's instead.
I have finished my PS and am currently trying to read absolutely everything all at once. I've just finished 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers. It's one of those books that hurts your soooul, Grapes-of-Wrath style, and is possibly the saddest, loneliest book I've ever read. Loved it.
On a more cheerful note I read 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard yesterday and didn't stop to look at the page numbers once. It was great. One thing I love about reading plays is that you can finish them in a day and feel like you've achieved something. I was reading 'The Sea, The Sea' by Iris Murdoch but I wasn't enjoying it at all. I will return to it at a later date. Next on my to-read list are the poems of James Berry, Anne Stevenson and Tony Harrison, 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller, 'The Bell' by Iris Murdoch and 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' by Patrick Hamilton. Anyone read any of these? Any good?
So how many books are people reading each week? The Oxbridge coordinator at my school says that Cambridge want you to be reading four. I was like lol no. Obviously reading loads is not the point at all, and Oxbridge would much rather have talented people who have read a little than rubbish people who have read loads, but I am interested all the same.
Just for fun here's a list of my favourite books:
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
As for poetry I like Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Kathryn Simmonds, T.S. Eliot, Carol-Ann Duffy, Yeats, Anne Horovitz, U.A. Fanthorpe, Milton, Andrew Marvell, John Donne, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Benjamin Zepheniah, Wilfred Owen, D.H. Lawrence, Tennyson, Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, Stevie Smith blah blah etc. etc. plus performance poets such as Byron Vincent, Rosy Carrick and so on.
Anyway hai you guyz. Sorry for the essay and for any unintentional dick-swinging.
I have read 4 books in the last 4 months. Turns out I can live without literature, after all.
Methinks I'm going to be applying to Cambridge next year for english...had a massive panic today when I realsied I'd only read about five books in the last two months and I've hastily started on some Steinbeck and Marlowe
Last edited by Lightfantastic : 14-08-2009 at 00:54.
Guys, please keep this on track. If you want to turn this into a general chit-chat thread for 2010 entry English applicants, then you're welcome to do so, but as long as there's an 'Oxbridge' in the title, I expect this to remain on-topic (i.e. Oxbridge-specific).
Methinks I'm going to be applying to Cambridge next year for english...had a massive panic today when I realsied I'd only read about five books in the last two months and I've hastily started on some Steinbeck and Marlowe
Why, what happened?
I've been on holiday; I guess I got accused of 'intellectual dick-swinging'? Well that's not what I'm doing!
Over the last week I've read Tess. Wowy. Wow. Woww. I sort of read it with two approaches - one looking at the pastoral conceit, and the other looking at innocence/experience. Got some great insights; he really goes crazy on the irony! So resounding though, I may go into more depth in the future - if it's wanted!
Hmmm...apparently the post before mine got deleted last time
A-Man, is Tess really that good? For some reason I've always seemed to have a vendetta against women in literature, probably comes from being forced to read so much Jane Austen.
Hmmm...apparently the post before mine got deleted last time
A-Man, is Tess really that good? For some reason I've always seemed to have a vendetta against women in literature, probably comes from being forced to read so much Jane Austen.
What was this post? I'm intrigued. :P
Tess is a masterpiece. Ok it's not the best masterpiece, there are some flaws and some clumsy allusions, but my god it's good. So tragic. And it's not your traditional woman figure at all - it's so much deeper than that, and that's what caused immense trouble at the time of its publication - Hardy's 'pure woman' is not a pure woman socially whatsoever.
Strong stuff - she becomes squashed by experience, and for me this is echoed so well in nature, irony, Hardy's vivid descriptions, and his sometimes blasting tone. It's so sorrowful. Everything about Tess reeks of injustice.
Read it, I couldn't recommend it more. Better than Austen's Persuasion; that's the only Austen I've read so I can't really compare but yeah.
University course discussion for English.
Useful Resources:
Re: Oxbridge English Applicants 2010
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