A Clockwork Orange

I finished reading A Clockwork Orange, my first selection from my summer reading list, today. It was very interesting. It took me most of the book to figure out what Alex was saying since his slang is very difficult to decipher. I thought he was in Russia for a really long time until someone said that the kids all spoke slang with Slavic roots.

Honestly, I didn't like anyone in this book, which I believe was the point of the book. The government was corrupt; the revolution was just using the kid for their own purposes. As I write it down I'm reminded strongly of Mockingjay, which I suppose was inspired by this and other classic dystopian novels. I guess the message was that we can't force people into being good because it takes away their humanity. I'm practically done with college so my critical thinking skills are a bit tired.

I was mostly just happy that I remembered that droog was Russian for friend. It's one of my 3 words of Russian (Privyet! Droog! Nyet!)

I also saw this coverflip for A Clockwork Orange today. Maureen Johnson got people to create covers for books IF that book had been written by an author of the opposite gender. The results were interesting; I really didn't want to read any of the books that were redone from being more masculine to looking all teenage girly, which is odd because I often dislike books that are written for adults because they're generally depressing. I'm 21. I have hope! I believe in the future!

The full post about gender-reversed book covers is here!

I'm excited to choose another book from my summer reading list! I also had a to be read list that I've been compiling all year - I'll probably make my choice based on what is available at the library tomorrow!