Re: Easiest Summer Reading List Ever!

On 5/22/25 1:02 AM, Robert Woodward wrote:

In article <m96ho6Fq177U1@mid.individual.net>,
  ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:
 

In article <100l2ks$2ubig$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

On 5/21/25 12:55 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <100kria$2r2j0$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

>
A national media conglomerate[1] put out a summer reading list, aided by
AI. But...
>
"In fact, only the last five of the 15 novels on the list are real."
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chicago-sun-times-ai-reading-list/
>

>
Easiest, or... hardest?

>
I see your point, but optimist that I am, I'm gonna stick to "easiest".
>
For example:
- Since only 5 of them actually exist, you're done when you read those
5. If you want to read more than 5 books, you can choose whatever you
want to read for book 6 and beyond.
>
- If you've been assigned this list for the summer[1], any reports you
write for the 10 nonexistent ones will not have content mistakes![2]
>
Tony
[1] Back in the day, at least, some places used
national/pre-packaged/external lists to assign summer reading - for
example, say, lists that were provided by national media conglomerates.
>
[2] Though of course, everything else teachers evaluate is still fair game.

>
>
Maybe a better list would be
>
The Necronomicon
>
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy
>
Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie
>
Misery's Return

 I am afraid that I don't recognize the 3rd and 4th titles.

The 3rd is from the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. It's a nighttime book that Calvin's Dad has read to him a thousand times, but Calvin still insists.
The 4th is from Stephen King's "Misery". When the author of a popular series kills the protagonist (Misery), a deranged fan kidnaps the author and forces him to write "Misery's Return".
I can add

another title, _Dire Dawn_ (though I suspect that not many people have
read the novel that mentioned it)
 

Where does that one come from?
Tony