Books you were forced to read at school!

[headpodd]

Was just wondering what novels, plays, poetry was on your school syllabus.

We had to read a tonne of books for english lit. and french lit. A-level and we had to analyse them in so much detail I was sick of them by the end of it. A great way to ruin a perfectly good book. lol.

These are some of the ones I had to read (memory is failing so list not complete):

A Winters Tale - Shakespeare
The Rivals - Sheridan
Jude the Obscure - Hardy
Sons and Lovers - Lawrence
In Cold Blood - Capote
I know Why A Caged Bird Sings - Angelou
L'Assomoir - Zola
Les Saints Vont En Enfer - Cesbron
Thomas Hardy's poems

Cheers
Headpodd

 

[Haethurn]

I'm a sophomore in high school and so far we've only had to watch a movie on To Kill a Mockingbird and write an essay on it.

I read it three or four years ago and liked it then, but now I really don't care for it. I have other, more long-lasting favorites now.

 

[Darren]

Animal Farm
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
The Merchant of Venice

There were probably a few more, but I can't remember them. It's been a while

 

[Jonno]

Only one sticks in my memory - Cider With Rosie.

About the only thing I remember of it is that I'd much rather have been reading Clive Cussler.

 

[Haethurn]

To tell you the truth I hate my English teacher for the stuff that she has us read.

From what I have gathered, there are two kinds of English teachers, and they can be classified based on the activities they have you do.

One teacher has the class read To Kill a Mockingbird and write an essay on racial prejudice.

This teacher is usually a very strict with a rather boring personality who prefers to read books that are unnecessarily flowery. He/she tends to read inspirational books about black people who struggled through life in pre-civil rights movement America, but through sheer strength of will alone were able to move on. He/she will also read any book that has a fireplace on the cover or a log cabin. He/she is idealistic and hates anything tragic, politically incorrect, and anything that isn't thoroughly censored to fit his/her world-view.

When a student is reading from a book that contains a curse word, this teacher will insist that the student use the word "darn" or "heck." This teacher will say that swearing does not belong anywhere in literature or in life, and that literature would be much better if they would remove all occurences of swearing in every book.

This teacher INSISTS upon using only formal language. Points are deducted if the student uses the word "you" or if the student uses contractions or anything else that is even slightly informal. When presented with the argument that informal writing is equal if not greater than formal writing, this teacher will seclude herself in her own little world and refuse to communicate in any way with the instigator of the argument.

This teacher will not accept any paper that does not have an outline, and will nitpick if the topic sentence is not simple. He/she will also have you redo an entire page for a single error. Everything must be double-spaced, and remember, no writing on the back!

Students mean little to this teacher. They are merely another set of data to manage. He/she is usually very instructive, and dialogue between teacher and student is not encouraged.

This teacher LOVES English sonnet poetry because, frankly, it has a lot of restrictions, and this English teacher LOVES restrictions. He/she is a rabid perfectionist.

To be quite honest, this teacher stinks. English teachers should be required to take a questionnaire and if their results indicate that they would be this kind of teacher, they should not be considered for employment.

Then there is another kind of English teacher.

This English teacher has the class read Lord of the Flies, a violent but thought-provoking book that does not attempt to censor itself. This person is usually very easy-going, tolerant, optimistic, and lively. This teacher tends to read George Orwell, Dalton Trumbo, Plato, Friedrich Nietzche, Cervantes, and Homer. This teacher is often realistic, and firmly opposes censorship. When reading a book that contains cursing, this teacher will encourage the student to say the word as it appears on paper. He/she believes that swearing is an important part of literature because it is often essential to portraying the mood of a human being-and what is art, but a portrayal of life and humanity?

This teacher insists that his/her students be creative, and places no restriction on using informal language. Outlines are encouraged, but not forced upon students. Double-spacing is usually not forced upon the student. Writing can be done on the back as well as the front of the paper.

Students are greatly influenced and inspired by this teacher. This English teacher encourages the ONLY effective method of teaching-the Socratic Method. Dialogue between student and teacher is encouraged very strongly, and the teacher believes that these discussions should be self-improving...self-improving of both teacher and student!

This teacher enjoys Haiku and especially narrative poetry. Shakespeare might be admired, but not worshipped endlessly.

The basic difference between these two teachers is that one is good, and one is bad. The former is bad. The latter is good. Sadly, we do not have much of the latter.

 

[gemma78]

Ok, here goes. Here are some of the books we had to read at school:
The Railway Children - E. Nesbit
Flambards - K.M. Peyton?
The Mouse and his Child - Russell Hoban
Diddakoi - ?
Elidor - Alan Garner
Boy - Roald Dahl
Brighton Rock - Graham Greene
To Kill a Mocking bird - Harper Lee
An Inspector Calls - J. B. Priestly.

Most of them I enjoyed but I hated The Mouse and his Child! I think it was because we were forced to read it in year 8 or 9 and we all felt we were far too grown up for it (as you do at that age! )

 

[Martin]

Four words which will plunge your puny existence into pure and utter literal Hell:

'Tess of the D'Urberville'

Stay clear!

Cheers, (a petrified) Martin

 

[murphyz]

oi - you leave Hardy well alone young man!! A very fine writer that is not accepted enough for the genius hw was (especially amongst the Dutch).

"Because we are too menny" can't beat it. (granted this is from Jude, not from Tess, but still - very good)

Mxx

 

[Martin]

It bored me out of my skull, and I only read half of it!

Did manage to write an essay on it, worthy of an 8 (on a scale of 1 - 10)!!

Cheers, Martin

 

[murphyz]

1 being good?

Mxx

 

[Martin]

Gee, I'm laughing my ass off! (Ain't written sarcasm great?)

Cheers, (a definitely not amused) Martin

 

[fluffy bunny]

There were many more, but off the top of my head:

Journey's End
Kes
Farenheit 451
Macbeth
Twelth Night
To Kill a Mockingbird
An Inspector Calls
The Importance of Being Earnest
Hobson's Choice
Catcher in the Rye
A passage to India (I think- need to have another flick through the novel to be sure. May have been the adapted play)

Have to say I enjoyed most of them (have gone back to one or 2 of them since) but Shakespeare's meant to be watched/performed rather than read to yourself quietly.

 

[Martin]

'A Passage to India', almost forgot that one! Thanks for bringing back those memories, Bunny!

And, Virginia woolf's 'To The Lighthouse'.

Cheers, Martin

 

[Clara]

I was put off reading for a few years by what we were made to read at at school, not because they were bad books but because they were so bleak. I began to think that good books had to be written in this bleak style and that everything else was trivial and this led me to think I hated reading. Thankfully, I eventually realised this wasn't true - no thanks to the teachers/curriculum compilers etc.

Sergeant Musgrave's Dance
Journey's End
1984
Animal Farm
many different war poems
Lord of the Flies
Macbeth

Out of all these, I only really liked Macbeth and some of the war poetry. I don't know why we never looked at any Jane Austen or J B Priestly. It would have made English literature lessons much more enjoyable for me anyway.

 

[phil_t]

Now im fairly sure ive done this before, but what the hey, im game

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
MacBeth - Shakespeare
Romeo et Juliet - Shakespeare
Great Expectations - Dickens <snore>
Christmas Carol - Dickens (dont think i ever actually read it, who needs to when you can just watch the Muppets version instead )

Probably some others, but i have blanked out the pain

Phil

 

[Halo]

I found nearly all the books we had to read at school so dull! In fact, we read so many depressing tragedies that I'm surprised we didn't all slash our wrists ...

To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies
Antony and Cleopatra
King Lear
The Rape of the Lock (tedious "epic" poem)
Far From the Madding Crowd (bloody awful)
Therese Raquin and La Porte Etroite (A level French)
The Merchant of Venice
The Way of the World (?) (Some Restoration "comedy" that I never understood)

Those are the main ones I can remember ...

 

[Ashlea]

Good ones: The Great Gatsby, Cane (by Jean Toomer), Their Eyes Were Watching God (Nora Zeale Hurston.), Pudd'nhead Wilson

Annoying ones: Crime and Punishment (why doesn't he fricking do something? Anything!) Last of the Mohicans, Moby Dick, Lord Jim. These are the sort of books where Cliff Notes are your friends.

 

[ALI]

Does anyone think that books such as To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye & Lord of the Flies etc being read by generations of pupils/students across Britain had anything to do with them making the BBC's top 100 list?

I cannot think of any other reason as to why books such as Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mocking Bird would make it anywhere near the top 21. I enjoyed reading these books, but i see nothing great about them!

 

[Hannibal]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone here. I too was put off from reading from the resentment of being forced to read the most dry, boring and for the most part depressing books.
I didn't read a thing for a few years after highschool. Thankfully my old girlfriend's sister insisted I read Stephen King's The Stand and I've been an avid reader ever since.
I know people who haven't read a book since high school over twenty years ago. Sad, and I blame the dry curriculum.

I have no idea what kids are forced to read these days, although I did see one in a doctor's office obviously struggling to concentrate through To Kill a Mockingbird. There really is so much good fun contemporary reading out there and I see no reason why kids can't read them for school and report on them. Look at fanasy epics from Terry Goodkind or George R R Martin...kids would devour this stuff.

My attitude towards school would have dramatically changed had I been assigned to read something like The Stand

 

[Haethurn]

Why such hostility against tragic literature?

Are you saying that you would prefer to read optimistic, inspiring literature?

Please! That stuff makes me sick! I can't stand those books with mahogany chairs, log cabins set against a background of towering snowy peaked mountains, and crackling fireplaces in a Victorian style mansion, and smiling black people with mysterious, wise, twinkling eyes that look like the eyes of a man who has been through everything and kept his head up set against light green hills and a warmly orange sun with an inspirational title that sensitive housewives gobble up like Lifetime Network Movie About Woman Who Gets Raped And Or Is Treated Badly By Stupid Evil Men But Triumphs in the End and Marries the Only Good Man on Earth and Also Delivers a Heartwarming Inspirational Message to Women and Especially Effeminate Men Who Watch Oprah Everywhere # 153,083,285,347 on their cover.

Please, for the love of God, give me Antigone, Prometheus Bound, Oedipus, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, ANY day. Keep that inspirational, uplifting, cheery, optimistic, soul stirring, heartwarming crap as far away from me as possible! Ugh! Stay away, mahogany chairs! Stay away!

Maybe some kids would like to read The Stand by Stephen King, but not this one. Personally, the only one of King's books that I could even stand was The Green Mile, and while it was sad it was ruined by the ridiculousness of a black guy having "healing powers." I mean, come on. Healing powers? Please. Unless it's mythology, I'm not too interested in that supernatural crap.

I could care less about Terry Goodkind. I hate fantasy epics. They only imitate art.

I'm not even going to do my contemporary book report. How the heck am I supposed to find a good book that was published before 1950? Much less after 1996. Jimmy Carter is the only writer who has written anything this decade that is even remotely interesting, and while I enjoyed his memoir, sometimes it truly and profoundly bored the heck out of me. But that's what you get with memoirs.

I declare that the last good book ever written was probably 1984 by George Orwell. After that, literature has gone down the drain, seriously. It's just pathetic what mass production has done to our books. We have these losers who write up fifty cheap thrillers, chillers, and romances a YEAR and they get paid tons of money.

Books were MUCH better when a guy had to painstakingly write with a PEN, that's right, a PEN, and when he could only hope to write maybe one book every year, perhaps every few years. Every book was a labor of LOVE. By God, if you didn't have anything worth writing, you just didn't waste the ink!

Technology has just completely screwed us over when it comes to art.