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Books you were forced to read at school!

Hmm, I can only remember what I've read at school since year 10, but oh well.

Year 10:
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini- I really loved this book, and I think it was the one that actually turned me into an avid reader.
Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare- This one was a pretty average read. I don't think I was ready for the language yet.
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë- I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this book. I expected a very girlish romance, and got the exact opposite.

Year 11:
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak- Awful, awful, awful. Such a terrible, predictable book. Could hardly bare to read this one.
No Sugar, by Jack Davis- Interesting play, and I thought it was okay.
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare- Well the first time I read it, I hated it and couldn't understand it whatsoever. But upon my second reading, I just loved it. It all made sense to me, and I was amazed by the brilliance of the language.
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens- This will by our final novel studied this year. I'm about half-way through it, and, despite how much of an easy read it is, I'm not really enjoying it. I think Oliver Twist was far better, but who knows, it may soon turn around.
 
12th: The Things They Carried (liked it)
Wise Blood (confussing!)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (very good book)
The Sound and the Fury (couldn't make it through)
Hamlet (amazing!)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (the heaven's opened upon this bleak and miserable earth and this book fell down from the gods!)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (well, technically we haven't read it yet, but I have and really like it)
Heart of Darkness (not yet...)
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Sounds like a great lineup, except for Heart of Darkness. Didn't bother finishing that one! Anyway, I would've loved to read R&GAD and Wise Blood when I was a senior.
 
Leeny said:
7th grade:
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Giver

8th grade:
The Pearl
Whirligig
Touching Spirit Bear

9th grade (so far):
The Odyssey
The Taming of the Shrew
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A question for anyone and everyone in general-is The Pearl a book that you enjoy? Was it one that you enjoyed when you had to read it? We utilize it with a workbook for 9th graders and I have yet to have a student who enjoyed it. It's been a tough slog with me reading with them. Quite frankly, they prefer Antigone or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over The Pearl. I found that to be somewhat ironic as the book is an excellent portrayal about class, oppression, and just plain....pain. I have another week off before school starts again and I'm digging up some online sources to do some pre-teaching, as well as to examine why it is that this bok is just not catching on with my students.
 
Some of the books I remember having to read in high school:
Iliad
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Antigone
Dr. Faustus
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
Julius Caesar
The Scarlet Letter
A Tale of Two Cities
Les Miserables
A Doll's House
Frankenstein
The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn
The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
The Crucible
Death of a Salesman
Alas Babylon
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Slaughterhouse-Five

And then a few of the books I've read for university:
Genesis
Metamorphoses (Ovid)
The Bacchae (Euripides)
Frogs (Aristophanes)
Phaedrus (Plato)
Nature of the Gods (Cicero)
Othello
Jacques the Fatalist (Diderot)
Wuthering Heights
On Liberty (Mill)
Civilization and Its Discontents (Freud)
Waiting for Godot
 
A Tale of Two Cities -- I actually kind of enjoyed that
The Secret Life of Bees-- eh.
Bailey's Cafe-- more eh.
Night -- pretty good actually.
Pride and Prejudice -- gag.

I didn't like most of the books we had to read, but there were some good ones occasionally.
 
SFG75 said:
A question for anyone and everyone in general-is The Pearl a book that you enjoy? Was it one that you enjoyed when you had to read it? We utilize it with a workbook for 9th graders and I have yet to have a student who enjoyed it. It's been a tough slog with me reading with them. Quite frankly, they prefer Antigone or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over The Pearl. I found that to be somewhat ironic as the book is an excellent portrayal about class, oppression, and just plain....pain. I have another week off before school starts again and I'm digging up some online sources to do some pre-teaching, as well as to examine why it is that this bok is just not catching on with my students.
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I distinctly remember hating The Pearl. I read it so long ago that I'm not really sure what it was about, but I remember hating the ending, and thinking there was no point to the book. Maybe if I read it now I would like it...that happens sometimes. But back in, I suppose it was 7th or 8th grade, I hated it. Huck Finn was amazing, and Antigone was pretty good too. Do you have to teach The Pearl? Can't you teach something else, or is this a mandatory thing?
 
I do allow some degree of "choice" in the matter. I will allow them to change out a book once or twice and then put my foot down. In working with adjudicated juveniles, I can tell you that things go better if they have a hand in determing what they read. At the same time, I can convince them 9 times out 10 that they should stick out Pygmalion or even Death of a Salesman. :D The end of The Pearl does make for a great conversation starter about greed and what comes around goes around. We then talk about how that is true in every day life. Yep, I do the teachable-life-moment-hits-you-on-the-head-doh!-realization thing without even appearing to make it happen:whistling:
 
SFG75 said:
A question for anyone and everyone in general-is The Pearl a book that you enjoy? Was it one that you enjoyed when you had to read it? We utilize it with a workbook for 9th graders and I have yet to have a student who enjoyed it. It's been a tough slog with me reading with them. Quite frankly, they prefer Antigone or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over The Pearl. I found that to be somewhat ironic as the book is an excellent portrayal about class, oppression, and just plain....pain. I have another week off before school starts again and I'm digging up some online sources to do some pre-teaching, as well as to examine why it is that this bok is just not catching on with my students.
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I did not enjoy that book at all. Wonderfully written, but it was not a moving book and I hate the way he described how the baby's head got shot off.
 
Not sure of the authors just the titles

Elementary School

1.The Giver- Lois Lowry
One of my favorite books to this day

2.Where the Red Fern Grows

3. Some Shakespeare read by My 5th grade teacher

Middle School

1.To kill a mockingbird

2. Why the caged bird sings

3. The outsiders- Really good book

4. Beowolf

Highschool

1.Night- REALLY good book

2.The great Gatspy

3.Fallen Angels- didn't like the narration style.

My favorite teacher of all time is still my 5th Grade teacher beacuse he read Where the read fern grows to us in about 15 minute intervals every day until we were thru with it, and we'd take turns getting in front of the class and reading it, it was really cool.
 
Martin said:
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 :D
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I had to read that too, in senior English! It was hard to follow and not an enjoyable story.
 
Some titles I can remember:

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
"On the Sidewalk Bleeding" (short story) - Evan Hunter
Macbeth and Othello - Shakespeare
The Cay - Theodore Taylor
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
Go Ask Alice
Z for Zachariah - Robert C. O'Brien

I should probably re-read one or two of these sometime - it's been so long since I was at school I don't remember some of them too well.
 
Of Mice and Men (twice)
Romeo and Juliet
The Giver
House on Mango Street
Anne Frank
Julius Ceasor
Macbeth
Scarlet Letter
Moby Dick
The Great Gatsby
To Kill A Mocking Bird
The Raven
Death of A Salesman
The Jungle
and many more
 
Leeny said:
I did not enjoy that book at all. Wonderfully written, but it was not a moving book and I hate the way he described how the baby's head got shot off.
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It is rather sudden and nothing really tips you off that it happened before you get to the blunt passage. Channeling Ambrose Bierce a bit too much at the time of writing perhaps? It is very shocking, definitely takes the mood through the floor as you finish reading it. The last sentiment you feel is upon closing the book: "Well, that was splendid!"
 
The only one that kind of sticks in my mind from school days is "The Antiquary" by Sir Walter Scott. It was in tiny print on thin paper - but we got through it and as I remember it wasn't too much of a chore but then memory has a way of glossing over the stuff we don't want to remember. :)
 
I can remember being very disappointed when my book list one year contained no Shakespeare and my first assignment was The Great Gatsby. I really, really hated that book. After that year (since all of us spoiled-little-private-school-brats complained), we got to choose our own - until I messed it up by choosing Faust. My favorites were anything by Shakespeare, The Iliad and The Odyssey and Le Morte D'Arthur, though the last and some kid stealing my car with my book report in it almost cost me my valedictorianship.
 
This semester in College:
  • Animal Farm
  • Brave New World
  • 1984
  • The Great Gatsby
  • Nectar in a Sieve
In The Best American Short Stories of 2010:
  • "Into Silence"
  • "Safari"
  • "Someone Ought to Tell Her There's Nowhere to Go"
  • "My Last Attempt to Explain to You What Happened to the Lion Tamer"
  • "The Valetudinarian"
  • "All Boy"
  • "The Ascent"
  • "P.S."
  • "The Cowboy Tango"
  • "Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events"
  • "The Laugh"
I also read:
  • "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
  • "Winter Dreams"
  • "Absolution"

I honestly enjoyed all these books except Nectar in a Sieve. That book just didn't seem interesting, and it was boring.
 
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