What books did you all read back in school and did you enjoy them?

I don't think we ever read decent books in school, none that I really enjoyed.

The only one I did enjoy was Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle M-thingy-gan. We were told to only read a chapter a week, but I read it all by the next day.

The ones I can remember were:

I am the Cheese (or something) can't remember much about that.

Turn of the Screw which I hated.

Some book about being trapped on an island with a black man who died.

Of Mice of Men - Steinback (which was okay, and the film even better because Gary Sinise is of course gorgeous.)

and then in 6th From:

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

My school couldn't decide whether I was in top set or second set so for about 3 years I was messed around a bit and missed out on a lot. There's a huge gap between top and second set too which I found annoying.

Top set read To Kill a Mocking Bird while second set read Of Mice of Men, which was shorter and probably simpler.

That irritated me. My school only really cared about people who would make their grades look good. They didn't really care about teaching people anything. If you weren't in the top set, they gave you easy stuff just so you'd 'preform' better. Perhaps if they showed higher expectations though, the pupils would have behaved better. There was a huge difference in behaviour between the two 'sets' - and a huge difference in teaching. It wasn't as if people in second set were any less intelligent either - they just weren't middle class and perhaps a little rowdier - but you could tell we weren't actually expected to achieve very much.

Oops... didn't mean to turn this into a rant. Just the stupid education system really pees me off somewhat awful.

I just think that you should always have high expectations - not too high - but high enough to give people confidence. If people don't feel they're expected to do anything, they won't try to do anything above themselves.

We had to read a lot of Hemingway, Twain and the likes. Our school was literature heavy and had all sorts of english classes for every lever of reader. I liked to read but I think this is where my passion grew to mammoth proportions. We were given a new book every four weeks and I enjoyed quite a few more than I ever thought I would. I think it was great being spoonfed so many because I know I would have missed out on so many great authors without that.

Grade school books weren't all that good for me. The best I did get too though was Madeline L'Engle and The Little Prince. Then in highschool I got Dorian Gray, As I Lay Dieing, and Emerson which I loved, and a lot of other crap I have since put out of my mind. I read my way through most of Stephen King in highschool for fun which I enjoyed. We didn't get alot of novels. Mostly those short story text books. And most novels we got did such. But that's why I love short stories so much now. So I guess it's all good.

Funny you should ask this. MD seems to be more "progressive"......which to me means that while so many people have read the classics, I missed out. I remember (high school) reading lots of Edgar Poe, and Shakespeare. I know I read The Invisible Man and The Scarlet Letter. Death of Artemio Cruz.

Which was the one where the guy got a frontal lobotomy? I'll edit this and add it in.

But I missed lots of English (British) classic literature (18th and esp. 19th cent) in favor of other more recent stuff--and yet I've read very little Twain.

Also, Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

I feel I have quite a bit of catching up to do. Those who will look on my "Classics" shelf here on GoodReads (and my 1001 Books to Read shelf) will see what I mean.

I really missed out on alot of the books everyone else seems to have read in school. From 6th grade to 10th grade, I relocated alot, so a new school each year back then.. and each school distrist seemed to have thier own required reading lists.

I missed out on To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby, just to name two.

I did end up reading Catcher in the Rye, Ordinary People, Flowers For Algernon, All Quiet on the Western Front (yuck), Of Mice and Men, Grpaes of Wrath, from what I can recall off the top of my head....

I seem to have missed out on a lot of books as well, I think I only read Lord of the Flies, the rest are books that escape my memory so mustn't have been too important.

Oh yeah. Lord of the Rings, The Old Man and the Sea.... ANd tons of Shakespear (barf) and Poe... thanks for reminding me Mandy!

I took AP Lit and AP Language, both of which were reading intensive classes. I was in Regents English 9 and English 10, and the books I remember were:
Senior AP: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Waiting For Godot, The Stranger, Heart of Darkness, The Canterbury Tales, Tess of The D'Urbervilles, The Shipping News, Things Fall Apart, Catcher In The Rye, Street Car Named Desire, Glass Menagerie, The Death of A Salesman, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead all of those books I really enjoyed
Junior AP: To Kill A Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, Raison In The Sun, The Things We Carried, Hamlet, Of Mice and Men, Huckleberry Finn...and a few more I can't remember
English 10: Inherit The Wind, Night, Julius Ceaser, two self-chosen pics
English 9: Romeo and Juliet, Flowers for Algernon, and some others that I don't remember

Also in AP Euro we had to read All Quiet on The Western Front, The Prince, and The Communist Manifesto

I also took these English electives: Poetry, Drama, Public Speaking, Horror Unit, and Children's Lit


I guess central NY education is awesome, because they vary the reading levels. And I hate to say it but if you think Of Mice and Men is simple reading you are dead wrong, its a complex story, with more than what is on the surface.
Also, when you are educating people who aren't AP level, you have to give sometimes simple reading assignments, and also have to keep in mind the state curriculum. I say simple because you have to keep in mind that every classroom is going to have people who are going to have diverse needs. Not everyone is at a high school level of reading in the high schol classroom. Also according to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, you have to place learning disabled students in the least restrictive environment which is often the regular classroom and the teacher has to accomodate those students. So there is a hell of a lot more going on the scenes that you don't know about because it would be illegal to tell you, a regular student, about a learning disabled student's Individual Education Plan.

Sorry, education is just a subject I'm passionate about. So if I come off a little rude, I don't mean to. I'm just trying to get a point across.

I can't remember all the books I read in school...I know I did a bunch of Shakespeare (Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet and Macbeth are the ones I remember)...a lot of Poe, Gone with the Wind, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, the dreaded Lord of the Flies, Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, The Metamorphosis, Great Expectations, I think the Mayor of Casterbridge, Farewell to Arms, I acted in Tartuffe (Moliere) in high school, Importance of Being Ernest, Joy Luck Club, some Steinback (shamefully can't remember which ones now)...that's all I can remember off hand more than I though I did though. These were in high school (I was in AP English senior year so a lot of the Brit Lit is from that...American Lit is mostly from 11th grade.

I read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, a lot of Shakespeare, a lot of Hemingway, a lot of Steinbock, a lot of Twain, and A Tale of Two Cities (blech).

Oh Lori, you hated Shakespeare? We need to rectify that at some point. I was phenomenally lucky in that my high school drama teacher was going for her Masters in Elizabethan theater while I was in HS so I got to reap all the benefits. I've grown to love nearly all Shakespeare plays as a result, even the histories.

After her Shakespeare binge she got really into old Italian theater- the Comedia del'Arte. We ended up forming a traveling troupe that made its way around Washington, Idaho and Eastern Oregon. It was oodles of fun, and provided another excuse for me to not attend classes.

I can relate to a lot of what is being said and I am pleased that though some titles are common that where I work there is some variety, or at least things that I enjoy. I think my favorites from high school was Great Gatsby and The Crucible, but I do like a lot of American Literature. I did not enjoy Shakespeare in high school at all, but I have grown to have a few of my favorites, since college. Unfortunately, not Romeo and Juliet which I am going on my 4th year teaching. Oh well.. still trying to find something to make my students enjoy it more. I had to read Moby Dick which was my least favorite ever... but I still think I was gyped out of some of the classics that many enjoy.

We have more some more modern books where I teach and a much more extensive curriculum regarding choices. I can teach In the Time of the Butterflies next year which I absolutely love. I took a Major author class on Julia Alvarez in college. Hopefully many schools have shifted to atleast have variety.

If it hadn't been for school, I don't think I would have fallen in love with Shakespeare. :)

I read a lot of the same books already listed here but others I read on my own because they were either assigned to lower levels or not assigned at all. Examples-

A Separate Peace (not assigned to honors English)

Of Mice and Men (we read The Pearl instead)

Catcher in the Rye (not sure if that was assigned reading in my school)

The Great Gatsby (I read it later in college but not in high school)

Let's see what I can remember by grade:

9th-Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird (but I had also read in 8th in private school before I went back to public) Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, The Pearl, A Raisin in the Sun, A Tale of Two Cities, a bunch of short stories by Hemmingway

10th-Macbeth, Ethan Frome, The Scarlet Letter, Great Expectations, House of Seven Gables (I'm sure there were more-can't remember)

11th-Lots of short stories-some by Welty. This was a writing/grammar/college skills year-don't remember what else we read.

12th-Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Short stories by Cather, A Farewell to Arms, Hamlet, Demian, The Stranger, Daisy Miller, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Waiting for Godot, Death of a Salesman

I'm sure I'm leaving some out. There is so much that I read in school that I really think I'd enjoy if I read now. High school has a way of ruining a good book!

Catcher in the Rye was my absolute favorite book that we read for ninth grade (I think) English.

People seemed to read a lot more then we did. Through 5 years of secondary school we only read 12 books - and 2 Shakespeares.

6th Form only 3 books, 1 Shakespeare and poetry, which I've never really thought counted as proper reading for some reason. :/ I did enjoy some poetry but I can't remember every poem we looked at in school.

April, what I meant - not very well - I was using Of Mice and Men as a comparison - I did like it, would probably like it more now that I'm not in the "let's get the bloody qualification and get out of here" mindset - but there just seemed to be a really huge gap between sets 1 and 2 which were the 'top' sets.

I guess I'm still a little peeved at school for bouncing me around classes for 2-3 years because I noticed a big sort of gap in whatever it was we were learning. And when you jump around you tend to miss out on a lot of other stuff.

I was extremely lucky in that I took a couple of Shakespeare classes in high school from an English teacher who made the plays come alive. I don't think anyone should be made to just sit down and read a Shakespearean play. I had to do that in college and it was agony and I got nothing out of what I read. In high school, the teacher had us read a play aloud as a class, with individuals reading roles, and he stopped us constantly in our reading so we could discuss what was going on and he could better explain the dialogue. Because of him, I can now understand it when I read Macbeth (my favorite), or Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet. In college I had to read (alone, on my own time) King Lear, and I have no idea what's up with that.

Most of my junior high teachers introduced us to literature through the use of film strips (yes, I'm old). It's amazing though, the trivial bits of book information one picks up by watching film strips (you can fool a lot of people with that knowledge)

One of my favorites as a kid was Porko Von Popbutton by William Penn DuBois. About a fat kid who goes to a school for hockey players.

We didn't read all that many books when I was in high school. All I remember from middle school was Old Man and the Sea which made me want to gouge out my eyes. We did read some Dickens, Maugham, Shakespeare and a bunch of short stories. I wasn't really thrilled with any of them, although I did read a bunch of great books on my own! In my undergrad a lot of my professors assigned novels as well as text, which was a great addition. I read more classics in my history classes than I ever did in English class.

Oh, Lori - I'm sad you didn't like All Quiet on the Western Front - it's such a wonderful book! What didn't you like about it?

In grade school I remember loving Little House on the Prairie, which we read in third grade.

Here's what I can remember of my assigned middle and high school reading:

7th grade: The Pearl, The Red Pony, Robinson Crusoe, A Raisin in the Sun, Rebecca

8th grade: The Pearl, The Red Pony, Treasure Island, The Martian Chronicles

9th grade: To Kill a Mockingbird (with movie!), The Old Man and the Sea, The Good Earth (with movie), Romeo and Juliet (ugh), Huck Finn, All Quiet on the Western Front (with movie), A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Farewell to Arms.
In Latin: Caesar's commentaries.

10th grade: THE RED PONY (enough already), Silas Marner (kill me now), Julius Caesar, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Oedipus Rex, Antigone.
In Latin: The Aeneid.

11th grade: The Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Canterbury Tales, The Sun Also Rises. I know we read a few Shakespearean plays, but I can't recall which.
In French: La Cantatrice Chauve.

12 grade (AP): The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Paradise Lost, The Rape of the Lock, The Canterbury Tales, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, The Rainbow, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, The Inferno, Beowulf, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonna, Antigone, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Tom Jones, Fathers and Sons, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Tempest, 1984. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. We felt like geese force-fed for fois gras.

I did not take nearly as much literature in college - more in French, actually, than in English, where I only took the one course on 20th Century British & American Drama (great class).

I'm in high school now. And for the most part the books I've been reading in school since 7th grade I've loved.
7th: The Outsiders(favorite), and The Giver
9th: To kill a Mockingbird (Favorite), Romeo and Juliet,
10th: The Pearl (least favorite), Animal Farm, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (favorite), Alive, Julius Ceaser (hated).

Those are the few I've read so far, can't remember 8th grade but most of those were my favorites. The Outsiders, and To Kill a Mockingbird were 2 exelent examples of why I started reading. And Hitchhickers Guide helped me want to read even more. I can't wait to find out what we'll read this year. :D

Okay the ones i read that i liked were
Where The Red Fern Grows
The Outsiders
Bridge to Terebithia
High school

I'd forgotten about Antigone and Oedipus Rex-ugh!

I'm actually quite happy that we read a lot of novels in school, because it opened up my eyes more for certain novels - particularly classics which before, I had avoided.

In middle school - I only remember reading Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) and A Farwell to Arms (Hemingway). I enjoyed them both, especially the latter.

Then in the IB, I read for English HL: A Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Macbeth (Shakespeare), Heart of Darkness (Conrad), 1984 (Orwell), Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde), The Bluest Eye (Morrison), The Crucible (Miller), God of Small Things (Roy) and Nervous Conditons (Dangarembga). I also had Swedish which included 11 other works. Mostly Swedish authors though such as Strindberg, Nesser, Rydberg, Almqvist, Lagerkvist and Söderberg. We also read though works of Zola, Esquivel, Eurpidies, Schlink and some which I don't remember now on top of my head. I have enjoyed several of the works mentioned above though :)

I think the worst books that I read during those two years were Heart of Darkness for English and Crime and Punishment for Swedish. What made matter even worse was that we read these at the same time since the classes were parallel so let's just say, I didn't look forward to going to school that month. I had a hard time with them but I suppose if maybe I gave them a second try another day, maybe I will enjoy them.

Antigone was funny. I read that for an extra credit college history paper once. I did Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth in highschool. It was upsetting because we had a sub for R and J instead of the regular teacher. The full-time teacher got everyone interested by explaining all the insults and naughty bits. So I missed out...lol
XD

Each year from grade 6 to 12 we did one play and two novels, though this format was often fudged as you can see beow. Here are all I remember:

Grade 6: The play version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Grade 7: Midsummer Night's Dream, The Dream Carvers (horribly boring)
Grade 8: Romeo and Juliet, The Outsiders, Lord of the Flies
Grade 9: Othello, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye
Grade 10: Macbeth
Grade 11: Antony and Cleopatra, 1984, A Street Car Named Desire, Death of A Salesman, The Great Gatsby
Grade 12: Hamlet, L'etranger

I wrote my provincial exam halfway through Grade 12 English so I wouldn't have to keep going to the most mind-numbing class in history. Instead, I started sitting in on the AP class and they were reading Tess of the Dubervilles for the few weeks I was there. It wasn't long before I just decided I'd rather go watch Deadwood in the library. Oh, the joys of high school!

Logan, I'm with Lori - my 10th and 11th grade English teacher loved Shakespeare and poetry, which, much to the dismay of my 12th grade teacher, was much of what we read. Actually, Shakespeare's plays he would assign students to read out loud a particular character.

Guess it spoiled any love of poetry too, since we had to write on what the poet was really saying, and I just wanted to enjoy the poem for what I got from reading it!

Mostly because they were required reading and meant writing a review, essay, critique, or whatever, I generally hated most books read for school!

OK, perhaps I should clarify a little. Shakespear is torture to read through. But the ideas and things he wrote about were interesting.I just didnt like the way he worded everything. Very hard to read, and speak. (Liz, sometimes we would be assigned the characters as well, to read aloud... YECK!)

I do love poetry too... just not rhyming poetry. Something about HAVING to make things rhyme, takes the intensity out of the whole thing. Rod McKuen writes beautiful poetry. He writes the way I would love to hear someone speak....

I found a great way, that works for me, that catches me up on alot of great books that I didn't read in school. I made a deal w/ my boys (starting when they were in middle school) that I would read every book they have to read for school with them. They love it. Too many times my older son would stop reading a book because he didn't like it. Now, knowing that I was reading it too, and we could "complain" about it together, he finishes everything. I've read some great books, I might have otherwise missed!

Kathy I love that. I want to do the same thing with my oldest. In elementary school, they werent allowed to bring the books they were reading in class home with them. But I am pretty sure the Intermediate school will be assigning "home reading" ... so it should be interesting!!

Hmm Lori, wild idea, you could BUY them!

Let's see...

9th grade-Cold Sassy Tree, Angela's Ashes, Romeo & Juliet, The Odyssey

10th grade-The Chosen, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Othello, various Shakespearean sonnets, A Farewell to Arms, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Siddartha

11th grade-A People's History of the United States, Lies My Teacher Told Me, various shorts stories such as The Lottery and Young Goodman Brown, Bastard Out of Carolina, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, The Awakening

12th grade-The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Crime and Punishment, The Count of Monte Cristo (French), The Little Prince (French), Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Jane Eyre, Oedipus Rex, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Then again, it would take a lot of money...and time.

That's a great idea Kathy! I'll have to keep it in mind as my son gets older.

Emma, yeah I could do that, couldnt i? They would go on his book shelf, so he could have copies when he is my age.... something I dont have.... I never bought the books I read in school, and never kept a journal of them, so I forget so many of the ones Ive read.....

I really can't remember most of what we were assigned to read in high school. I know that a distasteful round of Shakespeare was forced down my throat in English (lucky my drama teacher changed my opinion on that). I remember hating The Scarlet Letter more than just about anything. Wow, I think I've successfully blocked all of the torturous in-class reading we did! I remember the classes I liked- debate, drama, choir and history- but can't remember any of the reading for the 4 years of English. SUCCESS!

As an English teacher, I'm finding this entire discussion very interesting! :)

Julianne...the novel where the guy gets the frontal lobotomy...are you thinking of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"?

I'm trying to think back to the books that I read in high school, which is difficult since I think I'm blending together the things I teach, the things I read in college, and the things I read in high school.

Here's what I do remember:
Great Expectations, Merchant of Venice, lots of short stories, lots of poetry, Twelfth Night, The Scarlet Letter (which I hated), Othello, Macbeth, The Return of the Native, The Mill on the Floss, The Loved One (by Evelyn Waugh...funny, creepy book!), Wise Blood, The Misanthrope, Gulliver's Travels...I'm coming to a blank point.

As a teacher, it's so hard to choose what books to teach! There's only so much time in the year, and so many other pressures. I actually love teaching Romeo and Juliet, and I love teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. My favorites tend to be the American Lit. I actually had a dream the other day about teaching Huck Finn, and I woke up sad because it looks like I won't be teaching it this year (we're moving, and I don't have a job for this school year yet).

You could do a journal with him of his books. Kind of like a scrapbook of book reviews!

I cant really remember everything that I read in high school...

The ones I enjoyed reading though were Romeo & Juliet, The Catcher in the Rye, Macbeth, The Things They Carried, Oedipus Rex, Medea, A Modest Proposal, One Flew Over the Cuckcoos Nest...

We also read Lord of the Flies, A Seperate Peace, Great Expectations, a little bit of Machiavelli...not that I absolutely hated these but did not really enjoy them that much...

I am really amazed by the variety of texts everyone read in school. I have loved reading since I was a little girl and my mom would take us to the library where we would check out armloads of books which we would then take home and devour in no time. But it wasn't until I was in high school that I really found my love of great literature and decided I wanted to teach it and share my passion for that literature with my students. This is what I remember reading in school:

9th: To Kill A Mockingbird (of course), Great Expectations, A Wizard of Earthsea, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey.....
10th: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Siddhartha, Oedipus.....
11th: The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, Ethan Frome, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible.....
12th: Brave New World, 1984, The Stranger, King Lear, Macbeth, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Waiting for Godot, Frankenstein, and Crime and Punishment (The Little Prince and Candide - read in French III - in French)....

I feel like I am forgetting something.....I'm sure I am but this is a good starter list. Most of these books fascinated and intrigued me (with a few exceptions of course - no one would describe Dickens as fascinating). This is where my true love of literature was born and the amazing English teachers I had made me want to spend my life in a career where I could be paid to enjoy my biggest passion.

One of the most memorable novels I read in secondary school was The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. At the time I hated it because it was very sad and depressed me. I hated reading about the indignities of old age and the main character's frustration with them. I really wanted to get away from it. But almost 30 years later it is still vivid in my mind. It was moving and had an impact on my emotions. I now realise that was a good thing. It also gave me my first understanding of what life can be like for people who are old and infirm - it taught me compassion. It is a book that should never be dropped from the Canadian school curriculum.

Dianne Ascroft,
author, 'Hitler and Mars Bars'

That was one thing I really enjoyed about May Sarton. Ever read her journals? She deals with that topic in some of her fiction too. She was a tough lady, and even after having a series of strokes she managed to write her journals and to be a little happy. She has some down moments, but she always manages to come out feeling better. There doesn't seem to be a lot of work about this subject. I may have to check out the Stone Angel now...

I have to admit...For the longest time I didn't like Shakespeare. I found his humour juvenile and his plots either maudlin or trivial. Perhaps the main reason I didn't like Shakespeare was that he said what we all knew in obtuse ways. He expressed the most banal and universal of sentiments.

But then, when we were studying Hamlet it hit me. Shakespeare was so classic for the exact reason I disliked his work. But I've come to quite like, and in some ways love, the Bard.

Then again, studying almost anything in high school is enough to put you right off. I'm certain I would have loved The Catcher in the Rye had I not studied it at school. Of course the same does not apply to university courses as you spend much less time on each book but go deeper into it.

I wasn't a big Shakespeare fan either Emma, because I didn't have the patience for deciphering his language. Othello was the story to turn it around for me though. I had to read this for World Lit in college, so I got used to it and have since enjoyed the few other works of his I've taken the time to read. I have a book of his complete works, but have not yet read them all.

The play that really cemented my love for Billy Shakes was Much Ado About Nothing. I loved that he was writing strong female characters at that point in history. Beatrice is my hero. I love her insult fights with Benedick in the earlier acts.

I like shakespeare as well, but IMO, I feel his plays should be seen not read. Still entertaining, but it's not what's meant to be.

This is a tough one...so long ago, but I'll try to remember. This list is by no means complete, just what I can remember.

Early Grades- Phantom Tollbooth, Bridge to Terabithia, Tuck Everlasting.

7th grade- Tom Sawyer

8th grade - The Pearl, I am the Cheese.

9th- The Contender

10th- To Kill a Mockingbird (or was that 9th?), Huck Finn, The Good Earth, The Scarlet Letter, Macbeth (I think???)

11th- 1984 and/or Animal Farm (I can't remember if I HAD to read both, or only one and then chose to read the other), Jane Eyre

12- Lord Jim (ugh), Oedipus Rex, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (how timely right now!), Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, Othello.

Looking back, that seems like a pretty well-rounded list.