The Good Old Days in English Class?

I recently sparked an unintended conversation about readings lists on Facebook, with a few posters recalling the 1970s where you might have to read as many as ten novels in a semester's English class.

I was in college then and remember those lists. My survey course in The American Novel included at least The Last of the Mohicans, The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Portrait of a Lady, The House of Mirth, The Rise of Silas Lapham, McTeague, The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby. That's a lot o...