16 "Assigned-Reading" Books You Loved in High School

Although I one on here that I absolutely loved (the other titles, I haven't read yet), two of my favorite assigned (summer) reading books had to be The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Chinese Handcuffs. I read both during the summer of 08 and I was going into junior year of high school. Both are amazing reads, based on problems in the world today, and I suggest anyone who hasn't read them to read it.

Lori wrote: "I don't see Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, Old Man and the Sea, Ordinary People, Flowers for Algernon... I am sure I missing some others.

Would you believe the first time I read 1984 and To Ki..."

I am like you Lori,I can't see a lot of the books mentioned.This has happened before I wonder if you only see them all on Facebook?
Some great books mentioned.

Compare and contrast Brave New World and 1984. The Scarlett Letter. House of Seven Gables. The Crucible. Animal Farm. The Pearl. Huckleberry Fin. Of Mice and Men. The Pearl.
Those are what I remember.

Catch-22 was probably the most memorable book we studied at school...

Also read the Hobbit, which I could not get into, as much as I wanted to... It took the LOTR movies to get me into Middle Earth, and when I revisited the books I could then imagine Hobbits.

Sam wrote: "The books i remember studding for my GCSE's (2 years ago) were...

Of Mice And Men
Macbeth
An Inspector Calls

The rest was just poetry. I did also study Romeo And Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing an..."

An inspector calls! Loved that one!

I read to kill a mockingbird at school. I don't know anyone who didn't love that book x

I loved Grapes of Wrath and The Red Badge of Courage.

My favorite "assigned" book I ever read was "To Kill a Mockingbird", and it's actually my favorite book period. Honestly, I don't remember all the assigned books I had to read (too long ago - LOL!), but a few of them stand out. "A Separate Peace" was a favorite as was "Lord of the Flies". I wasn't a big fan of "1984" or "Animal Farm" - futuristic stories never interested me much (I graduated high school in 1979). In college I took a novels class that mainly focused on American writers and fell in love with William Faulkner's classic "As I Lay Dying" and was introduced to the writings of Flannery O'Connor, which I liked a great deal.

In high school for my final year this was probably my favorited book.(South Africa-Florida High School - Afrikaans 1st Language)

Indonesian "assigned-reading" books in high school are Layar Terkembang by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, Sitti Nurbaya: Kasih Tak Sampai by Marah Rusli and Salah Asuhan by Abdoel Moeis

Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe

Most of these books were not on my reading lists in high school. We read 1984, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet, Milton's Paradise Lost, Brave New World and perhaps A Tale of Two Cities. I had already read most of these before they were required. I am just now catching up on what other people had for required reading. I love The Old Man and the Sea! (I read it just this year.) Beloved was not worth the time to read it. Most of the others I have read so long ago, I don't remember when I read them, only that I have. Therefore, they do not show up as having been read on my GoodReads list.

In high school i read to kill a mockingbird, adventures of huck finn, a separate peace, lord of the flies, romeo and juliet, macbeth, julius caesar, canterbury tales (some of them) and john milton (some of him) and enders game. i recall rumors that honors and ap classes had cooler reading which includes crime and pinishment, les miserables and joy luck club. I hated lord of the flies, ender's game and other things i read for school aside from to kill a mockingbird didn't tegister in mymind at all.

I had to read Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and I completely fell in love with the story and Atwood as a contemporary feminist writer.
I devoured anything of hers I could get my hands on: novels, essays, poetry.

One of my favourite poems that resonated then while in the throes of a particularly bad teenage relationship:

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye - M. Atwood

I'm the weirdo who hated The Great Gatsby and loved The Old Man and the Sea. Would have to add Anne Frank to this list too.

I really enjoyed Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, which I read in 10th grade. I recently re-read it, and it was even better than I recalled!

On the other hand, I genuinely loathed The Great Gatsby.

There is no better way to ruin a book than assigned reading. It took me years to get my appreciation of shakespeare back and then only because someone on reddit called it "400 year old Game of Thrones" and "quality drama for the masses" taking away the faul taste of pretentiousness my lit teacher had left us pupils with. It turned out to be amazingly entertaining the moment you stop taking it too seriously.

Moby Dick is still ruined though and I'm very, very glad that Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby and Dorian Grey never were required reading because I adore those books.

Sam wrote: "The books i remember studding for my GCSE's (2 years ago) were...

Of Mice And Men
Macbeth
An Inspector Calls

The rest was just poetry. I did also study Romeo And Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing an..."

Had the same reading assignments in English class. I was expecting to love macbeth and Of Mice and Men but I distincly remember liking quite a bit An inspector calls. I didn't give it much credit before I started the reading assignments but I found myself getting ahead of the assignment and reading it way before it was due.

Oh this is fun - both the memories of great books in an impactful time of life and the additional recommendations! Here are a few more I/we read in high school. All contributed to encouraging us to be both of good character and good citizens:
East of Eden by Steinbeck
All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque
Brave New World by Huxley
The Call of the Wild by London
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Trapp
The Robe by Douglas
The Name of the Rose by Eco
The Miracle Worker by Gibson

I went to school in Germany, so my required reading consisted of the standards of German literature, old and new, from Goethe, Schiller, Lessing to Hesse, Heine, Kafka, Grass, Dürrenmatt and many others.

I had English classes, but only at a basic level, we did not read a lot of novels.

The problem with assigned reading--you end up hating many great books, because you are forced to read them....

Catch-22
It drew a large cult following within the school. I've never known a book to engage high-schoolers like it did.

I read and loved these books that were assigned reading in high school:

David Copperfield
Wuthering Heights
Ivanhoe
The Scarlet Letter

Loved To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and just reread it a few weeks ago -- I love it just as much if not more now.

Other favorites from high school were Macbeth, 1984, Animal Farm, the Crucible, and the Hobbit. We were given the choice between Hobbit and Lord of the Flies one year, I think only 2-3 kids picked LOTF and I was so glad I didn't wind up reading it til a few months ago; I would've loathed that book in school.

The prisoner of Zenda & rupert of hanzo

they were my favorite :)

Nope - none of these were assigned reading when I was at school (many moons ago!)

I had to read things like Silas Marner (which I hated); The Crucible (which I actually enjoyed) and Macbeth (which I really enjoyed).

The other books don't really stick in my mind - apart from one - and that was Elidor - can't remember why this sticks in my mind, other than the fact that I was reading it when I was in junior school (and finished it before the rest of the class did!)

Also read The Lord of the Rings as my free reading choice in English Lit - much to the disgust of my teacher. She kept telling me that I should "choose something more appropriate" - trouble was, I couldn't stand any of her suggestions! (Must have been bad, as I can't recall any of them!)

For some reason, I remember reading "The Rise of Silas Lapham" in high school and loving it. I'm kinda afraid to re-read it.

I didn't read most of those books, just To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Outsiders, and Macbeth. Maybe I was just too young to get it or resented being forced into it, but I had no liking for To Kill a Mocking Bird.

The Outsiders however was VERY good. I can't remember if I read it myself first or at school first, but I do have a copy and even reread it a few times which I rarely do.

I liked a lot of Shakespeare too.

I loved To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scarlet Letter.

I did not like being assigned to read books in high school. I might have read classics but got nothing out of them. This year I decided to make it a point to reread many of the classics I read in school. So far, I have read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and about to read The Merchant of Venice. It is much more rewarding reading these books through adult eyes.

Asagi wrote: "At school I had a lot of Gabriel Gracia Marquez books, like two for year (and I didn't like any of them)."

How could you not have liked them? What was the problem?

Can't forget the Iliad by Homer...one of the few that I had to get the cliff notes for. A better translation would have been nice!

skw wrote: "I loved The Scarlet Letter. It taught me a lot about the power of judgemental people and how they can be wrong.

I really tried to read Moby Dick, but about 1/3 the way through it, I hit a sentence..."

I liked the Scarlet Letter too. I had forgotten about that one!

Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Night by Elie Wiesel were the only two I really loved in high school.

Ayn Rand's Anthem

I've read all but one of these. The Bradbury, Hinton, Morrison, and Atwood books I read on my own; the rest were assigned. I can honestly say I didn't like ANY of the assigned-reading books in high school with the possible exception of 1984 and The Crucible. I re-read most of them as an adult (some several times) and enjoyed them far more. I don't know if that's because I had more life experience to bring to the reading or if I just detest being told what to read and how I'm "supposed" to think about it. I suspect a small part of it is because every English teacher I had in high school was on the verge of retiring, had taught the books so long they were bored with them, and had the ability to suck the joy out of Christmas itself.

The House of the Scorpion! and plenty of John Steinbeck

I did have to read The Catcher in the Rye but I disliked it at lot.

A few of the books, from the list, I have read on my own but there are a couple that I still need to read :)

i must be really old or just cant remember any of the books that i had to read in highschool.some of the ones listed here would be a great read if i wasnt already behind in my reading schedual.if you have any other suggestions that arent listed,let me know.i would love to check them out...

Of Mice and Men
Romeo and Juliet
The Scarlet Letter

Asagi wrote: "At school I had a lot of Gabriel Gracia Marquez books, like two for year (and I didn't like any of them)." I like his books now (at 35+) but would have hated to read them in high school! That sounds terrible!

Melissa wrote: "Jill wrote: "I didn't really appreciate the books we had to read at school though I enjoyed The Grest Gatsby. I remember we had to read The Day Of The Triffids and really struggling with it"

I agr..." I've had this same experience. Most of the books I hated reading in high school I really enjoyed once I got older.

My freshman year of high school English was one I'll never forget. Our teacher was very... "intense" or "gung ho" might work with her selection of novels to read through the year. Of those books I remember, here's a list:

Silas Marner - This was our summer read before school started, which I disliked intensely though I got an A on the quiz our first day of class.

Romeo and Juliet - My least favorite of Shakespeare's plays, it was also the start of the "drama-rama" onslaught of his works in high school. Couldn't they have off-set it with some comedies?

Great Expectations - It was okay, though the fact that we had to read 2/3 of the book over winter break--yes, really--was rather over-reaching. I believe due to the bulk of the class scoring poorly, the quiz we had after winter break was thrown out.

To Kill a Mockingbird - To this day, it remains one of my favorite works, and I plan to name a future pet 'Atticus.'

Watership Down - I'd read this one 4 times already in 7th grade, thoroughly loved it and it's my most re-read book in my personal library (8 times in my life), and I was both happy to help but also disappointed when the teacher asked me to help her condense it for the others.

In Highschool...

Gr8
Forbidden City
Outsiders
R+J

Gr 9
A Night to Remember (barf)
Twelfth Night

Gr 10
Julius Caesar
The Crysalids
Stone Angel
Call of the Wild

Gr 11
MacBeth
Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye

Gr 12
Night
Hamlet
Great Gatsby
1984

I liked all of them except Gatsby, Stone Angel, and Night to Remember. Gatsby, largely, was due to the teacher and the assignment it came with. Even she couldn't ruin 1984 and Hamlet, though. Night to Remember is WAAAY too boring for a 14 year old, and Stone Angel is really aimed at middle aged women, so wrong for a 16 year old. I usually liked the books I read in high school. It wasn't until Uni and Wuthering Heights that I truly encountered a book I loathed.

I fell in love with The Leopard (The Gattopardo) and Les Liaisons dangereuses. I also really liked Romeo and Juliet.

I loved Anna Karenina... The story just fascinated me I couldn't stop reading!

And also from the school reading I love 1984, that was just amazing I was reading and I realized so much stuff, that is very important book to read!

Only one of these books was required reading in my high school (Mockingbird). Two of them I read in college (Gatsby and Dorian). One of them I read on my own a few years ago and one I started but hated. I tend to wonder which high school these lists are based on. The creator of the list, maybe?

Gabriel García Márquez. I love him.

Yes. That is England for you. The fount of all literature and they can't ask the kids to read more than 200 pages. In America we have a lot more reading.

Dickens, Bleak House. Year 12 required reading. Still one of my all time favorite books.

Wow! This list takes me back!! Have read most of them, not necessarily required. I was lucky in my high school English teachers. My senior year, my teacher belonged to a book club and would pass along some of her best sellers, even though I am sure my mother would have disapproved. I particularly remember Rosemary's Baby and thought that was really risque. One required reading I loved and was surprised was Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. And now, as a blast from the past, I am rereading all of Jane Austen.

I must have been the only kid that never had any assigned reading. That probably doesn't speak well of my 3 different high schools! I loved reading all the way from 3rd grade through today. Books were my way out of all the ugliness around me. Thank God for "The Book Mobile" that came around to the project where I lived for 5 years. How fortunate everyone of you are that had someone in authority help and encourage you to see the outside world.

I agree with you, Asagi. I did not like one of his books.