What books were required in HS/MS in your generation? (Lord of the flies?)

[NancyJ]

What books were required reading in High school or middle school in your school/generation? (Teachers, I'm curious, are required books determined or encouraged by state boards or anyone else?) Would you consider them classics today?

This question was initially prompted by the interest in Lord of Flies for a future month's discussion. It got me wondering if this book is still required reading in High School or Middle School, and if not, when (and why) did it stop? (It gave me nightmares, and planted the idea in my head that surely women would be more civilized leaders.)

I suspect that everyone in my age group (I'm 59) is familiar with 1984, Lord of the Flies, Tom Sawyer and/or Huck Finn, and Little Women. (I don't know if Little Women was required, but it was very popular with girls.) Hamlet, and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter were also required reading in my school.

I wonder if these books might have an influence on how we view the world. (Would people be more careful in protecting their privacy on social media if they read 1984? Or doesn't it seem relevant?)

[Mariko]

Graduated 2006 in SF Bay Area.

The two I remember as summer reading:
Speak
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books I remember reading in school:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Oedipus Rex
Romeo and Juliet
Kindred
The Scarlet Letter
The Great Gatsby
Siddhartha
Black Boy
In the Time of the Butterflies
Fahrenheit 451

I vaguely remember trying to read:
The Grapes of Wrath
All Quiet on the Western Front
Ayn Rand

I wasn't in AP classes like my friends were. For that reason, I didn't read Lord of the Flies but I remember hearing about it. I can appreciate books more at this age than as a teenager. I think school required reading is still relevant; if nothing else, it introduces young adults to complicated and sometimes extreme themes/scenarios.

[Fannie]

I mostly have to read books written in french. I remember:

Germinal
Maria Chapdelaine
Le grand cahier
Pulp
Les Belles-Soeurs
Le Petit Prince

[Lady Poppy]

Lord of the Flies
The Book Thief
To Kill a Mockingbird
Blood Red Horse
The Scarlet Letter
Siddhartha
The Great Gatsby
Romeo and Juliet
The Poisonwood Bible
Night
Animal Farm
Life of Pi
Of Mice and Men
The Outsiders

(I know there were a bunch more but I can't remember them atm.)

[Mariana]

My point of view is from South America, so a lot of Hispanic or Latin american authors were encouraged. I know it's not the same but I wanted to give some perspective on different approaches on the subject.

As far as I remember (graduated December 97):
Martín Fierro
Shakespeare in general
Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte
Casa tomada Cuento
Barranca abajo
Les Fleurs du Mal
The Metamorphosis
El astillero
El Lazarillo de Tormes
20 poemas de amor y una canción desesperada

Also, high school is separated in branches here and for those taking Humanistics they also studied:
La Divina Comedia/La Vida Nueva
The Bible

Basically, they tried to bore teenagers with complicated authors, unattainable whatsoever.

[Shanna]

High school in the mid/late 80's:
Required reading:
The Red Badge of Courage
The Good Earth
The Scarlet Letter
I'm sure there were more but these are the ones that stuck in my memory.

[Sue]

I graduated HS in 1983:
The Scarlet Letter
The Crucible
Mrs. Mike
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Fahrenheit 451
To Kill a Mockingbird

I'm sure we read more, but this is what I recall.

[Cheryl]

My husband, class of '72, remembers The Grapes of Wrath (not surprising as he was in So. California) and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (which he really liked).

I only remember an excerpt from Beowulf,Animal Farm (maybe only recommended, not req.) and Dandelion Wine (Jr. High).

I'm positive that most of the books mentioned are still influential.

[NancyJ]

I had forgotten about some of these. I I loved Dandelion Wine when I was young.

[Alyssa]

I graduated HS in 2007. This is what I can remember.

Lord of the Flies
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Things They Carried
To Kill a Mockingbird
Sula
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Scarlet Letter
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Frankenstein
The Stranger

And sooooo much Shakespeare:
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Othello
Macbeth
Hamlet

I’m almost certain I missed a couple.

[Tr1sha]

Alyssa wrote “... And sooooo much Shakespeare“.

I feel your pain, Alyssa! I was at school in London, UK, many years earlier - don’t remember what we studied for “English literature” except the Shakespeare, which seemed endless every year. Luckily my parents had already encouraged me to a love of reading which even those awful lessons didn’t destroy. But once I could choose subjects, I studied sciences - no more compulsory literature for me!

[Kyra]

The state of Kentucky does not require any time of reading but Common Core does offer suggestions in the English content. I graduated in 2010 and was a junior before summer reading started being required but we did have required reading starting as a freshman.
We had one Shakespeare piece each year- my school does this same cycle currently.
Romeo and Juliet (freshman-our only reading)
Julius Caesar (sophomore)
Hamlet (junior)
Macbeth (senior)

Sophmore & Senior year are taught by the same teacher so I am getting my years confused but this is what I read with that teacher:
Animal Farm
1984
Lord of the Flies
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
Beowulf

Junior year was a required summer reading that was much too sexually graphic for my 16 yr old mind, but all other reading I list was a choice. My teacher gave us a choice of 5 YA books and we had to choose one each 9-week grading period
Nineteen Minutes (required summer reading)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

[Kyra]

As I am a teacher (not full-time) at the school that I graduated from I get to see what the students are reading. This is what I've seen, most are the same things I read as I listed above.
Night
Heroes
The Red Pyramid
Flowers for Algernon
Animal Farm1984
Lord of the Flies
Frankenstein
Beowulf
Grendel
Fahrenheit 451
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

[NancyJ]

I loved The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time. I started reading it during a trip to London, while riding the tube. How appropriate, right?

A few of those books surprise me. I hadn't heard of Heroes or Red Pyramid. But I do think it helps to give kids some newer books to make reading a little cooler. When my son was in 5th and 6th grade, his private school required books that were very old, and very obscure. They bored him so much, it killed his love of reading.

[Alyssa]

Alyssa wrote: "I graduated HS in 2007. This is what I can remember.

Lord of the Flies
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Things They Carried
To Kill a Mockingbird
Sula
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Scarlet Lett..."

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is certainly one I forgot.

[Alyssa]

Trisha wrote: "Alyssa wrote “... And sooooo much Shakespeare“.

I feel your pain, Alyssa! I was at school in London, UK, many years earlier - don’t remember what we studied for “English literature” except the Sh..."

Ugh, I’m pretty sure I read Macbeth twice. I did find that I enjoyed some parts of Shakespeare at times, but for the most part, it was overkill. When I returned to school to further my education, I pretty much did the same as you. Now, I’m sick of science courses, lol.

[Mariana]

Alyssa wrote: "Trisha wrote: "Alyssa wrote “... And sooooo much Shakespeare“.

I feel your pain, Alyssa! I was at school in London, UK, many years earlier - don’t remember what we studied for “English literature..."
To make it interesting, at the second high school I attended we were made to put on the plays for our classmates or also for the families (so reading them in the vacuum wouldn't kill us of boredom) and we had to build a model of an old theater (or even Shakespearan maybe) as we understood it. That was fun

[Catie]

We had to read The Lord of the Flies in middle school, and it was horrible, that book is definitely not a middle school book.

I graduated high school in 2016 and the books I remember reading are (I know I'm leaving some out, particularly from when I was an underclassman, I just don't remember most of those):

Jane Eyre
Rebecca
Wuthering Heights
Pride and Prejudice
Death of a Salesman
Of Mice and Men
The Picture of Dorian Grey
The Canterbury Tales
The Scarlett Letter
1984
The Remains of the Day
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Beowulf
Various Shakespeare plays that I hated and therefore don't remember
The Oedipus Cycle
Huckleberry Finn
The Red Badge of Courage
The Old Man and the Sea
Gatsby (ofc)
Jekyll and Hyde
The Awakening
Night
Heart of Darkness
Great Expectations
A Farewell to Arms
Bits of Paradise Lost
The Illiad and the Odyssey
A lot of short stories (like The Secret Sharer, The Most Dangerous Game and The Yellow Wallpaper).

I went to an all-girls school though, at my brother's all-boys school they had a vastly different list, mostly composed of graphic novels and contemporary fiction.

[Shelley]

What a great question! In recent years I've felt that I was cheated in High School/College, because I'd never read any of the books I think of as classics (i.e. anything by Steinbeck, Hemingway, Austin, Bronte, Salinger, Wells, Orwell, Swift, Verne, Fitzgerald, etc.) Last year, my goal was to read 1 classic each month (which ended up being mostly J Fic or YA Fic, but was awesome). Then I found this book club, which has been great.

I grew up in central Nebraska (US) and graduated from High School in in 1989. The books I remember having to read in High School were Romeo and Juliet (I liked the story, but found it difficult to read) and one other Shakespeare (that I clearly didn't enjoy enough to remember the title), Great Expectations (which I only vaguely remember) and A Tale of Two Cities (which I liked, but didn't want to admit), and A Scarlet Letter (which I also liked, but clearly wasn't supposed to). Looking back, it's probably good that we did not read more. I always got the impression that if my thoughts on the book were different than the teacher's, then I was wrong (in her eyes) and wouldn't get a good grade. My thoughts were often different (right or wrong), but I new enough to answer what we were taught on tests.

I do remember reading the following classics, some in grade school, some in junior high, but can't remember if they were required or for fun.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (okay)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (loved)
- Black Beauty (loved)
- Little Women (liked)
- A Christmas Tale (liked)

[Floriane]

I graduated highschool in France in 2010 and remember reading :


- Le Père Goriot, Balzac : loved it (4/5)
- La Promesse de l'aube, Romain Gary : hated it (1/5)
- L'île des esclaves, Marivaux : loved it (4/5)
- Candide, Voltaire : loved it (4/5)
- L'Étranger, Camus : meeeh (2/5)
- Oliver Twist, Dickens : liked it (3/5)
- Antigone, Anouilh : liked it (3/5)
- Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand : adored it (5/5)
- Fables, La Fontaine : liked it (3/5)

I have also read several plays written by Molière but I can't remember which ones because I have also read lots of them by myself.

Mostly french classics.

[⚡️Jesse]

I graduated in Massachusetts in '93 and I remember:

Huck Finn
The GReat Gatsby
Wuthering Heights
Death of a Salesman
Animal Farm
1984
Lord of the Flies
Waiting for Godot
Frankenstein
Beowulf
Return of the Native (I think we had our choice of T. Hardy)
Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet

One spring day, after we finished reading Romeo and Juliet aloud, we watched a dated movie adaptation during class. The topless love scene during my freshman year is forever seared in my memory. I read Macbeth on my own that summer, just because of the association.

[Shelley]

In all fairness to my High School teacher (see prior post), English Literature was a required class, and my class had little or no interest in it. While I did like to read, I really did not want to read "classics." It's likely that she felt compelled to "lecture" us on each book, assuming most of us never finished them. Our class discussions were rarely thought provoking.

Back to NancyJ's questions regarding Lord of the Flies, I've never read it, but do remember school mates talking about it. From what I've heard about it, I can't imagine it's a great book for Middle Schoolers. Maybe it would be better for Juniors/Seniors in High School.

It would be interesting to know how High School literature curriculum is determined. My teenage son and I have both read Fahrenheit 451 and To Kill a Mockingbird in recent years. We both thought Fahrenheit 451 was okay, but he did not like the ending and I thought it was fitting. He did not really like To Kill a Mockingbird, but I loved it.

[Sally]

I graduated 30 years ago,, but I remember some of the books
The Lottery
Silas Marner
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Old Man and the Sea
A Wrinkle in Time
The Diary of a Young Girl
To Kill a Mockingbird
Hamlet
Animal Farm

[Ilyssa]

To Kill a Mockingbird
Macbeth
Hamlet
Anne of Green Gables
Grat Expectations
All These Things I've Done
Siddhartha
A Separate Peace

[NancyJ]

⚡️Jesse wrote: "I graduated in Massachusetts in '93 and I remember:

Retur..."

Jesse,

Was it the 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet? Then there was the one with Clair Danes and Leonardo. It's funny, I don't remember a topless scene in either one. I must be so accustomed to it I don't even see it any more. If I was in a room with 14 year old boys at the time,I'm sure it would be different.

[Chris]

Graduated in 71 in MO. Grade9:Romeo and Juliet, Grade 10: Julius Caesar, Grades 10-12:Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard the III, All's Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing. Grade 10: Giants in the Earth, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Crucible. Grade 9: David Copperfield,, Lantern In Her Hand, , To Kill A Mockingbird, Animal Farm, A Christmas Carol. Not sure of grade: Rebecca, Picture of Dorian Gray.

[Kerri]

I graduated in 2003. I was in advanced/honors classes, and then in AP English. Sometimes we chose books from a list and then were separated into groups depending on what book we chose instead of having the whole class discuss one book together. I don't remember a whole lot, but here is what I can remember right now in no particular order:

Catherine, Called Birdy
Lord of the Flies
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (twice)
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Tale of Two Cities
Crime and Punishment
Heart of Darkness
The Great Gatsby
Fahrenheit 451
Night
The Crucible
The Red Badge of Courage (I moved during my junior year of high school and was very angry; I did not finish this book)
Spoon River Anthology
The Raven
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Diary of a Young Girl
I Am the Cheese
The Lottery
The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
The Odyssey (twice)
The Iliad
Beowulf (probably only parts, I don't remember much)
Hard Times
A Sound of Thunder
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Tess of the D'Ubervilles
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Hatchet
Of Mice and Men
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Stranger
Cyrano de Bergerac
Pygmalion
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
Things Fall Apart
The Catcher in the Rye
Watership Down
The White Mountains
Ender's Game
The Giver
The Mists of Avalon
The Glass Menagerie
Oedipus Rex
The Importance of Being Earnest
Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
Macbeth
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Taming of the Shrew
The Merchant of Venice (my teacher would let us make up a missed assignment for a "pound of flesh" - i.e. 4 quarter pounders, or a bucket of chicken, etc.)
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
Othello
The Outsiders
The Most Dangerous Game

This is what I remember right now after looking at my lists of books to revist, what I own, and comments made here. We also studied a lot of poetry by various authors, which I have no way of hunting down. If I think of more, I will come add them. This was an interesting exercise in memory :)

(edit: that list came out a lot longer than I thought it would!)

[Kerri]

Also, along with the Lord of the Flies, I read it in middle school and thought it was fine. I actually rather like that book. My class set up a trial for some of the characters, with a judge, jury, lawyers, and witness characters that we acted out and had to use details and facts mentioned in the book.

The Shakespeare plays we almost always would act out, split into groups that would take a scene and then act it out for the rest of the class so it wasn't the entire play, or sometimes we would perform for other English classes, who would likewise perform for us. My senior year we did Macbeth and had a little more lee-way; we filmed the scene where Lady Macbeth says "Out damned spot!" (Act 5, Scene 1) but set it in a mental hospital.

The Lord of the Rings was for those who hadn't read The Hobbit. My friend was the only person in the class (6th grade) who had read the whole series, so she was given the Silmarillion. There seemed to be a lot of leeway like that to account for the different reading experiences.

[Renee]

I am not sure which I hate more. Catcher in the Rye or Lord of The flies.

I friend did an interesting paper on Catcher in The Rye, He hound that the book was appreciated more in places where private schools were prominent.

This makes me wonder if I hate the book because i don't understand that culture. I still will never read it again. I remember reading it twice as a torture.

Kerri wrote: "Also, along with the Lord of the Flies, I read it in middle school and thought it was fine. I actually rather like that book. My class set up a trial for some of the characters, with a judge, jury,..."

[Catie]

I actually really loved Catcher in the Rye, although I didn't have to read it for school, I chose to read it on my own so maybe that helped me enjoy it more. In regards to The Lord of the Flies, I thought it was not age appropriate for middle schoolers, certainly, but even thinking about it now, I have problems with it, I've had so many discussions with people about it, particularly about how it claims to be a picture of humanity-- how humans would act if left to their own devices. However, it really only shows how teenage boys from upper class Britain act when left alone. If they came from a culture that is used to working together and is not all about personal gain, it would have ended differently. If it was girls, it would have ended differently. Actually, this is one of my favorite articles about it-- so funny! https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily...

[NancyJ]

Kerri wrote: "I graduated in 2003. I was in advanced/honors classes, and then in AP English. Sometimes we chose books from a list and then were separated into groups depending on what book we chose instead of ha..."

Wow, you must have a better memory than most, or your teachers offered more choices. It's really interesting to see the similarities and differences in the lists. I was a math nerd in high school, and even though I read a lot, I didn't find the class discussions very interesting. That is until I was mysteriously bumped up to honors classes where we had more interesting electives. Having choices made a difference to me.

[NancyJ]

Catie wrote: " In regards to The Lord of the Flies, I ..."

Thanks Catie, that's a great article - all girls version of Lord of the Flies. Very funny.

It's too bad it wouldn't get made though (or are they still trying?) There's not enough violence to sell tickets. But then again, Mean Girls did quite well.

The only all women movie I can recall was The Women. In the classic (1939) version most of the conflict was over men. The women were so nice in the modern remake that no one saw it.

"Who would interrupt us?"

Women who went to all girls schools tend to be more confident in leadership roles. They were able to speak up without being interrupted by the boys, and they could exhibit leadership without fearing the social consequences of competing with the boys.

[Marcie]

Interesting lists! They make me want to reread and read some of the titles provided.

I'll add what hasn't been listed ...

The Masque of the Red Death
Ethan Frome
The Bell Jar

[isabella]

Reading through these lists has been quite fascinating! I'll throw in my two cents.

Graduated from HS in 2016, i remember my school had us read these books (i most likely forgot a few):
- to kill a mockingbird
- the crucible
- the great gatsby
- hamlet
- macbeth
- the diary of anne frank
- rebecca
- the curious incident of the dog in the night time
- king lear
- of mice and men
- looking for alibrandi (we're an australian school!)
- romeo and juliet
- taming of the shrew
- the outsiders
- much ado about nothing
- animal farm

[Jack]

I remember reading the Scarlett letter, Cyrano de Bergerac, macbeth, the Golden bug ( short story) along with many other short stories. it's shameful how few full books we actually read.

[Cheryl]

(OT: one female version of Lord of the Flies was surprisingly worth reading. I mean, not classic, but not lame either: Beauty Queens.)

[Sarah]

In middle we did (that I can remember):
-The Diary of a Young Girl
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-The Phantom Tollbooth

In High School (graduated in 2008):
-The Catcher in the Rye
-Heart of Darkness
-Romeo and Juliet
-Hamlet
-Macbeth
-A Midsummer Night's Dream
-Of Mice and Men
-The Awakening
-Fallen Angels
-Downriver
-The Great Gatsby
-Ethan Frome
-Oedipus Rex
-Antigone
-The Crucible
-Lord of the Flies
-After the First Death
-A Separate Peace
-The Scarlet Letter
-Their Eyes Were Watching God
-Death of a Salesman
-The Glass Menagerie
-various stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe (can't remember specifically which ones we did then)

[Kathy]

I graduated NYC in 1977. Among others listed here, I remember:

Johnny Tremain
Jude The Obscure
Madame Butterfly
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Pigman (Paul Zindel was born and grew up on Staten Island- I think this was required by all SI high schools at that time)

[Kerri]

NancyJ wrote: "I wonder if these books might have an influence on how we view the world. (Would people be more careful in protecting their privacy on social media if they read 1984? Or doesn't it seem relevant?)"

I have heard a lot of people say they hated books they were forced to read in school, but I generally enjoyed them and was glad for the experience to discuss with my peers and teachers. Yeah, sometimes I didn't agree with what the teacher was saying things meant (as I got older) but they definitely broadened my horizons.

I read 1984 on my own some high school summer and hated it. There was good stuff there, sure, but I just remember it also being boring. I often think about revisiting it now that I am older and see how my view and perspective has changed.

[Kerri]

NancyJ wrote: "Wow, you must have a better memory than most, or your teachers offered more choices. "

I have actually been compiling a list of books to "revisit" from my school classes for a few years now, so that helps :) Also, visual cues (such as reading a title here, or seeing a book on my shelf) also help me a lot. There were quite a few I would never have remembered if someone else hadn't mentioned the title or something that sparked a memory. Plus, I then went through my lists here on Goodreads to also help :) I am a bit of a "completionist", I like getting lists/files/game completion/whatever as complete as possible :) This is also why it is really hard for me to not finish a book or movie even if I hate it, but I am getting better at that.

I was really lucky with awesome schools and teachers growing up. Our group reads generally had some fun activity that help me remember it, though there were plenty of just "read and get tested on it" too. Most did offer a wide-range, and often we split into smaller groups based on what we were interested in reading. Thus, I have never read Scarlet Letter because something else was more interesting to me.

One year I had a teacher who had us choose our own books from various genres to broaden our exposure and get us out of just reading one author or one type of book (I didn't list any of those) so it was a lot of fun. She gave us a list of genres with various requirements (has to be at least such-and-such long for instance), and we would pick and choose which genre we wanted to read when. We didn't get tested on those books but we would have to write response papers and keep track of which genres we had left. I don't know if it was more or less work for her that way, but I think kids liked it because it gave them more control instead of just being told what books were "good" and what books "weren't". They could say, "I really hated this book and never want to read this genre again!" and it wouldn't count against them, as long as they wrote their response paper according to the requirements.

[David]

My high school required we take four years of English, but after freshman English, all of the English classes were electives. No "common core" or anything like that. I graduated in '79, long before that was the fashion.

Things I remember reading in high school:
Romeo and Juliet
A Tale of Two Cities
She Stoops to Conquer
The Spoils of Poynton
All Creatures Great and Small
Oedipus Rex
Clouds
Inferno
Macbeth

I know we read more than that, but it was 40 years ago!

[Bruce]

I graduated in 1976 and remember reading the following books from jr. and sr. high.
The Red Badge of Courage
White Fang
The Call of the Wild
The Great Gatsby
The Lord of The Flies
Heart of Darkness
1984
Romeo and Juliet
Great Expectations
The Scarlet Letter
A Separate Peace

[Edward]

Wow, I see everybody else with wide ranging selections that their schools had required them to read. I graduated high school in Washington state '05 and I think their thought pattern was if there is a movie, play it. I realized once I got to college the knowledge gap difference from my peers just being in different school districts. If it is a lesson to anybody, make sure to get kids reading early and make it fun.

Only required reading I can remember for junior high and high school
-Night
-Of Mice and Men
-Old Man and the Sea
-Romeo and Juliet
-Outsiders

[Krissy]

In high school I read(graduated in 2011):

Julius ceasar
Romeo and Juliet[
book:Hamlet|1420]
Macbeth
The Chocolate War
Life of Pi
Gone with the Wind
To Kill a Mockingbird
Waiting for Godot
The Great Gatsby
All Quiet on the Western Front'
Along with 1 Canadian Biography of our choice:
There Is A Season
And 2 Canadian novels we compared of our choosing:
The Stone Angel
The Edible Woman

In grade 6, 7, and 8 (I never had middle school, we have elementary schools that are JK-8)
The Giver
Lord of the Flies
Holes
The Face on the Milk Carton
The Outsiders

[Alison]

My high school had us read A LOT!
Lots of Shakespeare
House of the Spirits
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Great Gatsby
Pride & Prejudice
Jane Eyre
Wide Sargasso Sea
Plum Bun
Frankenstein
Lord of the Flies
Ethan Frome
Of Mice and Men
Langton Hughes' The Big Sea
Black Boy
Things Fall Apart
Oedipus Rex
The Pearl
Importance of Being Earnest
Khafka's Metamorphosis
The Stranger
Jekyll and Hyde

I know I'm forgetting books. I loved my English classes. We read such interesting stuff.

[Kyra]

It's interesting to see what everyone else is reading, as most of the books that you all are listing I never read until college. I will add though to my list, that my senior year I took an online AP English Literature class in addition to my senior English and what we read in there was:
The Great Gatsby
Pride & Prejudice
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Twelfth Night
and then mostly short stories like The Yellow Wallpaper and The Lottery

[Taz]

My school did required reading in two different ways. The traditional way of reading the book as a class and then giving us themes or lists. For the themes: Junior year, we were only allowed to read books from American Authors for credit and Senior year we only received credit for works by European authors.

What we read as a class: lots of Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Nights Dream, Of Mice and Men, Hamlet (in college), Things Fall Apart, and The Canterbury Tales (abridged), Night, The Crucible,Flowers for Algernon, The Most Dangerous Game, The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum,The Tell-Tale Heart, and Huckleberry Fin that I recall but I read the entire texts so some of these might not have been "required."

[Hannah]

I'm sure there were more, but these are the only ones I can still remember:

The Merchant of Venice
Twelfth Night
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
An Inspector Calls
Pygmalion/My Fair Lady
The Lord of the Flies
The Diary of Anne Frank
Moonfleet
Silas Marner
My Family and Other Animals

[Katie.dorny]

I remember Romeo and Juliet,
An Inspector calls
Of mice and men
Luckily I loved all 3 and it got me into classics :)

[Renee]

Taz I had that exact same curriculum. Did you grow up in the Chicago suburbs? We could be long lost class mates.

Taz wrote: "My school did required reading in two different ways. The traditional way of reading the book as a class and then giving us themes or lists. For the themes: Junior year, we were only allowed to rea..."