I saw Peat post a Top Ten Tuesday about “Books I Read In School.” Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I don’t participate in this popular book meme, but I liked last week’s topic. (I tend to stick with WWW Wednesday posts.) So, there’s a first time for everything! One week late (or arriving precisely when I mean to), here’s the topic “Books I Read In School.”
THE NEVERENDING STORY by Michael Ende: I had to read this over the summer for my freshman year of high school. While I don’t have particularly vivid memories of it, I probably liked it way more than a lot of the other assignments.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee: I believe this is a pretty common book that a lot of U.S. students have to read in school. Honestly, I think a lot of it went over my head when I read this over the summer for freshman year of high school. I was 14 then. So it was a good thing we discussed it in class and also watched the film. I’d probably get a lot more out of it now.
THE ODDYSSEY by Homer: Eh, me and stories in verse don’t get along. This was an in-class assignment. I did what I needed to do and moved on.
THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE by Frederick Douglass: It seems like most other folks read Maya Angelou in high school. However, I had to read this narrative by Frederick Douglass as summer reading either going into freshman or sophomore year of high school. I don’t remember any of it at this point, but it’s undoubtedly important given the history of the U.S. I wonder if certain people now consider this a false narrative and try to get it stricken from school reading…
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel: I read this during sophomore year of high school. It’s definitely important reading. It’s also one of the few I’d reread. Others I read that year for school included THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and FAHRENHEIT 451. I’d reread all of those.
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas: This was another summer reading assignment for sophomore year of high school. I remember that I was in the minority of people who didn’t care for it. I just remember thinking it was boring, which is on par for my feelings about classic literature. It took me forever to read it.
A DOLL’S HOUSE by Henrik Ibsen: I also had reading assignments during the actual school year. Junior year of high school was the hardest overall, including English class. I had so many writing assignments. Anyway, part of junior year focused on Scandinavian literature, I think? Not so surprising, I guess, since I partook in the International Baccalaureate curriculum. That’s why I had to read this.
THE SOUND OF WAVES by Yukio Mishima: I believe this was also summer reading, but either for junior or senior year. But it was part of a list of books from which I had to pick one. I think I rather liked it, but again don’t have any distinct emotional memories about it. Unfortunately the present cover is uninspiring. The one I have is much more interesting.
BEOWULF: Ugh. I remember bracing myself for this one. I forced myself to read it over three days during the summer for senior year of high school. I’m not a fan of stories in verse and this was no exception. I’d much rather read a novel retelling of it.
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD by Tom Stoppard: Even though I don’t care to read plays, I remember liking the subversion of this one. It’s a retelling of two minor characters in Hamlet. I read this during senior year of high school.
Of course, I also had to read Shakespeare. Of that I remember reading Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, and Twelfth Night. I wish we’d read Macbeth because I have a feeling I probably would’ve liked it. We also read more Greek tragedies like the Iliad, Oedipus Rex, and Antigone. Poetry was a focus at various times, including Pablo Neruda, Emily Dickinson, and various English poets. (I hated analyzing poetry.) A few times I got to read some Edgar Allan Poe, which was a nice change. And I read Jane Eyre, which I don’t remember minding so much.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten about some books I read in school. But I feel like my curriculum included some good ones in the short amount of time we learned about literature.
What books did you have to read in school?
It’s always really interesting to see what other people read in school! We did To Kill a Mockingbird, some selected passages from The Oddessy, and Night as well. Honestly a lot of it is a blur since I studied lit in college too, but we also did The Great Gatsby and The Outsiders.
I think so, too! I’d like to read more posts like this from others. I read The Great Gatsby on my own. I thought it was ok. I probably would’ve gotten more out of it if I’d read it for school. Personally I like the DiCaprio adaptation better than the book haha.
My experience reading it for school made me like it less, honestly. My English teacher really overemphasized the symbolism of the green light, etc. When the movie started with a green light I almost walked out haha. It was a really solid adaptation though!
I don’t remember reading much in high school, for assignments that is (I read plenty on my own time!) Beowulf sort of surprises me!
In that you’re surprised I had to read Beowulf? I think it’s partly because I was doing the International Baccalaureate program in high school, so it’s a bit standardized and incorporates more than just American authors. But what do I know?
I remember when my class read Beowulf, the teacher attached a paper mache “Grendel arm” to the ceiling.
I love Beowulf, but I can see why some people don’t.
Omg I forgot about Grendel losing his arm!! That was a big part of the story wasn’t it, lol. I’ve blocked most of it from memory.
Ha ha ha!
FD lived in Rochester for 25 years and is buried here in Mount Hope cemetery, we embrace his history around here!
Most excellent!
I was gutted when To Kill a Mockingbird wasn’t picked for my class at school (I read it as an adult and loved it though). We had The Caucasian Chalk Circle instead. We also had The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank which remains one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read.
I’m not familiar with The Caucasian Chalk Circle, but agree about The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Such important reading.
We had to read A Doll’s House too and I thought it was brilliant. My school days were back in the dark ages and we had to read two very long nineteenth century novels by Thomas Hardy as well as two Jane Austen.
I don’t have much of a memory of A Doll’s House. I don’t think I had any strong feelings one way or the other. Have to admit I don’t know who Thomas Hardy is haha, though I am familiar with Jane Austen (kind of hard not to be when there are retellings everywhere!).
Hardy was a late Victorian writer who wrote long and often fairly gloomy novels. The most famous is probably Tess of the D’Urbervilles which gets made into a film every few decades 😀 You definitely wouldn’t get school students studying him now
Kind of jealous you got to read The Neverending Story. We did read The Hobbit the summer before freshman year of high school though. Which a surprising amount of people said that they “didn’t understand.” It was then I had my doubts about high school lol.
The Neverending Story was probably the best out of everything I had to read. I’m kind of surprised it was required reading! And wow…you got to read The Hobbit! I read that on my own in 6th grade, though I admit some of it flew over my head at the time.
Ugh. I shudder remembering my experience reading Beowulf. I didn’t include it on my list last week cos it was one of the few required reading books that I didn’t enjoy! 😂 Count of Monte Cristo is on my TBR but I can’t imagine reading it in HS. I don’t think I would’ve had the patience!
I might be interested in trying Count of Monte Cristo again. But I also made the mistake of looking it up on audio and it’s 46 hours long hahaha. So…yea…probably not happening any time soon.
There is something about school reading that can only be described as trying to put kids off books for life! The worst one I had was about 18th Century mining in Scotland, Docherty by William McIlvannie – wow, talk about depressing!!
I totally feel this. After I graduated high school I didn’t read very much for probably a decade. All of the overanalyzing really turned me off from reading. I get it now–we analyzed because the way people wrote often included hidden meanings, etc. You don’t find that too much these days…it’s probably confined to a certain niche of fiction.
I vaguely remember seeing a bit of the film but I didn’t realise Never Ending Story was a book 🙈 we actually only have one school read in common and our feelings on it definitely differed. I hated having to read that Hamlet based one. Shakespeare was bad enough for me and I found that even worse 😂 I’ve got to admit I’m always wary about novels in verse but haven’t really tried any. I’d like to give a few of the others a chance one day but I generally struggle with the idea of classics so I’m not sure how well it’ll go. The same year that I had to read the one I mentioned I also had to study History Boys which I hated and Kite Runner which was good but harrowing. In general I can’t remember much about any of my school reads though besides Of Mice & Men 🤫