There were a bunch of books I was assigned to read in high school English. At the time, I read most of them, or at least read most of most of them. Not many of them were very enjoyable. Granted, at the time I did not enjoy reading as much as I do now.
Here are the books I can remember broken down by what I thought of them then.
Young me didn’t like:
The Red Badge of Courage
The Scarlet Letter
O Pioneers
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
MacBeth
Candide
The Great Gatsby
The Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre
Young me liked:
A Separate Peace
Lord of the Flies
Madame Bovary
The Stranger
Catch 22
Young me didn’t read:
Mayor of Casterbridge
Picture of Dorian Grey
Heart of Darkness
The Sun Also Rises
I have to say, young me had ok taste. Now I would move The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye to the I liked category, and I would be willing to read The Sun Also Rises.
What books did you have to read in high school and are there any of the ones I disliked then that I should give a second chance?
You missed Ethan Frome under books to dislike. That one had to be the #1 worst book to read in high school.
ReplyDeleteI liked Great Gatsby when I had it assigned in high school, but I'm with you on the Red Badge of Courage and Catcher in the Rye front.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Cat's Cradle, To Kill A Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath, A Prayer For Owen Meany, Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men. I liked The Sun Also Rises when I read it, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't in high school at the time. In fact, I'm not sure whether I was in high school for all of those books I listed because I recall mostly just watching movies in high school and reading the books on my own time.