Those books you read in Highschool...

Alright guys, let's share...what books did you read in Highschool? Whcih ones did you despise? Which would you read again? Did any of them change your outlook on life?

Freshman year:

We really didn't read many books, just mostly read out of this literature book, which was like condensed stories. That's how we read Romeo and Juliet.

Sophomore Year

-The Education of Little Tree - loved it! I wouldn't mind reading that again. It's a short book and a quick read, I love the story and the descriptions!

-Of Mice and Men - I just had a brain fart, and couldn't think of the title of tis book until I Googled Gorge and Lenny's names, and it was the first thing that popped up! I liked it. I loved the story. Just their whole journey of going to find work, etc...yes, I'd read it again.

I can't remmeber anything else we read...lol.

Junior Year: I spent a semester in Honors English, which was a cool class, but too fast paced for me. So I dropped it and switched to a regular english class...cool hippy girl teacher, too...so that rocked!

-The Scarlet Letter - I read this is Honors, and I didn't even read the whole thing. It was like too rushed to absorb it, and I didn't have time to finish, so I just wrote the paper without having read the whole book...it was then I decided I was goign to switch to a regular class. But from what I gathered from having people read to me, and from talking about it, it was a groovy book. I wrote my paper about how Hester was a rebel, and wore the letter with pride! I should find that paper...

-Ethan Frome - Also read this in Honors. Again, too rushed to really enjoy it. I did finish this though, and reflecting on it, I think I might read it again.

When I switched to the normal class, we read...

-Catcher in The Rye - Loved it. I'd definently read it again. I just loved reading about Holden's life and his adventures. It changed my outllook on life, and made me realize that being such a negative person wasn't doing anyone any good at all!

-Smoke Signals - This is a play actually...but we read it. Then we watched the movie. It was cool. I loved all the descripton that Sherman Alexie puts into it...makes me want to get out and explore the country. I'd definently read this again.

Senior Year:

-Pygmalion - This book inspired some really good discussions in class! Not sure if I would read it again...but there's a chance. I liked the itneraction of the characters.

-The Great Gatsby - LOVED IT! I would read it again. I loved the description of the times, the characters, etc. Although it seemed they lived such a sad life, but I guess that kind of had me hooked on the book!

-Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress. Cool book. I'd read it again. Nice and short. I don't reaally remember what exactly I liked about this book, but when they talked about in the beginning, the alarm clock...and how they could control the days with it, that was cool!

-Kite Runner - That book was one, that after I got into it, I couldn't put it down to...but I had to because I had other work that needed to be done! I would read it agian. I loved the progression of the book...it was graphic though, and some parts were sad.

-Like Water for Chocolate - Interesting book. Interesting format. At first, I wasn't too keen on it (sort of like how I felt about Kite Runner) but then I just got sucked in and had to read more. I love Tita's development as the rebel character!

Here's my rant...one thing that drove me nuts about reading books in school, was the ammount of work they assigned with it, though. It like detracted from the reading. But, then there is the teacher that would give you an assignment that only loosely related to the book, like just a writting assignment. That was so much better than read and answer these questions. I liked writting about how I related to character, or how I felt about an issue or something...or how a book related to my life. But the answers these questions, or any kind of those assignments. I just found them to be busy work, and detract from the book. Or a class discussion is always cool, if it works with your class...they never worked in my senior class, though. Oh well.

Okay, I'm done...your turn!

 

wow, that was very helpful to me!
i'm teaching 9th and 10th grade english, and some of those books are definitely on my list. i'm reading balzac and the little chinese seamstress with my honors sophomores. will be reading l.w.f.c. - i'm in the middle of it now myself, and am not crazy about it.
i'll check out smoke signals and the education...
thanks for the thread!
i also agree that too much work can be a bitch. i do tons of creative writing with my girls.

 

I don't remember what years I read everything, or all the books. I really didn't finish many until my senior year because they rushed us and assigned piles of homework. It was too time-consuming. Now I'm a literary junkie. I'm not going to get into much detail, but you'll be able to tell enough from my descriptions.

Catcher in the Rye~ amazing.
1984~ amazing
Animal Farm~ amazing
As I Lay Dying~ hated it
The Great Gatsby~ meh
The Sun Also Rises~ meh
The Scarlett Letter~ hated it. could have done with out 9 our of every 10 words.
Cry the Beloved Country~ excellent
Ordinary People~ loved it and every other Judith Guest novel EVER
Black and Blue~ almost as redundant and boring as Prozac Nation. BLAH!
My Antonia~nothing too exciting
Slaughter House-Five~ i remember liking it a lot. Need to read again.

That's all I remember reading.

 

Of Mice and Men
The Great Gatsby
The Scarlet Letter

More but I can't remember

 

Oh yeah...I forgot Farenhiet 451 - I kinda liked that. I think I'd like it more again if I re-read it. Kayte, I'm happy this thread was of service to you.

 

Freshman Year-
Romeo and Juliet
Of Mice and Men
{something about} Mango Street
Roman and Greek Myths/Legends...or something like that
A book about a character whose mother was a native American. Obviously not emorable.
To Kill a Mockingbird

Sophomore Year-
Something by Chaim Potok. -meh.
A book about imperialism in Africa.-meh
Julius Caesar- Good.
Dante's Inferno...selected exerpts
Something by Henrik Ibsen-good.
Medea-Good.
Les Mis- good.

Then I moved, and I changed school systems.
Junior Year- Tomorrow, When the War Began
Angela's Ashes

We also studied the Spanish movie Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua para Chocolate) for Spanish class...and I read Slaughterhouse Five for fun, in 8th grade. Good book.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about House on Mango Street...is that what it's called? I don't really remember anything about it, other than it was a collection of short stories, I think.

 

We just just finished reading The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz which I found tear-jerkingly hilarious. I was the only one with any pity for Duddy at the end, I just wanted his Zeyda to love him but NO! Ugh, oh well. Can't win em all I guess.

 

That's the one. The House on Mango Street. Vignettes, a collection of vignettes (our teacher really hammered that one into us). I didn't like it all that much. What did you think of it, from what you can remember?

 

grade 8: The Outsiders- It made a 14 year old girl who hates books into a reader!

grade 9: The Chrysalids- a horrible book! it made no sense and was just to ridiculous to be taken seriously.

grade 10: Lord of the Flies- Better, but still not my favourite. But I love that line "sucks to your ass-mar"

grade 11: Of Mice and Men- I actually enjoyed reading this book.

right now, in grade 12: Oryx and Crake- This book is actually really good. It surprised me, i thought it was just some stupid lame science fiction book, but it's really creative and witty.

 

Most of it was crap. Overrated pretentious "literature" crap, none of it even written anywhere near our time. Some of it was good, though.

9th grade-

Romeo and Juliet, by far Shakespeare's most overrated play. They kept telling us that the boys should be able to relate to Romeo and the girls to Juliet. Yet I've never had anything in common with either of them.

The Pearl- I don't like the attidude that people have to stay were they are socially and should never try to rise above it, which is what the book basically taught. It was well written, though.

10th grade-

A Separate Peace- I hate that book. Hate it. I hate that book the way Roger Ebert hated the movie North- except I liked North. A Separate Peace, on the other hand, was awful. Horrible. A complete piece of shit. It was the worst attempt at "literature" that my high school ever tried to shove up our asses, and without a doubt the worst book I've ever read.

Of Mice And Men- Extremely overrated. It was okay, though. Certainly better than A Separate Peace. As if, of course, that took any effort.

Julius Caesar- Meh...

11th grade-

Beowulf- I don't remember what version. The translation wasn't very good, but the story was good. Then I read Seamus Heany's (sp?) version of it, and it was awsome. I was the only person in my class who liked it, and as far as I know, the only person in my age group.

The Great Gatsby- Too melodramatic for my taste, but it was all right.

Macbeth- Dry. Really dry. I never got why we never read any of Shakespeare's comedies in high school. With acception to Hamlet and King Lear, neither of which we read in high school, the comedies are usually a lot better than the trageties.

In 12th grade, I took Theater Arts, Broadcast Journalism, and Public Speaking to fullfill my English credits.

 

8th grade-adventures of ulysses, tom sawyer-okay, and some shakespear one
9th-romeo and juliet, a tale of two cities-really good
were going to read huck finn in 11th grade, thats a good book
we do most of the reading in class so we never have a lot of homework when were doing that.

 

Feminisit Hippy - I never thoguht of The Pearl in the terms which you present in your post. I like that way of thinking about it, and that makes me not like the book...not like I loved it to begin with or anything. You guys have made me remember the little books I forgot about.

 

To Kill A Mockingbird--loved it!
The Catcher in the Rye--loooooooooooved it!
The Divine Comedy--absolutely beautiful ...by dante algiheri
Crime and Punishment--im readin it again now i liked it so much
1984--wonderful
Things Fall Apart--one of my favorites these days
Dialogues of Plato--beautiful...about the trials of Socrates
The Stranger--strange and rather bland yet it is incredibly interesting if you pay attention
LOVE by leo buscaglia--well...it's about love so what do you think i'd say about it?!
Jane Eyre--didn't really enjoy that one too much
Native Son--this is definitely one of my favorite books
Othello--if you read into it and really pay attention..it has great ideas
Romeo and Juliet--of course it was beautiful
Hamlet-- my teacher really shed a whole new light onto this play and made it more fascinating than i ever thought possible


thats all i can remember now haha :0)

 

wow, this is a great thread! I know i'm forgetting a ton, especially from Junior year, but this is what I remember. Not all of them were required reading, but either for a summer/break project where we got to chose from a list, or like, the dh lawrence ones of senior year were for a major research/analytical paper, which we got to do over an author of our choice. (so i starred all non-required reading) i'm pretty satisfied with these, except for my teacher's choises freshmen and junior year were a bit odd... like our mutual friend, which was like 600 pages! but i learned a lot in those classes, so i can't complain. I should reallllly be complaining about sophomore year, as you can see, my teacher sucked. i didn't learn a thing that year. i could go more in depth about these, but that'd be soooo long. but, if you have questions about them specifically, i'd be happy to answer.

Freshmen year

The Odyssey

The Iliad

Fahrenheit 451*

Henry V (shakespeare)

The unabridged oxford English dictionary (haha not really but we did get very familiar with it)

The Count of Monte Cristo

A Tale of Two cities (dickens)

Ivanhoe





Sophomore year

Short stories from a literature book

Shakespeare, don’t remember which one

The Pearl





Junior year

The house of 7 gables*

The horse dealer’s daughter (short story, dh Lawrence)*

The tempest (Shakespeare)*

The Good Earth (buck)

Our Mutual Friend (dickens)

The Ox Bow Incident

Hamlet (Shakespeare)

Frankenstein*





Senior Year

Wuthering Heights (E bronte)*

Beowulf

Jane Eyre (bronte)

The Canterbury Tales (only a few of them…I don’t exactly remember which..)

Lady Chatterley’s Lover*

Other short stories by dh Lawrence*

Excerpts from Gullivers Travels

MacBeth

Excerpts from Paradise Lost

Heart of Darkness

Cry, the beloved country (paton)


wow... i miss my hs english classes now that i'm thinking about it we did so much reading, on top of writing other things like persuasive essays, short stories, research reports of so many different kinds, not to mention other projects not dealing with literature.... my teacher for freshmen and junior year was so hard, but i learned so much... i miss her English 101 sucks...

 

wow it's been so long... i seriously hardly remember anything from highschool... college books i could tell you most of, though there's been a ton of those too.. jeez... but these are the ones i can remember from highschool:

othello
moby dick --- awesome book.
red badge of courage
pieces of dante's inferno
some book about the great plains... can't remember the name, but it was okay...
for whom the bell tolls (on my own for a project) i really liked this one
of mice and men
the old man and the sea
the pearl
to kill a mockingbird

okay that's all i can remember... we did tons of reading but it's kind of blurry as to when i read it.

 

I probably only remember the ones I like.. specially because I usually dont finish a book that doesnt capture me..

The Catcher in the rye (one of my favs)
Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth (loved them)
To Kill a mockingbird
A Brave New world (one of my favorite books ever)
Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe
The Great Gatsby (not for me)
Animal Farm (great)
Lord of the Flies
most of them where in spanish.. but those were the ones I read for my english literature class.

 

Well, I'm still in High School...so I can only include books up to the first semester of junior year (which is where I am now).

9th Grade
"The Odyssey" by Homer--Death by literature.
"The Sound of Waves" (Japanese book) by Yukio Mischima (sp?)--Not my cup of tea.
"Oedipus" by Sophocles...or Plato..or somebody?--Neat. Incest at its most interesting! We connected this with Freudian thought.
"The Allegory of the Cave" by Plato--Changed my outlook. Very good. I recommend it.
That's all that I remember...

10th Grade
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe--Good book, though I don't prefer it. It's an insightful look at colonization, assimilation, and how fear can destroy a person.
"Wuthering Heights" by a Bronte...don't remember which--Hated it. Death by literature.
"1984" by George Orwell--Great, of course.
"Animal Farm" by George Orwell--Great, of course.
"Hiroshima" by ?--A bit dull, but good none the less.
"Night" by Elie Wiesel--Great book. Not difficult and very short.
"Macbeth" by Shakespeare--Wonderful. I love this so much. We talked a lot about gender stereotypes and masculinity/femaninity...and all kinds of awesomeness. It's my favorite of Shakespeare's plays.
"Othello" by Shakespeare--Not my cup of tea. But Iago kicks ass.
"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens--It wasn't as horrid as I thought, though I found Pip to be most unlikable. A sell-out.
That's all I remember...I think there's more, though. This was an honors class and the reading pace was rather fast.

11th Grade (where I am now)
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald--Wonderful. I love it.
"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne--a little boring, but he has wonderful descriptions...and the symbols are numerous if you read deeply. A good message about society and its outcasts. I believe Hawthorne was a transcendentalist, and it's obvious in this work.
"Walden" by Henry David Thoreau--Sleepy time, but interesting. This dude is definitely a hippie if there ever was one.
"Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau--More interesting than Walden...definitely reeks hippiness.

That's all so far. I like reading school books. Otherwise, I'd never read any of the classics...and there are some of them that I actually enjoy.

 

Oh, snap! How could I forget "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley? We read that in 10th. It's the shiznit.

 

Well, let's see what I can remember.

Ninth Grade

Lord of the Flies
The Andromeda Strain
Romeo and Juliet
Other books I can't recall...

Tenth Grade

The Time Machine
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Seperate Peace
The Chosen
Death of a Salesman

Eleventh Grade

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Crucible
The Scarlet Letter
The Adventures of Huck Finn
Catcher in the Rye

For my senior year, I took two English classes at a local university. We only read books in one class, though, and they were:

About a Boy
Persepolis
Nickel and Dimed
Into the Wild

Those are all I can remember, but I'm sure there were others I can't recall.