I love books and so do a lot of other people. But I certainly didn't like every book I was required to read in high school. I think I was lucky because my classes had so much required reading. I almost wish they'd made us read more. Some of these I thought were good books, some were bad, and some I thought were just stupid.
Four Years of Required Summer Reading (Chronological Order: 2/Summer):
- Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
- Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
- My Antonía by Willa Cather
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Freshmen Year:
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- Romeo and Juliet
- Antigone
Sophomore Year:
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- Lord of The Flies by William Golding
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- Julius Caesar
Junior Year:
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Crucible By Arthur Miller
- Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller
Senior Year:
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- The Stranger by Albert Camus
- Oedipus Rex
- Macbeth
- Hamlet
And to think doesn't even count the outside reading requirements I had for 9th and 10th grade. Having to read all these books really prepared me for the AP English Lit test. What was/is your required reading like in high school and how did/do you feel about the books you have to read?
How on earth do you remember all of those? I can't even remember all the classes that I had in high school. In any case, I think mine was pretty much the same. I really enjoyed Bless Me, Ultima; Farenheit 451; Life of Pi; and Pride and Prejudice. However, I could not stand The Catcher in the Rye or Frankenstein.
Boy decide. You're too old to fuck around and too young to die. Try this trial life on for size. ~Murder by Death
Freshman Year:
The Red Pony
Night
Romeo and Juliet
Animal Farm
Sophomore Year:
The Red Badge of Courage
The Great Gatsby
The Grapes of Wrath
The Jungle
The Catcher and the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Crucible
A Bell for Adano
Junior Year:
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Frankenstein
Oedipus
Things Fall Apart
1984
That is all of my required reading thus far
I don't necessarily remember when I read what. But here's a rough list of the things I've had to read, not to mention required outside reading.
Fahrenheit 451
Of Mice and Men
The Odyssey
Animal Farm
Nectar in a Sieve
The Miracle Worker
The Glass Menagerie
Black Boy
Native Son
The Great Gatsby
Romeo and Juliet
Antigone
Julius Caesar
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1984
Brave New World
Lord of the Flies
Midsummer's Night Dream
Hamlet
King Lear
Rosencrantz and Guldenstern are Dead
Heart of Darkness
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
Frankenstein
Oedipus
Macbeth
Othello
Fences
Death of a Salesman
A Doll House
A Separate Peace
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Taming of the Shrew
Things Fall Apart
The Poisonwood Bible
The Red Badge of Courage
A Farewell to Arms
The Crucible
Not to mention countless short stories and poetry.
I feel like there should be more on the list, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I certainly didn't like all of these, but there are some that I fell in love with.
Freshman: Antigone, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, bunch of short stories that I can't remember, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, a bunch of poems, Oedipus Rex, and probably some that I'm forgetting
Sophomore: The Crucible, Huck Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, and A Farewell to Arms
Junior: Pride and Prejudice, more poems, Macbeth, Invisible Man, 1984
Senior: Hamlet, The Stranger, The Odyssey, Death of a Salesman, Oedipus Rex (again), Waiting for Godot, and another play I know I'm forgetting...
~C
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From what I can remember. . .
Summer reading list:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy
Carmen by Prosper Merimee
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder
The Fantasticks by Tom Jones
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Anatomy of Criticism by Northrope Frye ("Theory of Symbols" and "Theory of Myths")
Freshman Year:
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
West Side Story by Arthur Laurents
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Night by Elie Wiesel
Sophomore Year:
Antigone by Sophoclese
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
The Iliad by Homer (abridged)
Don Quixote (abridged)
Le Morte d'Arthur (Book IV: "The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney") by Sir Thomas Malory
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette by Alfred Tennyson
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Cúchulainn
The Song of Roland
Junior Year:
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
The Color of Water by James McBride
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Walden by Henry Thoreau (abridged)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (abridged)
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (junior theme)
Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran (junior theme)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Senior Year (next year for me ^_^ ):
From what I heard so far. . .
The Cantebury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Watership Down by Richard Adam
Pleasure/outside reading:
Day and The Accident (two books) by Elie Wiesel
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (yet to finish)
Oedipus Rex by Sophoclese (yet to finish)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (still currently reading)
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http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/orochigenocide
". . . it is error upon error, clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail."
I just became a senior (still in High School)and so far i have read
Night
Of Mice and Men
Romeo and Juliet
The Crucible
The Pearl- Steinbeck
A Tell Tale Heart
And othres i cant remember
but i wish we would have read Slaughter House Five in class By Kurt Vonnegut
i heard they used to do that in College but it would be fun to read that book and really dig into the other meanings that enthrawl that book. I absolutely adore Vonnegut though
Saint O Nothin' Says
PEACE