Books you had to read for school...and loved!

Oh God, the books I've read as an English Literature Major...

Jane Eyre: Having read Wuthering Heights earlier I was a bit apprehensive of any more works of the Bronte sisters but this one kind of caught me off guard. I honestly did learn to like and care about Jane through the book and Charlotte Bronte's language is far more interesting than Emily's or Anne's. It's just a good read now and I call it among my favorites.

The Great Gatsby: Now, Mr. Fitzgerald and me never have and probably never will see eye to eye. I don't think I'll ever like his work but I can appreciate this book for what it is.

Regeneration: Patt Barker's first part in a three-book look into the worlds and psyches of soldiers of the WWI was one of those books I wasn't expecting to like.

Beowulf: I read the whole of this, both in Old English (hello Saxonic expressions, let's turn me mazochist today, again) and more modern translations. A true English epic if I ever saw one.
 
The Animal Farm :ahmed:

I was all; "No! Mom! Its so lame and boring!" and then a few chapter into it, I couldn't wait to finish it, I loved every chapter of it, and now its been so long since I read it or had a copy I kinda wanna read it again. My mom was right, she said I'd love it and I really did, it was such a weird book but so interesting as well, Moms... being right all the time :mokken:
 
The Count of Monte Cristo, read it in 8th grade, but an abridged version. I loved it so much that later I read an unabridged version. Fantastic book.

Also in 7th grade I read the Endless Steppe. That was a nice book with a nice insight to something people never thought of during WWII.

Oh and Animal Farm ^_^ Waitress Girl reminded me of it. Read that in 8th grade. STUPID NAPOLEON!
I loved Boxer :(


 
A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespear

This. Book. Novel. Play. Whatever. Is honestly one of the most brilliant things I've ever read. I love it. So much. Once you understand how he writes, it's one of the most brilliant plots ever. Even though it's so deadly simple. I love how the faeries and humans interact, although not directly. I love Oberon. I love Titania. All of the characters are brilliant. Definitely a favorite forever<3
 
Eve's Daughters.

Technically we were asked to choose a book and then write an essay about it.

I loved this book! My mum originally hired it out from the library and then I ended up reading it before she could. XD

It's basically about four generations of daughters.

It mainly focuses on Emma Bauer who is the second generation. She has kept a secret about her daughter (the third generation) for over 50 years and when her grandaughter decides to marry (who is the fourth generation) the secret is revealed.

Such a lovely and heartbreaking story. <3
 
When I was at school, I only really enjoyed Animal Farm, An Inspector Calls, The Lyrical Ballads and Carol Anne Duffy's The World's Wife (thanks to a good teacher).

Sadly, I didn't engage with a lot of the Literature handed to me. Truth be told, it was too advanced for me at the time. Not because I couldn't understand it, but because I enjoyed books which contained fantasy like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials and believed that everything else was going to distract me from reading these, writing and talking to friends.

My tastes have changed over the past three years, partly thanks to University. Since leaving a few months ago, I've read some of the books on the school reading lists, including books I was handed at A-Level, and I love them.

Birdsong is the first I'll mention, since it's a book I pretty much neglected at school. I read a few bits here and there - the juicy bits - and found some beautiful quotations from it, but my exploration didn't go much further. Regeneration links in here too, since it was recommended we read it, but I didn't. >_< Having read Regeneration recently, I can't help but feel ashamed of my former self. It's an incredible book. The same applies to Birdsong. I haven't finished it yet, but the writing is superb.

Next in line are books like The Handmaid's Tale and Jane Eyre. I didn't have to read these, but they aren't too distantly related to Tess of the D'Urbervilles and The French Lieutenant's Wife, which, again, I failed to read properly... They're now on the list of books to read. :)

Reflecting on the texts I read by Shakespeare has also led to my loving them, and one day I'll get around to re-reading them! At school I read Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure, The Tempest, and a small part of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I did enjoy these at the time thanks to great teachers, but I didn't enjoy them on the same level I do today! :)
 
My 2nd grade teacher threw Charlotte's Web at me, and said to read it and write a small report on it. Needless to say, I loved it. But... Doesn't everybody love Charlotte's Web? Anyway, that was one of the few books I like from school. My parents had to buy me my own copy :-D. Right now, I'm liking Lord of the Flies. Might want to get my own copy of this as well. (We're doing a digital version)
 
Sadly, I never got to read classics like Animal Farm, 1984, Lord of the Flies and so on.

We used to get some extracts, but that's about it.

However, for the Leaving Cert Exam, students must read multiple texts and be able to compare and contrast each together. I actually liked that exam(Up until the Poetry section, which fucked EVERYONE over question wise). It was the first time I went into an exam wanting to do it. I guess that came from the part of me that-at the time- really wanted to be a journalist. My first choice in courses WAS a Journalism course.

Anyway, the three comparative texts were: Hamlet(I did this for my Shakespeare section aswell), How Many Miles to Babylon(See the "Hated" version of this thread) and, finally, The Kite Runner.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Kite Runner. The book was just so intense and drawing that I couldn't put it down. I mean, it did have its faults(Hassan is a human being who has an unlikely level of kindness and selflessness inside him). Amir could have you sway from distaste to empathy and back. It's a good read: I highly suggest it.

Just be warned, it can be quite dark...
 
I remember Edgar Allen Poe and Of Mice and Men, all of which is dark and/or suggestive.
Rape, death, oppression, psychological terrors...

Things that your school otherwise condemns even the mere mention of :D

Needless to say, I was very into those works, especially Poe's literature because they didn't even become famous until after he died. I forgot if they taught that bit or not, but I already knew because I've always been fascinated with the man.
 
A book series in my primary school called "Tim and the Hidden People", written by Shelia K. McCullagh.
It was about a boy called Tim who found a magic key that helped him see ghosts and he was aided by a talking black cat.

http://jobs.rbs.com/

I also enjoyed the Ginn Reading Programme and I was happy to talk to a teacher friend recently and I was delighted to hear they still ran programmes like that and it hadn't been all changed to something more simple!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IhEo0u0UL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg.

I even remember a poem from one of the Ginn Reading Programme. "Sitting on the stone/ O Crab/ Move a little from the stone/ O Crab/ Let me plough the field/ O Crab/ Sitting on the stone/ O Crab".

Well... I say I can remember it! It appears I've forgotten how it ends when I typed all that out!

And I think it might have been Enid Blyton, but I loved the Folk of the Faraway Tree books.
And was Enid the other who wrote a book about a journey people had to go on to get rid of their burdens?
I read that one as well.

Secondary school and the heavy stuff like Shakespeare's Julius Caeser.
 
Thinking back to my high school days, we were made to read some books I was absolutely dreading...until I actually got deep into them. There have been a number over the years, and some have even turned out to be my favorite of all-time. I'll just list the one's they made me read that I actually liked:

-Where the Red Fern Grows
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-Lord of the Flies
-Many Shakespeare writings
 
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