We all had to do it growing up.
Required reading. The mere words can elicit groans and eye rolling. Seriously, have you ever enjoyed being forced to read a book?
Well, as it turns out, yeah. But it was a pretty rare event for me to enjoy being told exactly what book I had to read in high school. Something about the lack of autonomy takes some of the joy out of reading. But here are some books I loved, some I hated, and some I have complicated feelings about that I read during 'school' (which I loosely define as everything before college TBH).
1984 by George Orwell
I'll be honest, I was not required to read this, but choose to pick up this novel when I was in 9th grade. The reason? I watched an episode of Star Trek that my parents said was heavily inspired by this book so of course I immediately got my hands on it because, hello, have you met me, I am a huge Trekkie.
The result? Eh. It was alright? But hey, at least I choose to read it.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
I have complicated feelings about this one. I was forced to read it in high school and the act of reading it was arduous. After every chapter I would read the SparkNotes to find out what in the world had just happened.
Also the first sentence caused every student in my class to yell out "hE's gAy?!?" and my teacher to roll his eyes and sigh. [[The first line:It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him" so can you really blame us??]]
I actually had a dream last night that I was teaching an English class and dissecting my favorite scene of this novel so that's weird.
The Devil in the White City by Erik LarsonAnndd now we are on to a book I hated.
I abhorred this book but, because it was required reading, I couldn't just put it down. My only memories of this book are how much I hated having to slough through it.
Ahh public schools.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
This was required reading that my entire class, myself included, fell madly in love with (sort of like Yossarian and that chaplain).
It was gritty and dark and all I really remember is how much I loved it.
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia AlvarezSpring Break was coming up my senior year of high school and I could feel the boredom beginning so I asked my English teacher for a good book to read and man did he deliver.
Have you ever read a book that stunned you by how amazing it was-- the type of book you want to go down the streets yelling about, the book you want every friend to be forced to read? This might have been the first book that ever made me feel that way.
And at the end of Spring Break I approached my teacher's desk book in hand-- I wondered how to fit my feelings into words, how to explain the world this story had opened my eyes to, how amazing it was, how everyone should read it, how glad I was he had loaned it to me. just put it on my desk the teacher said, not pausing to look up from his computer screen and so I quietly sat it down and walked away. ((today me would have stopped him from whatever he was doing and exclaimed the wonders of the novel but past me was a bit shyer))
That's it for me! Five books, some loves some hates, that I read during school. What about you? Does the burden of an assignment ruin your love for a book?
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