Best thing you've had to read for a class?

[ajb924]

Alright, we all hate the majority of the things our teacher's make us read, but everyone's been forced into readong something they ended up liking. I don't mean when the teacher asks you to read any book and you get to pick whatever you want, I mean when the teacher assigns you and the rest of the class with the same book.

Mine is Hamlet. I just finished it a few days ago and it was one of the best thing's I've ever read. And I hate Shakespeare. But Hamlet was such an amazing story...

So, what're yours?

 

[Singularly Datarific]

To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein, and Life of Pi.

 

[Matt_LRR]

I liked Catcher in the Rye. And Lord of the Flies, for that matter.

-m

 

[PHOENIXRIDER57]

Catcher in the Rye. Not finished yet (more than halfway through) but the main character is really funny and witty and pretty relatable for the most part.

 

[Aur0ra145]

The Sun Also Rises, Alas Babylon, Ordinary Men, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Infantry Attacks, Going After Caccio, The 13th Valley, The Things They Carried, Moby Dick and Choke. Just to name a few, we always got to read amazing books in school.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

Day of the Triffids. It wasn't one the entire class had to read, but he picked out which book we had to read for us. Now that i think back on it, i had a pretty cool english teacher, he let me keep the book too. That was one awesome book.

 

[Enigmers]

1984 or Fahrenheit 451.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Lately? Probably some of the Romantic poetry, or The French Lieutenant's Woman. I can't really count most of the things I read for English lit this year because we were allowed to choose our own examples, which means I only chose books I knew I would like and be able to apply the theory to.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Hiroshima, To Kill and Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, Julius Caesar, Farenheit 451, Atlas Shrugged and 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Iliad and The Odyssey, The Outsiders, The Hobbit (and let me tell ya that was BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING).

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I got to read 'The Black Rainbow' The New Cohhed and Cambria book for a book report. I got to make a comic for it and a shot story fir a spin-off as well.

I got an A btw :]

 

[ffian1]

John Steinbeck's 'The Pearl', or a load of Byron poetry - that man was a dude lol

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I loved 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 was pretty damned decent as well.

 

[jmoore4ska]

I liked Catcher in the Rye. And Lord of the Flies, for that matter.

-m

I just remember my class had a strange obsession with the pink rocks from Lord of the Flies. I think for some reason they thought it meant Piggy was gay...? Who knows?

Aaaanyway, I had to read "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren for a course and it became one of my favorites pretty much instantly. Oh, also "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon for the same course. Both fantastic.

To the OP, i just wonder why anyone would hate Shakespeare...I forget where i heard it, but this quote is appropriate. To paraphrase: When you read Shakespeare, it is not his work that is being critiqued, but you.

 

[Blackmagic1515]

We didn't realy get to read any very decent books for English in my class. Although I suppose 'Holes' and 'Skellig' were not bad. I can't remember the author names >.>

 

[trueluigi7]

There haven't been many books I have been told to read for class but the ones I have read for class I did not like at all except this one book in fifth grade, I probably wouldn't like it now though. I have read The Outsiders did not like it at all, The Giver also boring, Of Mice and Men not interesting at all, and right now I am in a mythology class and we have a book and I only like some of it, it is full of many mythology stories. I am really picky about the books I read.

 

[ajb924]

I liked Catcher in the Rye. And Lord of the Flies, for that matter.

-m

I just remember my class had a strange obsession with the pink rocks from Lord of the Flies. I think for some reason they thought it meant Piggy was gay...? Who knows?

Aaaanyway, I had to read "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren for a course and it became one of my favorites pretty much instantly. Oh, also "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon for the same course. Both fantastic.

To the OP, i just wonder why anyone would hate Shakespeare...I forget where i heard it, but this quote is appropriate. To paraphrase: When you read Shakespeare, it is not his work that is being critiqued, but you.

It's not that I don't see how is work is good, it just doesn't intrest me. To be honest, I've only read Hamlet, Julius Ceaser, and Romeo and Juliet. But, aside from Hamlet, I hated them. The stories were bland and uninteresting, the characters were sort of boring, and the premise wasn't too great. I see how they were good works and would have been better had I seen them instead of read, I just don't care for them.
But Hamlet didn't have those problems. The story was ingulfing, the characters were alive and colorful, and the premise was amazing.

 

[ShogunGino]

I enjoyed Julius Caesar as well as Hamlet.

Catcher in the Rye was interesting enough, mainly because I thought Holden felt real enough to not get TOO annoying. Really, the only thing that annoyed me about him was his constant use of the word "phony".

The Scarlet Letter, I believe, is a good book, but I spent half my junior year in high school studying and analyzing it that we were just got sick of it.

Overall, I think I'd say my most pleasant read was a fun novel from Spain called "The Shadow of the Wind". It's about a boy in Barcelona trying to figure out the mystery of a disappearing author and a man out to destroy his work.

 

[rt052192]

1984 and Animal Farm; both by George Orwell
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

EDIT: Julius Caesar and The Odyssey. How did I forget about these?