book you had to read for school and actually enjoyed/found interesting.

[CapnGod]

The only ones I remember actually reading in school for school were Animal Farm and To Kill A Mockingbird. Maybe The Old Man and the Sea, but then again, maybe not.

I fucking loved the first two, though. I've since gone back and read 1984, and that was fantastic. I just hated reading what was assigned in school, I guess. Read A Brave New World and Anthem on my own, too. Those are just good.

 

[traceur_]

I found "to kill a mockingbird" interesting, and "Z for Zachariah" was meh, didn't hate it

EDIT: i think "to kill a mockingbird" is alright but it needs to die, its nearly 50 years old, I think "Angels and Demons" should become the new "to kill a mocking bird"

 

[Tattaglia]

The Odyssey, and Animal Farm. 1984 was also fantastic as well, but unfortunately my teacher made me do a five-page essay on it when I was ten years old.
Fuck you, Mr Snell.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I wasn't really impressed with most of the stuff they made me read in school. Major exceptions included To Kill A MockingBird, Joy Luck Club, Catch-22, and Their Eyes Were Watching God. My sophomore high school English teacher had us read some science fiction book called The Alleluia Files, which turned out to be interesting. Candide and Julius Caesar were all right, the latter mainly because I got to act out Marc Antony's sarcastic "honorable men" speech.

I'd probably add Death Comes For the Archbishop, but that was Academic Decathalon reading, not class-required.

On the other hand, Bless Me, Ultima (senior year, high school) is easily my favorite required reading book of all time.

 

[CapnGod]

I found "to kill a mockingbird" interesting, and "Z for Zachariah" was meh, didn't hate it

EDIT: i think "to kill a mockingbird" is alright but it needs to die, its nearly 50 years old, I think "Angels and Demons" should become the new "to kill a mocking bird"

You're kidding, right? To Kill A Mockingbird is absolutely brilliant. Dan Brown, well, Dan Brown is schlocky bullshit passed off as edgy and relevant. He's not. He's a second rate hack.

 

[MisterAnarchist]

If you don't fight the fact that they're making you read these books and ask yourself "Why should I hate this book?" you'll find you enjoy what you're reading. I loved a good 90% of what I read in my school days.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

It's happened quite a few times for me. All Quiet on the Western Front, Lord of the Flies, and Something Wicked This Way Comes all immediately pop into mind. Fallen Angels was decent as well.

 

[Anomynous 167]

Animal Farm is one major case of "Don't judge a book by its cover" here is a copy paste from tvtropes
A clever Beast Fable satirizing the evolving Russian communism by George Orwell, as well as a book with two adaptations you should never, ever show your children.

Orwell tells, metaphorically, how the Russian Revolution would go if its participants were animals, and if you reduced Russia to the area of Manor Farm. When you get what the point of the book is - being a satire of Communism written during World War II - it's not hard to guess where the plot is going.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Other than The Giver, Les Miserables. The latter was after I read it again on my own time. I really don't enjoy having a book shoved under my nose with the intention of me reading it.

Yeah, The Giver was alright, but most of the time they just gave us contemporary fiction which as we all know is crap. Who wants to read about what probably happened during the last month?

Edit: Now that I think about it, I wish school let me read "Making Money" by Terry Pratchet, that is the best book I have ever read. But no they say, no Terry Pratchet for you, his books are actually good.

 

[Audemas]

The Illustrated Man(Ray Bradbury), Slaughterhouse-Five(Kurt Vonnegut), Most of Shakespeare's plays, The Greats Gatsby(F. Scott Fitzgerald), Lord of the Flies(William Golding). I could keep going on but I'm too tired.

 

[Volucer]

I enjoyed both To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Third Man, BUT only when I read them in a couple of days before the lessons, reading them one chapter at a time and then disecting them to discover every minute detail that the author may or may not have intended nearly ruined them for me, and would have, had I not already read and enjoyed them.

 

[fer-sure]

I only enjoyed four required reading books for English. Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet, mainly because we got to watch the movies for it, which were BRILLIANT, we didn't watch the new Romeo and Juliet though, we watched the old one because of some new law about age restrictions, but I reckon the old one was MUCH better than the new one. Holes was another favourite, of course, easy reading and we didn't have to analyse it too much so the book wasn't ruined. Finally, best required reading book of all time goes to...Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, fantastic book, even though i actually read it in Yr 5 but re-reading it in Yr 10 was good for me. A few girls in my class actually outright told our teacher that this was the first English required reading book that they had ever read cover to cover, so that was pretty cool as well.

Now, I might catch a bit of flak for this, but to me, To Kill a Mockingbird was one of the worst books I've ever read. I found it completely unengaging and totally uninspiring, the writing was bland, the characterisation was hyperbolized and the plot was weak. Basically, my whole YEAR didn't think much of the book and honestly, I don't blame them. I think it had it's time a while ago, and now it just seems...well, lame.

 

[Fronken]

I actually really enjoyed "Lord of The Flies", which i had to read a couple of years back for a book report, i wasnt expecting anything worth while but it actually was a really well written and gripping book.

One of the better ones i've read all in all.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Loved of Mice and Men. Still a great book.

 

[NoTroll]

1984

 

[leeloodallasmultipass]

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper lee
Merchant of Venice - William Shakespear

from those two you can probabaly tell im quite intrested in the confict and resolutions between different races of people

 

[JC175]

Brave New World was a great book in Grade 10.

This, Frankenstein, and Lord of the Flies.

 

[doctorwhofan]

Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm scared the hell out of me, and were good reads.

And MacBeth. Never liked the Bard, until I had to read the part of Lady MacBeth in class.

"Out, OUT dammned spot..."

 

[SecretTacoNinja]

Of Mice and Men and Animal Farm.