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

[bazookabob]

Last books I had to read for school were The Jungle and King Leopold's Ghost for my American Literature II and my 20th century world history classes respectfully during my sophomore year of college. I found them both to be an enlightening read, not necessarily enjoyable in the sense that I had fun reading them, but they were certainly interesting.

 

[Crimson_regret]

To kill a mocking bird
Oedipus the king
Romeo and Juliet

I could go on, but my head is in too many places

 

[Jimmyjames]

"1984", "Brave New Wold", "To Kill A Mockingbird", "A Separate Peace", and "Catcher in the Rye".

I was very fortunate to have an English teacher that actually allowed us to just read the books rather than making it a chore (outlining/highlighting, circling).

 

[Arcyde]

the narnia series and the hobbit

 

[Blow_Pop]

Fahrenheit 451(Ray Bradbury)
The Scarlet Letter(Nathaniel Hawthorne)
To Kill A Mockingbird(Harper Lee)
Catch-22(Joseph Heller)
Of Mice and Men(John Steinbeck)
The Red Badge of Courage(Stephen Crane)
I'm sure that list will get longer as I go find my book list of all the books I read in high school and find the ones I starred.
Shakespeare naturally as well as Poe, Dickinson, and Hughes.

 

[mangus]

Fahrenheit 419, and I suspect I could've gotten through the english patient if my professor didn't have such a hard-on for kip.

 

[Blow_Pop]

One book I could not stand was "A Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger). It was the worst book I ever read. It was nothing. No concrete plot, no relation to characters, no charaecter development, nothing. Most books have rising action, then a climax, then falling action. "Catcher" had rising action...and thats it, but even that didnt rise to anything higher than a fucking bunny slope. Dont read it...ever.

weirdly enough even though i never *had* to read it, i did and i enjoyed it....then again my copy was used for someone's college class so it was fully explained to me as i read it.

 

[Blow_Pop]

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.

I have to agree. It took me a second time reading it through to realize it but TKAMB is an amazing book. Dan Brown.....yeah one of the only authors who have made me desperately want to burn their book(i read the davinci code)

Also:
The Great Gatsby(F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Crucible(Arthur Miller)

 

[lucky_bob45]

man alot of people got to read good books at school. my schools sucked. the only books i read for school and liked were in the 3rd grade and they were 'the lion the witch and the wardrobe' and 'treasure island'.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Also, with all these people who hated the Scarlet Letter, I wonder if you actually understood it? I initially HATED Catch-22, then I got parts of it explained and read it again and as it made more sense I grew to love it.
Also, I'm jealous of those who got to read Vonnegut and Orwell in school. Our school wasn't cool enough for that.

 

[MegamanX1331]

Catcher in the Rye
Crime and Punishment
Old Man and the Sea
The Good Earth

Loved 'em all. Thanks, public education.

 

[TheDustyBanana]

Lord of the Flies was the probably the only book I had to read in school that I liked. If there were any others I can't remember at the moment.

 

[MURPHYCHACHO]

The Squatter and the Don: Kinda cheesy, but once I got into it I couldn't stop.

Pudd'nhead Wilson: Mark Twain was a GODDAMN GENIUS. That's all I have to say. Hilarious.

1984: Just...just brilliant. So brilliant it makes my eyes bleed.

 

[griffinmills]

Most things assigned to us were about as meaningful as you would expect and thus didn't disappoint nor, err, appoint(?) me in any way. OOh AAh the kids in Lord of the Flies act crazy when no adults are around, OOh AAh, Holden Caufield is a retarded sex-obsessed dip stick in Catcher in the Rye. ZOMG the jewish lawyer actually wants a literal POUND OF FLESH in The Merchant of Venice, things were tough back then YO!!

Then I took a class that had us read "The Palm Wine Drinkard." I couldn't believe wtf I was reading. At first I thought it was like something written by a team of 1st graders writing by committee... but wait a minute, it's a bit too brilliant and well written actually. Hmmm, what's going on here? African folk tales you say? Amazingly clever puns, pidgin English and more imagination than an entire evening of Fox television. It's short enough, check it out yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palm-Wine_Drinkard

 

[Skizle]

I read The Art of War for school. Great book, but trying to do a report on it was a giant pain in the ass. Only because the actual book is only like 70 some pages long. everything else whats what the author though what he was saying in the paragraphs. other than that there was no other good books.

 

[martyk]

1984
Animal Farm
Farenheit 451
Lord of the Flies
Many Shakespears
Wizard of Earthsea

I think there were others but I've forgotten them. I've never really understood why so many people were against these books in my classes.

 

[ReZerO]

sunshine sketches of a little town by Stephen Leacock, you have to appricate satire to enjoy this book. but it was great

 

[elemenetal150]

the stranger
the giver
man's search for meaning
there are no children here

 

[kaiser_what]

Hm... For me, its The Pearl. Why, I don't know.

 

[Valiance]

Of Mice and Men.
Catcher in the Rye.

The rest all sucked. (Especially A Separate Peace (NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENED.) (okay, I guess a few things happened and honestly, I think a lot like the protagonist and I found that horrifically depressing, and I know someone else who does the exact same shit to a close friend of mine (wants to be him and such) and it hit too close to home for me to like.)


Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde gets an honorable mention I'll try to be impartial to because I didn't actually finish this one...And the parts I skipped to later on seemed kinda cool, so I sort of enjoyed that.

Also, there was a "pick your own author/book" project in which I picked Fahrenheit 451 and ended up having it be my favorite book ever...I don't know if that counts, since the school didn't really require it, but I did read it for school...