The best book your school made you read?

[capper42]

Lord of the Flies is the only one I really remember. I always found studying literature at school, be it novels, plays or poetry, always takes something away from it. We spent so long analysing and read the book in stages, so I can't really say I enjoyed reading it.

That said, I'm definitely aware that it's an outstanding book, and keep meaning to read it again for pleasure. I have such a backlog of books to read, especially now I'm starting a university module that requires me to read a few books. I can't stop buying new ones either.

I just wish I was a faster reader.

 

[hazabaza1]

Of Mice and Men.
Though probably because it's basically the only good book school made me read.

 

[Cheesepower5]

The book that got me into sci-fi was introduced me thanks to my English class in high school.

Ender's Game

I loved my English class, there are so many great books that our teacher had us read but Ender's Game wins. For fun, here are a few other gems:

The Adventure of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (it was terribly awkward in class though due to the profuse use of "******" in the book)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tomorrow when the war began

Sounds like you had the best English teacher ever.

This a tough question, I didn't particularly like any of the books I've read for school that I can think of. To Kill a Mockingbird was decent, I guess. One that my school made us read was an actual memoir by a former child soldier from Africa called A Long Way Gone, it was quite interesting. I read a book called "Lamb" by Christopher Moore for English, but wouldn't count it since I selected it myself.

 

[game-lover]

In middle school, each grade had a certain amount of books to read for something I can't recall. But we had to take quizzes on the library computers for each book.

For my 7th grade year, we had two books: Jade Green and FireGold. They were the best ones. I liked them lots.

High school, 10 grade English class, we had to read multiple books as well. My favorite? Bless Me, Ultima.

 

[shrekfan246]

The Great Gatsby.

I hope the new film adaptation doesn't change around a bunch of things - Particularly the ending.

 

[Vault101]

none..they were all pretty shitty

1984, Animal farm, Farhenheit 451..to kill a mocking bird (especially to kill a mocking bird) were all GREAT though and I went and read them myself

oh wait...there was one called "The Cay" was pretty good

 

[scorptatious]

Probably "Silverwing" by Kenneth Oppel. It was in Middle School and I believe we were either assigned different books, or we had the choice to pick which book out of a list we could read. Either way, I ended up reading Silverwing.

I wasn't into reading stuff beyond books like Captain Underpants back then. Silverwing was probably the first assigned reading book that I ended up getting hooked on. The concept itself was interesting enough, it was a story entirely focused on bats. The characters were probably what hooked me into the story. The main character Shade, is probably my favorite character in the story. I found myself rooting for him the entire way through and spent a lot of time reading the book just to see what happens next.

When I began writing my book report for it, I tried to avoid spoiling the ending as I feel that this is a book everyone should experience for themselves. Unfortunately, the requirements for the book report required me to do so.

After I was done with the book report, I found out that there was a sequels to the book. Sunwing and Firewing. I got each of them from the school's library and read them both cover to cover at my leisure. No other book has ever caused me to do that before. I usually spent my free time watching TV or playing video games.

Last year, I saw Sunwing among a group of books that were donated to the place I used to work at. I found myself feeling a huge amount of nostalgia just from seeing the title.

Bottom line: Silverwing was an awesome book, and was the first book assigned by my school that made me want to read the entire series.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Of Mice and Men.
Though probably because it's basically the only good book school made me read.

Yeah I'll second this. I really enjoyed reading Of Mice and Men.

 

[Judgement101]

Waiting of Godot.

Funny story, the day we started reading it, Critical Miss did that comic and I nearly shit bricks...

 

[burningdragoon]

In high school? Lonesome Dove. It was one of the only school-assigned books that I actually liked.

In college (university for you silly not-americans), there a few, but I can't remember what they were.

 

[ecoho]

dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. i love my 5th grade teacher for sugesting this book to do my book report on instead of harry potter.

 

[aXFireXHeartXa]

I have to say Of Mice and Men. And when it came to reading Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew was really good.

 

[Rednog]

I loved Ten Little Indians (And Then There Were None) and The Maltese Falcon. I think I liked these because I'm really into mystery; but I honestly hated everything else. I was generally a really good writer but I was absolutely not interested in books throughout grade school/highschool/university. Instead of giving you a book that has a compelling story they always would throw books at you that have some sort of "symbolism" or are abstract in some way. I got so sick of that kind of nonsense when for a university literature class we had to read a book that was written as if the speaker/narrator was mentally disabled; it felt like my brain was trying to rip itself out of my head.

 

[Bagged Milk]

Of Mice and Men is probably my favorite book of all time but I read it on my own years before it was required. Other than that, I guess It's got to be either Fahrenheit 451, or Lord of the Flies.

 

[Darren716]

Forrest Gump,the book is hilarious and has so many more outlandish situations that don't even get covered in the movie such as Forrest's time in space with an orangatang that becomes his friend, his time in professional wrestling, and the time he goes to Hollywood and abducts Raquel Welch while wearing a monster suit.

 

[octafish]

The Great Gatsby.

I hope the new film adaptation doesn't change around a bunch of things - Particularly the ending.

I don't think it will work, how do you portray a character that has been pretty well excised from the book. The absence of any description of Jay is what makes the book for me.

As for me? Well my daughter's name is Scout...need I say more?

 

[Alssadar]

Fahrenheit 451, the Time Machine, Animal Farm, the Iliad, the Great Gatsby, 1984, Beowulf, The Things They Carried... There's probably many more that I've forgotten, and need to check up on, once again.

AP English represent.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I would count Dante's Inferno but I was reading that a little before my high school course made me read it.
Anyway.
I would say it's Elie Wiesel's "Night".
Goodness, that was a rough tale to read.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Catcher in the Rye is an obvious pick but in all truth it remains the best of my high school reads.