The best book your school made you read?

[Ironside]

I guess the hobbit would have to be the best i read at school, but the list i have to choose from isn't particularly filled with great books. Great Expectations, Of Mice and Men, To kill a Mockinbird and the Shakespeare stuff we had to read were all pretty dull although i guess i may have appreciated them more if i hadnt been forced by the school to read them. Also had to read a book called Holes, which was also a film with Shia LaBoeuf in it. The worst book they made us read though has to be Jane goddamn Eyre - one of the most boring books i have ever read - worse even than War and Peace, which is saying something, because a great deal of nothing happens in that book.

 

[triggrhappy94]

okay, maybe not MOST, but alot still ban the book for overt sexual content and anti-establishment overtones

Its honestly quite stupid to go crazy over this book (or any book for that matter), but hey 'MERICA! (It also dosent help that I live in Arizona)

Yeah I think the Mid-West is where most of the book banning happens--with the Bible belt and everything.

I went to high school in Northen California and we had a "I <3 Banned Books" Week (or something like that).

 

[Dfskelleton]

We got to read George Orwell's animal farm in 8th grade, and I loved it. I was probably one of the only kids in my class that did love it (or actually read it, for that matter), but it was a great introduction to Orwell, which led to my later reading of Nineteen-Eighty-Four, which is probably one of my favorite books of all time.
I also loved reading To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as a few fragments of The Odyssey, which I plan to read in full on some later date.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

If a book that I chose from a list of many books for a mandatory project counts, then Watership Down is my personal best no doubt. I adored that book, and it became probably my absolute favorite novel to this day.

Otherwise, when it came to stuff I was forced to read: To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, and Of Mice and Men were probably my favorites.

 

[kyuzo3567]

Out of the ones that we didn't have a choice in reading was "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" that I read in grade 6. I had actually read that book before and I loved it at my age, it still is a good read for me today.

 

[Angie7F]

Story of the Genji.
I think I spent a good ten years obsessed in reading various versions of it.
It makes a big difference in life to know classics.

 

[BrotherRool]

Life of Pi.

Ain't ever gonna see the movie since it seems to stray far away from the book.

I heard it was fairly accurate. I've read the book and my parents saw the film and it we were quoting dialogue word for word at each other. They didn't mention anything I hadn't scene and even most of the stuff I figured they cut didn't seem to have gone. Not much happens in the book to be honest and most of it is visual so it's not like they have to cut for time

 

[Klipo8539]

Tomorrow when the war began was a really good book but when our class read the book we were in grade 8 and weren't very mature and 1984. While i haven't read the book for school i read the book in my leisure time and it was a very good book. the themes in the book still hold up in today society even though the book was written in 1949.

 

[Pockydon]

The first one that comes to my head (and the only one) is The Hound of the Baskevilles. I love Sherlock Holmes!

 

[ICantBelieveItGoesBoom]

My school was so obsessed with deadlines and worthless stuff like that that we never actually finished a whole book, so none.

 

[Call Me Jose]

I guess it'd be The Kite Runner and Of Mice and Men both really good stories that I've read more than once.

 

[Brainwreck]

Death is my Trade - from Robert Merle. About Rudolf Höss (renamed Lang in the book). Yes, the guy who was the commander of Auschwitz.
I was acquainted with quite a few of Merle's other books, so I knew I was going to like it.
And hoo boy. Some of the most soul-crushing stuff ever put to book. But it is an extremely good read nonetheless.

Also, Deadeye Dick from Kurt Vonnegut. Another author I was already familiar with and liked. And yeah, it was pretty darn good. Not quite the same level as Slaughterhouse 5 or Breakfast of Champions, but then again, not many things are.

 

[l3o2828]

It wasn't my school that made me read it, but rather my literature teacher.
Apparently she found we didn't have much of a reading habit (BS. I had always had a reading habit) and decided that she would command us to read an entire novel, right at the start of the semester, then she would put up a little test to make sure we read the book and grade us accordingly.
We could choose from a sensible list of Latin American Authors and i went with Mario Benedetti. More Specifically: La borra del café by Mario Benedetti.

I throughly enjoyed this novel very much. If you can find a translation or know your spanish very very well i suggest you give it a look if you like 'Story of Someones Life' kind of novel. It's really well written imo and all of the characters are charming and compell you to keep reading to know just what happens to them.

 

[Bill Nye the Zombie]

Things Fall Apart. I would have never even looked at this book if my English class hadn't made me read it. The best part about it is I actually could believe this story happened, and it felt like a Greek tragedy. And while my English class didn't make me read it, for History I had to read The Guns of August, which was a great account of the first month of WWI.

 

[AdamxD]

Did my GCSE English on Lord of the Flies. Excellent book, and would happily read again!

 

[bojackx]

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

Same here. Most of the stuff we had to read was absolute garbage, so it sure was a nice surprise.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I read 1984 and Animal Farm in middle school. Those were technically "required" in a sense (though not really, could have read any other books). They made a great impact on me.

As for stuff that was definitely required...this year in my senior AP English class, we've read a lot of stuff that I've enjoyed to some capacity. We're covering Frankenstein now and it'll probably end up being one of my favorites. Also supposed to read The Kite Runner later this semester, and I'm sure it'll be good considering the mentions it got here.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Do plays count? Best thing I can think of is a tie between Macbeth and Death of a Salesman.