I went to three different high schools. Each one seemed to have a very different approach to English Literature, and some were better than others. Because of this, I missed out on a lot of the quintessential classic books people read in school. I don’t think I really mind that much. I was reading so much on my own that I feel like I had a pretty good literary upbringing. But there are some I wish I had read in school – either because I read them independently and missed out on discussion; or because I didn’t read them and though I wish I had, I probably never will on my own.
Books I Read
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (though this was for an AP English class where we got to choose our own, so it wasn’t exactly assigned)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Of these A Prayer for Owen Meany is by far the book I got the most out of reading, and the one that led me to read more from that author. I was already very familiar with Shakespeare, so while Julius Caesar was a fine one to read and discuss in school, I don’t know if I got much more from it. Animal Farm was one I never would have read on my own, but actually really learned a lot from. I loved how the animals represented people or types of people and how the events in the book mirrored historical events. So that one I think I got the most out of from my assigned reading. The Old Man and the Sea was so lacking in impact that I don’t remember anything about it. I certainly haven’t gone on to read anything else by Hemingway.
Books I Didn’t Read and Don’t Care To
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Watership Down by Richard Adams
I haven’t read any of these, and while if I had I’m sure I’d understand references in more detail, I feel like I get most of it just from absorbing bits and pieces about these from popular culture. So I don’t really have any interest in reading any of them.
Books I Wish I’d Read in School (That I Read Independently)
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Anything by Jane Austen
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (I’d also put One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, but that is a harder one and might have alienated many readers)
The Fire Next Time or anything else by James Baldwin
All of these are books that had, in most cases, a much bigger impact on me than anything I read in school. They are each wonderful for one or more of a few reasons: they are beautifully written, they give age-appropriate introductions to really important ideas and events in history, they discuss issues kids and teens may be dealing with themselves, or they are magical books that open up whole new reading experiences. I would have loved to read any of these in school, and I think with the right teacher, they could have led to some amazing discussions.
Books I Wish I’d Read In School (That I Haven’t Read)
More Charles Dickens
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
These are all books I still mean to read one day, but I always end up not picking them up. I wish I’d read them as assigned reading and been pushed a bit. I know I’ll be glad I read them once I have!
That ended up being a much longer list than I intended it to be, but I have thought a lot about this. There are books I’m glad I didn’t have to read, books I wish I’d had the benefit of discussing or being introduced to at that time in my life, and others I just wish I’d already read because now that I don’t have to, I probably won’t. What about you guys? Did you have any similar categories in your post this week? Any you wish you’d read in school? Any you wish you hadn’t?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.