What books were you made to read in high school?

[Dumanios]

I don't think you're illiterate, Ajidica, but it does seem to be a favourite teenage pasttime to hate everything Shakespeare did or said.

I object by saying that us teenage boys hath not changed since his time.

We still like to crash parties.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I hated The Great Gatsby. I did not give a rat's ass about what happened to the characters of that story. A Shakespearean tragedy ending would have made the book infinitely better in my eyes. Lord of the Flies was interesting. So was The Handmaiden's Tale. To Kill a Mockingbird, well, while it had a good message, it's just your typical moral fable about how people are not so different.

 

[Ajidica]

My class agreed that TKAM would have been far better if the chapters involving Dill had been cut and it was just the court scene.

 

[tycoonist]

Shakespear's plays are very very very boring to read... they are good when performed, if the actors are good, but they are terrible books to be taught in class.

 

[GoodGame]

I hated The Great Gatsby. I did not give a rat's ass about what happened to the characters of that story. A Shakespearean tragedy ending would have made the book infinitely better in my eyes. Lord of the Flies was interesting. So was The Handmaiden's Tale. To Kill a Mockingbird, well, while it had a good message, it's just your typical moral fable about how people are not so different.

Don't Mock Boo.

 

[Quackers]

If i remember correctly the only book we read in full was To Kill a Mockingbird. We only read Great Expectations piece-meal.

 

[_random_]

Even if they were in modern English, they would be boring rom-coms without the comedy.

Romeo and Juliet is far from Shakespeare's best work, but most of it isn't that bad. The writing at the end was rather poor, but keep in mind that was only one of the alternate endings. This was one play Shakespeare wrote so that it could be either a tragedy or comedy depending on which final scene was chosen for a particular performance. His company would alternate which ending to use each day, so that half of the time the couple lived happily ever after.

That's interesting. Do you have a source for this?

Even if they were in modern English, they would be boring rom-coms without the comedy.

Shakespearean comedy: Not funny then, not funny now.
It only becomes good when the actors are very good.

Touchstone is hilarious in As You Like It.

 

[Camikaze]

Touchstone is hilarious in As You Like It.

He really isn't ("look I can come up with some innuendo whilst asking for the time hur hur"). The thing about Shakespearean comedy is that it really isn't funny (the only thing funny about As You Like It was the 70's BBC version). Tragedies are great, but the comedy isn't. This is simply because 'comedy' in the Shakespearean sense is not meant to mean 'hilarious'. It just means everything resolves happily.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Why do students read Shakesphere anyways. They say hes a good writer but I think something is lost when you read it on paper as opposed to watching actors doing that stuff.

 

[_random_]

He really isn't ("look I can come up with some innuendo whilst asking for the time hur hur"). The thing about Shakespearean comedy is that it really isn't funny (the only thing funny about As You Like It was the 70's BBC version). Tragedies are great, but the comedy isn't. This is simply because 'comedy' in the Shakespearean sense is not meant to mean 'hilarious'. It just means everything resolves happily.

:shrug: He amuses me greatly, but that could just be because that I'm reading and performing the play as a sophomore in high school. The definition of "comedy" has certainly evolved, but there are plenty of funny parts in the play.

Why do students read Shakesphere anyways. They say hes a good writer but I think something is lost when you read it on paper as opposed to watching actors doing that stuff.

The poetry is great in pretty much all his plays, and the tragedies explore some very nifty themes. It's infinitely better to see him performed, but there's a lot to be gained from reading him.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I dont even understand half of the language in it so...

 

[_random_]

I dont even understand half of the language in it so...

This helps.

 

[Ajidica]

Why do students read Shakesphere anyways. They say hes a good writer but I think something is lost when you read it on paper as opposed to watching actors doing that stuff.

I prefer to read Shakespeare. I get to understand his language better.
Shakespeare was mediocre to good as a playright, but stellar when it comes to writing.

 

[Arriaga II]

9th (I can't remember everything)
The Odyssey
A Tale of Two Cities
To Kill A Mockingbird
Animal Farm
Romeo and Juliet

10th
A Lesson Before Dying
1984
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
Fahrenheit 451
The House on Mango Street
Julius Caesar
Antigone

11th
Fallen Angels (Myers)
Killer Angels
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Jungle
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Scarlet Letter
The Sound and the Fury
Great Gatsby
The Death of a Salesman
Fountainhead

12th
Waiting For Godot
Siddhartha
The Stranger
Poisonwood Bible
Invisible Man
Wuthering Heights
Paradise Lost
Heart of Darkness
The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Hamlet
King Lear

For my AP history classes I had to read:

A People's History of the United States (good)
A World Lit Only By Fire (bleh)

 

[Atlas14]

The Crucible

Lord of the Flies

Wuthering Heights

The Scarlett Letter

The Great Gatsby

Fahrenheit 451

MacBeth

Cyrano

Othello

To Kill A Mockingbird

The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles

Beowulf

Individually Chosen to read For Class:

A Tale of Two Cities- hated it

The Jungle- Loved it

The Cossacks- Loved it

Of all those mandatory, I only enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I tried to read Lord of the Flies on my own but then everyone started killing each other and I gave up.

 

[GoodGame]

I tried to read Lord of the Flies on my own but then everyone started killing each other and I gave up.

Then you won't like Hamlet either. Probably not Frankenstein nor Wuthering Heights as well.

 

[Atlas14]

Then you won't like Hamlet either. Probably not Frankenstein nor Wuthering Heights as well.

Wuthering Heights was awfully boring. Thank god for sparknotes. None of the guys in our class liked it, all the girls did. The opposite was basically true with Lord of the Flies. Go figure...

 

[mythmonster2]

Well, so far I have been forced to read, in high school, and to the best of my memory:
Rebbecca
Alas, Babylon
1984
Lord of the Flies
Their Eyes Were Watching God
A Tale of Two Cities
The Tipping Point
The Scarlet Letter (HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HAT HATE HATE)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sphereland

I've also had to read several plays, including:
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar (How does I spell second word?)
Oedipus Rex
The Crucible

 

[Dachs]