High School Books

[AJWARPED]

I to look over other peoples posts and am upset at the lack of stuff I was able to read in school. I loved some of what I read but stuff like To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, the Great Gatsby, anything George Orwell, etc. either weren't offered in my High School or weren't offered in the Lit classes. Go Figure. I did grow up in a very conservitive town so some books wouldn't have been offered. Like Apt Pupil or Deliverance.

I'm now in University and an English major so I hope to catch up on a lot of reading.

[Head Mutant]

I'm of the firm opinion that there's a sort of evil English teachers' union out there that refuses to let go of truly crappy "classics" and instead promote readable works of art. Faulkner is down-and-out horrible, and after about twenty-five mandatory reads through The Great Gatsby, I cannot for the life of me see what in that book is supposed to inspire me to do anything but slowly rip out each page and feed it to a diseased hamster.

But then, for every three crappy classics or so, I had English teachers and professors turn me on to some great older books. Orwell is awesome (1981), Vonnegut (sp? who cares?) rocks the shazbot, and after a sixth read, I'm warming up to Lord of the Flies.

[Al]

Apt Pupil was something I think my 12th grade english teacher had us read just to prove to us that good stuff is still being written and the author doesn't need to be dead in order for it to be taught. We had the choice of reading that or something about Hummingbirds or Thornbirds or Mynabirds. I don't remember. None of the guys in the class picked it.

And Deliverance has walked a tightrope for years. Twice during my HS career, it came under fire from parents who didn't want their kids reading what they considered filth.

Al

[Magill]

AJWARPED said:

I to look over other peoples posts and am upset at the lack of stuff I was able to read in school. I loved some of what I read but stuff like To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, the Great Gatsby, anything George Orwell, etc. either weren't offered in my High School or weren't offered in the Lit classes. Go Figure. I did grow up in a very conservitive town so some books wouldn't have been offered. Like Apt Pupil or Deliverance.

I missed out on a lot of the classic high school English books, too. For instance, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby, and Animal Farm were all part of the "regular" English program but weren't in my AP classes. Actually, I think I'm going to start yet another thread where we can list what we read.

Oh, and other books I read and loved were Robert Fitzgeralds translation of The Odyssey and Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

[dajaymann]

Speaking of abhorrent books from High School, I remember having to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce if memory serves me properly. It was truly awful. Then my mom saw it on my reading list and asked if she could read it. She also agreed that it was truly awful. It was a precious mother/son moment.

[Magill]

Portrait of the Artist is the only book I ever cheated on. I couldn't get through it, so I read the Cliff's Notes version. Plus, it was the end of the year--spring was too fun to have to read that!