What book did you read in school that you still appreciate today?

[fatalrendezvous]

High school English and literature curriculums are jam-packed with novels and classics. A lot of them are the same around the country and I assume they are also pitched in all English-speaking countries, not just the States. Books like Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc.

You probably don't remember many of the books you read in school (I know I don't!), but what is one that stuck with you and that you would still probably enjoy if you read it today, and why?

For me, it's Lord of the Flies! There is something about how the book speaks to human nature that has always resonated with me. I feel like discussing the moral struggles in that book is a large part of why I'm so interested in philosophy nowadays.

What about you guys?

 

[redblood]

In Sweden there aren't that much reading except if you have literature in college.

In Swedish class, we reviewed one book per year up until 9th grade, and that was a book we could choose freely, it did not have to be a classic. In high school, my Swedish teacher asked us to review one book of our choosing once, or we could write a short story. I wrote a story so I never did a book review in high school.

In English class, we mainly worked with short texts up until 9th grade, so we never read any actual books. In high school it was first during my 3rd year that we were gonna read a book and it was chosen for us. It was the boy in the striped pajamas. I'm not saying I cried, but my eyes might have been leaking a strange liquid.

So I guess my answer is the boy in the striped pajamas. xD

And just so to not confuse people, we do read, a lot, in Sweden. It's just that we read shorter texts and answered questions or had discussions around them instead, or we read a short classic text and tried to write in the form of that text. I usually got really good grades on those. :D I guess teachers don't want to force kids to read books they aren't interested in, cause half the classes would prolly not even finish it. A short text read in the classroom doesn't take as much patience as a full book.

 

[Aero Blue]

The Catcher in the Rye. YEAH, YOU LITTLE SHITS, NO SHIT YOU DIDN'T LIKE HOLDEN CAULFIELD. Phoebe on the carousel is a top-tier passage.

 

[Diana]

The only books I remember school making us read were books I absolutely did NOT appreciate and am still pissed off about to this day. >:[ IE: Where the Red Fern Grows and Lord of the Flies.

 

[Kuno]

There aren't too many books I remember reading in class. High school teachers shoved so many books down my throat that I grew to despise them, especially since we are asked to pick the novels apart, passage by passage.

Fahrenheit 451 was one of the exceptions. The Things They Carried hit hard as well, and it was one of the few books I did not mind picking over in class.

 

[AngelNinja2018]

I was in a Special Education English class since I was on the spectrum (even though I excelled there). Some of the books I read that I enjoyed were Perks of Being a Wallflower, Speak and another book I read in my spare time, The Boy Who Dared. Not to talk trash on the age old tradition of reading Of Mice and Men, The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, but I felt like Perks and Speak were more tailored to kids our age.

In case you didn't know, The Boy Who Dared follows a boy that gives his life to resist the Nazis from the inside. Definitely recommend it.

 

[Quetzal]

Fahrenheit 451or The Giver.

 

[Jess Incognito]

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde is one I remember fondly.

I also think that one is often severely simplified in its adaptations, which is a shame.
I remember it so well because of that, though. I'd seen a few random adaptations by then (admittedly including the Alvin & the Chipmunks episode :P ) and it was great to see that it was much much more than what most people know of it.

 

[PoetLore]

I had an excellent 8th grade English teacher who LOVED Shakespeare and he would act it out for us in overly emotive fashion and I have never lost my love of it.

One book I remember not liking was In Cold Blood. The discussions in class were even worse than the book itself for me.

 

[Nemopedia]

As an non-native English educated person I had a list of literature in more than one language. My list of English literature wasn't too memorable, other than that piece of Shakespeare's Macbeth we read once and that was more because the school arranged for us to see the play than anything else.

In Dutch, however I still love Bernlef's Hersenschimmen (English version: Out of Mind). What captured me the most about it was the way it ended and to this day it still catches me (though from what I saw of the English translation they don't manage to capture that same emotion). I put the book down thinking that I want to write like that as well, simple, plain, but raw and emotional.

 

[s p o o k]

The Giver, Of Mice and Men, and The Metamorphosis. ~

 

[Astaroth]

I actually enjoyed most of my assigned reading in school! One of the books that really stayed with me though was Lois Lowry's The Giver. It was very different from the other dystopian fiction I'd read at the time, and I probably would have eventually read most of the other books that were assigned because they're more well-known. I talk up The Giver whenever I have an opportunity.

 

[Dipper]

I'm still fond of The Giver and Catcher in the Rye. I also recall reading Frankenstein at one point, which I read within a day/day and a half. Speaking of that, I should definitely reread it.