I had to read Frank Norris’s McTeague in high school. I didn’t like it so much then, but I read it again as an undergraduate and loved it. It’s still one of my favorites.
And thanks for printing some of my literary heroes, Mediocritee!
Hogfather. Really, the assignment was to read a book by a living, non-American author, with a few blocked books (looking at you, Harry Potter), but I asked the teacher for a recommendation and he gave me the book. Like I still have it on my shelf. It kicked off a frenzy of reading as I tore through the series.
It is a terrible place to start in, though. It’ll hook you, yes, but it falls in the middle of several threads.
@RiotDemon 10th grade. My teacher insisted we call him Frank ( Mr. Langer is my father ). Frank also taught the books Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies that year. Best English class ever.
HHGTTG - not required academic reading, but absolutely my favorite book from my HS years, and still is. Best book I had to read, probably All Quiet on the Western Front. (And Crime and Punishment and le Morte D’Arthur and Animal Farm and …)
Whenever a coworker has a death in the family I always sign the sympathy card with “So it goes”.
The Perfect Storm has always been one of my favorite books.
I remember Ethan Frome and Lord of the Flies between them, and their presentation in highschool, turning me off of literature entirely.
I did enjoy The Lord of the Rings though, and HHGGTG, and for that matter Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. And all the other genre fiction I could get my hands on at the time.
I had to read Frank Norris’s McTeague in high school. I didn’t like it so much then, but I read it again as an undergraduate and loved it. It’s still one of my favorites.
And thanks for printing some of my literary heroes, Mediocritee!
In the long ago time that was high school I don’t remember any required reading. This could be because I used to read a lot of books back then.
Weaveworld by Clive Barker and It by Stephen King both came out while I was in high school and I read and loved them both.
Catcher in the Rye
@akapl2002 me as well, if we’re talking “great literature”
Hogfather. Really, the assignment was to read a book by a living, non-American author, with a few blocked books (looking at you, Harry Potter), but I asked the teacher for a recommendation and he gave me the book. Like I still have it on my shelf. It kicked off a frenzy of reading as I tore through the series.
It is a terrible place to start in, though. It’ll hook you, yes, but it falls in the middle of several threads.
All Creatures Great & Small series. All of the books are amazing!
To Kill a Mockingbird has stuck with me from jr high.
I really enjoyed Catch-22. Wouldn’t say I loved Old Man and the Sea, but my wife loathed it, and I definitely enjoyed it some.
@mschuette I still remember the lead character ruminating about Joe DiMaggio’s heel spur. It must have stuck with me.
I didn’t read any of those books in high school. My favorite was probably Cat’s Cradle. Catcher in the Rye for a close second.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
1984 and A Brave New World.
@RiotDemon 10th grade. My teacher insisted we call him Frank ( Mr. Langer is my father ). Frank also taught the books Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies that year. Best English class ever.
HHGTTG - not required academic reading, but absolutely my favorite book from my HS years, and still is. Best book I had to read, probably All Quiet on the Western Front. (And Crime and Punishment and le Morte D’Arthur and Animal Farm and …)
A Wrinkle in Time, of course it wasn’t required reading, and it got banned a some point. Two reasons to love it.
The Essential Calvin and Hobbes -Bill Waterson
Whenever a coworker has a death in the family I always sign the sympathy card with “So it goes”.
The Perfect Storm has always been one of my favorite books.
Les Miserables. It is, by far, my favorite book.
I remember Ethan Frome and Lord of the Flies between them, and their presentation in highschool, turning me off of literature entirely.
I did enjoy The Lord of the Rings though, and HHGGTG, and for that matter Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. And all the other genre fiction I could get my hands on at the time.
;p
Stay gold Ponyboy…S.E. Hinton, “The Outsiders”
“Give me what I want and I’ll go away”.
Stephen King, “Storm of the Century”
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Island of the Blue Dolphin…