I was browsing high school summer reading lists, and I am QUITE SURPRISED to see Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on MORE THAN ONE of them. It’s an entertaining read, but college prep? Really?
I’m making a list of must read books, and I would love it if you would please contribute!
What are your favorite, classic, must read/college bound/profound books? I’m on a quest to better myself. Or broaden my horizons. Or what have you.
So far I have on my list to read:
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (I loved O Pioneers! and My Antonia, and also loved Sarah Orne Jewett)
Dracula, Bram Stoker (actually, I’m reading this for a writing exercise, not for my own knowledge. I think we all know the basic plot of the book, it’s the literary language I’m after in this one.)
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (started this twice, just can’t get into it! Is it worth it?)
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. My best friend in high school loved this book, and it just popped up on a writer’s blog as the greatest novel ever written (but not the most enjoyable one.)
The Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Catch-22, Joseph Heller. I started this one, lost it, and just found it again when I excavated parts unknown in the bedroom.
I also need help making a list of historical books. Someone asked the question for their high schooler on a homeschool board, and it got me thinking of what I could add to my personal list.
This year we’re doing Columbus through Colonial, next year will be American Revolution, and the year after we’ll be in the Civil War. This is background reading for me to prepare for that.
For the Colonial Period, I am reading Common Sense and have The Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers tucked away. Novel-wise, I have read the pre-Revolutionary War Leatherstocking Tales, Last of the Mohicans, and The Scarlet Letter. What else is good?
My “Civil War” list includes:
Red Badge of Courage
Across Five Aprils
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (oh my gosh, started reading this while I was 8 months pregnant and SOBBED every page. I had to put it away until I was more emotionally stable. Weeping at the OB’s office because of my novel? So unlike me.)
Gone With the Wind, which I have never read OR seen.
And conversely, which “classic” novels have you absolutely hated? For me, it was Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Horrible. Can I say that? Well, I’m not in English class, so YES I CAN. I also hated A Tale of Two Cities. So there. Sorry, but I never got over the deus ex machina vibe of the two men looking exactly alike. How convenient.
Any and all suggestions welcome!
Veronica (3)
kat (2)
Kristin (2)
Raso @ lasagnarec... (2)
drew (1)
Elise (1)
Grandma Margie (1)
Heather (1)
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
While not academically high-falutin’, I think (and wish I’d read) some more practical financial/entrepreneural things … Dave Ramsey’s TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, Steve Covey’s SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, Napoleon Hill’s THINK AND GROW RICH, etc. This is a strange list from a wannabe hippy, but if some practices were put into place while one is very young, then the freedom from debt and entrepreneural thinking would serve well as one matures. Colleges nor parents teach either in many cases. Just my two cents.
I’ve read all of those! Richest Man in Babylon is good, too.
Our 11th grade English teacher did not much care for The Great Gatsby—or at the very least, felt it was greatly overrated—even though he assigned it.
I would add I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Both deal with black/white race relations in America.
I also liked Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which I actually read and liked; at least one book by Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five is a good one); and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Oh, and you have to do a lot of Shakespeare. Don’t neglect Shakespeare. If you do only one play, make it Hamlet. But don’t do only one play, and don’t neglect the sonnets.
I’m not particularly well-rounded, so any list of mine will be incomplete. You might do a Jane Austen book, though I was never into her. I hated everything by Thomas Hardy. I actually kind of liked A Tale of Two Cities, though I read it too slowly so class was full of spoilers.
I’ve read both of those (Caged Bird and Mockingbird), actually. One of the most memorable short stories I’ve read – Harrison Bergeron – was a Vonnegut, but I haven’t read Slaughterhouse Five.
I have Crime and Punishment, but only got about 1/3 way through. The Jungle was great, highly recommend! I’ve read a little bit of Austen but wasn’t too into her.
We read Hamlet in school (plus I’ve seen several of the movies.)
I didn’t have to read Gatsby in 11th grade, but most of my friends read it for AP Lit in 12th. I took an easy A with “Creative Writing” for 12th grade because I was working full time. Man, that was an easy (pointless) class. We actually STUDIED the script for Pulp Fiction and watched Barton Fink.
Now that I think of it, I don’t think it was Gerkin who assigned Gatsby, because 11th grade was British Lit, right? We had Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, etc. I know you had to read Tess, but we picked Pride and Prejudice (I think.) And I think we probably read more than that, but that’s all I remember, LOL! And Macbeth, I think, for the Shakespeare?
Gatsby would’ve been American Lit, which was 10th grade, but it wasn’t assigned then. I think it must’ve been 12th grade AP Lit that assigned it. 10th grade, we read Hawthorne, Poe, Cooper, and some shorts, including the aforementioned Harrison Bergeron (methinks) and The Lottery, another great short.
Hmmm, wonder why Gerkin didn’t assign US Hitchhiker’s Guide? It is British, after all. Well, my classmates were probably reading it on their own, anyway!
I could not stand Heart of Darkness. We read it in high school. I would definitely say it isn’t worth it. I loved Thomas Hardy. Anything by Steinbeck. I don’t want to sound fundie, but I also loved Jane Austen.
Easy question first: One book I couldn’t stand was The Scarlet Letter.
History: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
1776 by David McCullough
Must reads? I think that can vary so much depending on what you like. There are a lot of good ones on your list. How about The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis?
One other recommendation – it’s in the political/history category: The Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder Lane. If you can get your hands on that, it’s definitely worth a read.
Another great book for history is: Eyewitness to History edited by John Carey. It has actual eyewitness accounts of historical events including things like the eruption of Vesuvius and the fall of Jerusalem.
Good luck putting together your list.
Oh I liked the Screwtape Letters.
Another Revolutionary war-era book I liked (not a novel) is Unruly Americans by David Cullough.
I love, love love, Gone with the Wind. I’ve seen the move so many times I and quote it while watching, which drive my husband and kids insane. I bought the book when I was 14 with money earned from my first babysitting job and read the entire thing that summer. The book is much better than the movie, as most tend to be.
“To Kill and Mocking Bird” is also an excellent book. I’m about 2 hrs from Monroville, AL where the author, Harper Lee, is from and have promised myself that one year I’m going to go to the play they hold each spring at the courthouse.
I liked Heart of Darkness. I read it again in college and did quite well on the assigned essay (I still had my highschool book with notes in the margins).
A book of poetry somewhere in the mix would be good – both modern and classical. Homer, Plato, etc.
I don’t generally like poetry, but I do enjoy Langston Hughes and have one of his books. I have a few other poetry books laying around but I never read them.
Emily Dickinson was forever ruined for me when someone pointed out that you could set each of her poems to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”.
“Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality”
Go ahead. Try it.
“Because I could not stop for De-ath,
He kindly stopped for meeee!
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immor-tal-i-teee!”
You ruined me at Heart of Darkness. It is my most unfavorite book of all time.
I don’t really care for Ernest Hemingway. I like my books fully clothed in literary language, not in a Plain capedress of paragraphs.
I’d add The Scarlet Letter, some Thoreau, and Lord of the Flies to the list. And I think you’re right about which teacher assigned us which books. Give a pregnant lady a break!
I already READ Scarlet Letter ::rolls eyes at sister::
And wrote a report on it. Lord of the Flies was middle school, I think? I did read that one, too.
Don’t let the sing-song rhythm of Emily Dickenson’s poetry ruin it for you. Have you really read what she is saying? She resonates with me! She is one of the very few women writers of her time, and her poetry is still amazingly apt today, especially for women.
If you do Shakespeare when your kids are old enough to deal with the Elizabethan English, do Romeo & Juliet first. It’s a wonderful introduction to the Bard that appeals to teenagers with its story about ill-fated teenage romance. The other tragedies are pretty heavy.
In school, we DID do Romeo and Juliet first. My homeschool group puts on a Shakespeare every year (middle and high school); I think they do A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
the grapes of wrath is my all time favorite book. I always thought that Edna St. Vincent Millays Renasense-did I spell it right?- was good. as for shakespeare I really enjoyed Othello. Even though my class only did excerpt I read the whole thing because I just couldn~t put it down. the one must read in my opinion is the diary of anne frank. although that is one better suited for middle school aged children.
But the thing is, if you do Romeo and Juliet during high school, assign the kids a paper on how it exemplifies Natural Selection and survival of the fittest!
I’d recommend Elizabeth Gaskell; she’s in the same period as Dickens, but a much more nuanced view of the changes in society just then.
I would say Faust. I read that in an advanced highschool class and loved it. I would also Brave New world by Huxley…it is really great too…and The last picture show by James A. Michener. These are books that I really enjoyed and am reading Faust to my 9 year old right now as it goes through the 7 deadly sins…
Hands down, my favorite author is Thomas Hardy. Not my favorite poet, but I’ve read all of his books. If you aren’t familiar with him, you MUST read-at least-”Tess of the d’Urbervilles.” You mentioned it earlier, but not whether you’ve read it.
But for an accurate, historical novel I recommend “Jurassic Park,” by Crichton….Oh, wait…never mind.
I read Great Gatsby twice, both forced for school. I hated it. I read Crime and Punishment for the same teacher you had Lisa, didn’t get it, read the sparknotes AND the Cliffsnotes, went back to the book, still didn’t get it, and failed the test when I couldn’t remember any of the character’s superlong names.
I must admit I’m glad to see no Bronte or Austen on here. That stuff puts me to sleep! And I agree with Jennifer-Gone with the Wind. There’s a sequel to it, written by Alexandra Ripley, that’s not AS good, literally speaking, but it’s good as a sequel to the story.
And no, your song didn’t ruin Emily Dickinson for me. I still love her.
I read Moby Dick to the kids and theu loved it, tough it was adapted for kids but it keept their interst.
SQUEEEEE! My husband commented on my blog! Hey, aren’t you supposed to be working?
Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention in my English classes, but a book that I suggest before heading off to college is “How to Read a Book” by Mortimer Adler.
I also agree with Denise in suggesting “Total Money Makeover” and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
Not literature, per se, but they provide a lot of insight into life skills not particularly well taught in schools or by parents in general.
i just wanted you to know that i so thoroughly enjoy your posts.
i actually have for years.
and i’ve been wanting to comment, but lack the time to do all the things i “want”…
anyhow, i just read the pearl by john steinback. and i thought it was wonderful.
confessions by st. agustine. the screwtape letters. sense and sensibililty. the king’s good servant but God’s first-the story of st. thomas more-just to name a few….could be added to your list.
have fun broadening your horizons. i am forever trying to do the same…too bad i’ve so much laundry!
it’s so hard to know what each person might like with regards to literature…everyone is different.