Top 10 Books You Were Forced to Read in School
Friday, Jul. 09, 2010


In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's perennial middle-school novel To Kill a Mockingbird, TIME rounds up the classics that have monopolized school reading lists for years.





1. To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Published: 1960


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Harper Lee's 1960 paean to the South is one of the most beloved American novels ever written. Some of that is due to the 1962 classic film adapted from it, which stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer who also happens to be the most upstanding and sympathetic father ever.


But much of the respect accorded the novel (the author's only book) has to do with its memorable main characters, brother and sister duo Jem and Scout.

With its competing subplots about a black man on trial for allegedly raping a white woman and the children's attempts to learn about their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley, the novel is perfectly structured to provide half a dozen lessons about history and acceptance and injustice and compassion.



No wonder it's the staple of all middle-school staples. Happy 50th, Mockingbird!











2. Of Mice and Men
Author: John Steinbeck
Published: 1937


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The Great Depression and the hardship it caused spawned many classics of American literature that have since become fodder for high school English classes across the nation.

Topping the list is John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men.




The plot traces the journey of George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California farm country. We meet them after they've been forced to leave their previous ranch in a chain of events chalked up to Lennie's odd behavior.

Upon arriving at their new farm, owned and run by a character known simply as "The Boss," George and Lennie once again find themselves in crosshairs. The strong and complicated bond between the pair forces George to take weak Lennie's life into his own hands.



Along the way, their pursuit of the American Dream (and the attendant prospect of land ownership) falls by the wayside, the victim of a harsh economic downturn, a freak accident and mob hysteria.











3. A Separate Peace
Author: John Knowles
Published: 1959


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One of the great coming-of-age tales, A Separate Peace is also one of the darker novels assigned to teenagers.



The plot revolves around two roommates at Devon, a New England boarding school, during the summer and winter of 1942. The narrator, Gene, an introverted, studious Southerner, recalls his relationship with his best friend Phineas, known as "Finny," a charismatic, gregarious athlete.

Over the course of the summer, Gene becomes envious of Finny's graceful, easy demeanor and takes part in an accident that ends Finny's athletic career. During the winter, as the country descends into World War II, the boys of Devon wage their own battles against each other to determine whether Gene intentionally harmed Finny.




The novel chronicles the boys' maturation as the war encroaches further and further into their lives.

While Knowles' tale of the journey from innocence to experience has been described as depressing, his capture of youthful emotion, surprising maturity and reactions to life's great tragedies make it a must-read during those awkward teenage years.











4. The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger
Published: 1951


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Published in 1951, Catcher has long been a literary touchstone for alienated high school students.




Main character Holden Caulfield is the ultimate whiner — everyone's a phony, everyone's a crumbum, and the only person who is really worth a damn is his little sister.

Because Catcher is a fairly glum tale about a screwup of a kid who may be going crazy following the death of his brother, it's really easy to forget that it's kind of the ultimate high school fantasy — Holden roams around New York City for a couple of days, gets into bars, dances with older women and gets beaten up while trying to procure a lady of ill repute.

While it may seem like the boy is just drifting, that sounds like living!





For those very reasons, though, many of today's teens are having trouble relating to the book, according to a June 2009 New York Times article. "I can't really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City," said one teacher, paraphrasing some of her students.

But despite the generational gap, this book won't be leaving classrooms anytime soon.











5. Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Published: 1945


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This classic tale of an animal revolution gone rogue is George Orwell's allegorical take on Stalinism.



Under two pigs named Snowball and Napoleon, a group of farm animals overthrow their drunken human caretaker and establish a new community based on seven commandments, including the tenet that all animals are equal.

Soon after, Snowball and Napoleon engage in a power struggle to control the farm, with Napoleon emerging on top. He quickly turns Snowball into a scapegoat for a failed windmill project and kills any animals who appear to have an allegiance to his opponent.

As time passes, the swine adopt human traits, soon wearing clothes and walking on two legs. Before long, the lowly farm animals can no longer distinguish between the pigs and the people.











6. Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
Published: 1954


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Prominently featured on the American Library Association's list of the most banned books ever, Lord of the Flies is a complex allegory packed into a tale of struggle and survival.




The book begins when a plane carrying a group of British boarding-school students crashes on an isolated island. The boys (in the truest meaning of the word; the oldest is 13) establish a working society, with Ralph as their charismatic yet humble leader.

Order breaks down as Ralph battles with Jack, the leader of the school's choir, and the entire group slowly descends into chaos. The end, a brutal literal and figurative shattering of humanity, has served as the book's chief teaching point and mark of contention for half a century.




Often seen as a cautionary tale about the breakdown of civilization, the book details "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" and the horrific possibilities that lie within us all.











7. The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Published: 1925


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Every school takes a field trip to Long Island, New York, at some point, visiting the Roaring '20s as only F. Scott Fitzgerald could write them.

Thanks to its evocative setting, rich themes and masterly prose, The Great Gatsby has secured its standing as a reading-list staple as well as one of the greatest American novels ever written.




Here, the moneyed East meets the modest Midwest, and Fitzgerald's memorable characters — Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker — perpetuate a lavish lifestyle that, alas, doesn't offer much of a life.

The enigmatic Gatsby has the best parties, but it's Daisy he really wants. He may have no shortage of party guests, but he's sorely lacking in funeral attendees.

Narrator Nick Carraway is witness to the glitz that ultimately reflects emptiness, not success.











8. A Farewell to Arms
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Published: 1929


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When Ernest Hemingway combined his "consciously bald" style with his experiences as a World War I ambulance driver, the resulting novel was an immediate success.

Published in 1929, A Farewell to Arms not only revisits the conflict that had ended just a decade earlier; it also tells of romance.




Sadly — not that dutiful American-lit students would expect to be cheered up by Hemingway — the love story isn't any less tragic than the war.

Lieutenant Frederic Henry and English nurse Catherine Barkley have to face the fact that death can make its presence known off the battlefield as well as on.











9. The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Published: 1850


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Nathaniel Hawthorne's best-known work opens in Puritan Boston, with young Hester Prynne on trial for adultery.

Because she refuses to name the father of her infant daughter Pearl, Hester is ostracized by the community and forced to wear a scarlet piece of cloth in the shape of an "A" on her chest — an enduring symbol throughout the book.

This central conflict is the basis for all the themes the novel examines: sin, repentance, moral purity, forgiveness.











10. Macbeth
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1623


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As high school students, we may have been drawn to Macbeth because it's known as the shortest of the Shakespearean tragedies. But the tersely written play spares no human frailty — and few characters — on the battlefield of 11th century Scotland.




Whereas decisiveness, the lack thereof and revenge drive the other Great High School Shakespearean Play, Hamlet, ambition and personal morality are at the center of the plot of Macbeth.

The play's title character finds himself pitted against a fellow lord, Banquo, when the two are made privy to a series of prophecies from a trio of witches. The toiling witches forecast a future royal line, and the will to power is soon unleashed.

Upon losing his wife in the fray, Macbeth delivers his epic "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy, which captures the sensation of despair as well as any other verse in the English language:


Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing ...

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2002836_2002835_2002842,00.html

Yup, I had to read most of those. :D

The only ones I read for school were Mice and Men, MacBeth, and Lord of the Flies.

I read Mockingbird, Rye, and Gatsby on my own and I'm glad cause these were great books and I just hate it when people force me to read something,

To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice And Men, and Animal Farm are the ones I had to read from that list.

The ones I read in high school from that list:

To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye
A Separate Peace
Macbeth

Unfortunately for me, in my senior year of high school, I had a teacher who was obsessed with Lord of the Rings. We had to read two of the books in his class. Even though that genre has a lot of fans, it certainly doesn't appeal to many people, including myself. I had a really hard time making it through them.

For me the majority of these books were my in-class reading throughout high school; Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby go back further to 6th and 7th grade.


The ones that I did not read for school were A Farewell to Arms and The Scarlett Letter.

Unfortunately for me, in my senior year of high school, I had a teacher who was obsessed with Lord of the Rings. We had to read two of the books in his class. Even though that genre has a lot of fans, it certainly doesn't appeal to many people, including myself. I had a really hard time making it through them.

One of my summer reading books going into sophomore year was The Hobbit.

I too had to read most of those when I was in high school. The one on that list I liked the best was The Catcher In The Rye

Luckily, I never had to read any of those when I was in school.

I read Lord of the Flies, The Scarlet Letter and MacBeth from that list.

The only book from that list that I had to read in school is "To Kill a Mockingbird". It's a great book and also a great movie.(I own it on DVD) I recently purchased a copy of "The Scarlett Letter" and it is next up on my reading list.

I read about seven of those. Never read Farewell to Arms, Animal Farm, or Catcher in the Rye.

Loved The Scarlet Letter. They must have dropped it from a lot of curriculum's, given the responses here. It's a wonderful book, full of vivid and lush descriptions which will stay with you forever, beautiful prose and themes that still resonate today. I highly recommend it. :)

I have not read The Great Gatsby or A Separate Peace. I read all of the others in highschool My favorite of all of those is To Kill a Mockingbird. It is an amazing book.

I haven't read The Great Gatsby, Farewell to Arms, or A Separate Peace, but the others, with the exception of The Scarlet Letter (which I found boring), were fantastic. Some of my favorite books of all-time are on that list.

I read most of those. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby are two of my all time fave books. I even did my senior thesis in college on Gatsby. I'm surprised I never had to read Lord of the Flies in school. I know that's one most people read at some point. I might read it someday, though.

I have not read The Great Gatsby or A Separate Peace. I read all of the others in highschool My favorite of all of those is To Kill a Mockingbird. It is an amazing book.
It certainly is. We watched the movie in class after finishing the book. It's hard to believe Harper Lee never wrote another book, but how can you top a work of art like that?

It certainly is. We watched the movie in class after finishing the book. It's hard to believe Harper Lee never wrote another book, but how can you top a work of art like that?

I'm not sure if you know this or not but over the years there have been many rumors and speculation that Harper Lee may have had "help" with writing To Kill a Mockingbird.

Many people say that Truman Capote was "the real brains" behind the book due to them being friends, researching together, and saying that Mockingbird "had the tone" of Capote's work.




Of course by now there is no way to prove/disprove this but it's interesting nevertheless.


What is odd is that after Mockingbird that Harper Lee never seriously attempted writing again and turned down almost all of her interview requests throughout her life.

Others say that Truman Capote was the kind of person who wanted publicity at everything he did, a "press whore", and if he had any involvement whatsoever with Mockingbird that he would have mentioned it at some point.

^ Interesting!! Yes, Truman Capote was definitely a media whore - he was everywhere and anywhere. In contrast, Harper Lee was and is fiercely private - she doesn't give interviews and only speaks to the press through her literary agent.

I remember having to read the following books growing up (this is just off the top of my head):

5th grade - Tuck Everlasting
6th grade - The Pearl
7th grade - The Outsiders
8th grade - Lord of the Flies

In middle school, I remember we had to read The Kay, Mrs. Frisby & The Rats of NIMH, The Pigman, Z for Zachariah, and The Pinballs. Those are the only ones I remember at this point from M.S.

When I was in high school, it was Romeo & Juliet, All Quiet on the Western Front, Julius Caesar, as well as the ones I already mentioned.

It's hard to believe Harper Lee never wrote another book, but how can you top a work of art like that?

Has anyone here read In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth? It is a young adult fiction novel about a young girl who has nothing left to remind her of her deceased mother but an old diary and the book To Kill a Mockingbird. The girl goes on quite an adventure, determined to find and meet Harper Lee despite the fact that she is so reclusive. Even though it is written for teens, it is an excellent book. It's also pretty short. I would recommend it, especially to those who like To Kill a Mockingbird.

^ I've never heard of it, but it sounds fascinating. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Yeah, what Monika said. LOL. BTW, Monika, did you see what I posted in the "What book are you reading?" thread?

Yeah, what Monika said. LOL. BTW, Monika, did you see what I posted in the "What book are you reading?" thread?
I haven't read them but I'll have to check them out. It'll have to be through the library since I have no money to buy books at this point. Thanks for the recommendation, Kristen! :cool:

From that list I only had to read Of Mice And Men. I did read Animal Farm, Lord Of The Flies, and To Kill A Mockingbird outside of school.

My sister's class read Of Mice & Men, but mine never did. They also watched the Gary Sinise movie after they were done reading the book.

I just recalled that our class also read The Count of Monte Cristo, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), The Red Badge of Courage, and Call of the Wild. Those were the days!!

I read 8 of those 10 books during middle school and high school. The only two books I didn't read were A Seperate Peace and A Farewell to Arms.

After we read Of Mice And Men in high school, we then had to write our own ending to the book. I wrote mine as a horror/Tales From The Crypt type ending. Mine was the only one the teacher read aloud to the class:cool:

In elementary school (5th grade), we read books like The Secret Garden, Johnny Tremain, Bridge to Terabithia, and Caddie Woodlawn. :cool:

In Junior High(I guess it's called middle school now) I did a book report on the Blazing Saddles novelization.

Also in Junior High I remember getting extra credit for knowing the alternate title for Frankenstein.

Frankenstein!! That's another one we read!! We saw the movie with Helena Bonham Carter after we were done reading the book. :cool:

In Junior High(I guess it's called middle school now) I did a book report on the Blazing Saddles novelization.

Also in Junior High I remember getting extra credit for knowing the alternate title for Frankenstein.

"The Modern Day Prometheus", right? :)

Frankenstein!! That's another one we read!! We saw the movie with Helena Bonham Carter after we were done reading the book. :cool:
You should have watched "Young Frankenstein" with Gene Wilder and Terri Garr!

When I was in high school I had to read Of Mice and Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird. The others not on the list I had to read were: Pygmalion, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Diary of Anne Frank.
At my school we saw the movie after reading the books. The version of The Diary of Anne Frank that we watched had Melissa Gilbert playing Anne.
Pygmalion is just another name for what everyone knows as My Fair Lady. We read the book and it was exactly like the movie even though they have different names.

The only book I chose to read on my own from that list is The Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the Rye was a really good book, there was a little too much swearing to my liking but it was an enjoyable read otherwise. I want to read a Separate Peace and Lord of the Flies, they both sound really good.

You should have watched "Young Frankenstein" with Gene Wilder and Terri Garr!
I wish we had!! "UTTIN ON THE IIIIIIIIIIIIITZ!!" :rofl:

When I was in high school I had to read Of Mice and Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird. The others not on the list I had to read were: Pygmalion, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Diary of Anne Frank.
At my school we saw the movie after reading the books. The version of The Diary of Anne Frank that we watched had Melissa Gilbert playing Anne.
Pygmalion is just another name for what everyone knows as My Fair Lady. We read the book and it was exactly like the movie even though they have different names.

The only book I chose to read on my own from that list is The Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the Rye was a really good book, there was a little too much swearing to my liking but it was an enjoyable read otherwise. I want to read a Separate Peace and Lord of the Flies, they both sound really good.
A Separate Peace is a good book, but the movie adaptation from 1972 is absoultely godawful. There was another film version made in 2004 but I never saw it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069249/

I wish we had!! "UTTIN ON THE IIIIIIIIIIIIITZ!!" :rofl:
Peter Boyle was brilliant in that scene! :lol:

Peter Boyle was brilliant in that scene! :lol:
Yeah, it's hard to imagine anyone else but Peter Boyle in the role, but the first choice to play the monster was Abe Vigoda!! Initially, Mel Brooks wanted Abe for the role because of his resemblance to Boris Karloff. :lol:

Yeah, it's hard to imagine anyone else but Peter Boyle in the role, but the first choice to play the monster was Abe Vigoda!! Initially, Mel Brooks wanted Abe for the role because of his resemblance to Boris Karloff. :lol:
159953

159954
Wow there really is a resemblance! But your right it's hard to imagine anyone but Peter Boyle in the role.

"The Modern Day Prometheus", right? :)

Yep

You should have watched "Young Frankenstein" with Gene Wilder and Terri Garr!

Kind of like when Beaver watched The Three Musketeers with the Ritz Bros on TV for his book report:lol:

I know out of that list that I read:

To Kill A Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
Animal Farm
The Great Gatsby
Macbeth

I also had to read:
Romeo & Juliet,
Julius Ceasar
Hamlet
Red Badge Of Courage
Pygmalion
Huckleberry Finn
12 Angry Men
The Diary Of Anne Frank
Death Of A Salesman
Beowulf
The Miracle Worker

I also had to read Beowulf in high school. I forgot to put that on the list.

I also read the Miracle Worker in high school. I saw the movie version as well.

I also had to read Beowulf in high school. I forgot to put that on the list.

I also read the Miracle Worker in high school. I saw the movie version as well.
I had to read Beowulf too. I didn't like that one. lol

I remember a couple more I read in 9th grade which for me was in junior high.... The Iliad and The Oddysey.

I had to read Beowulf too. I didn't like that one. lol

I remember a couple more I read in 9th grade which for me was in junior high.... The Iliad and The Oddysey.

The Oddysey. Is that the one with all the mythology characters in it? I had to read a book that had a bunch of mythology characters in it in 9th grade, though I'm not certain of the title.

The Oddysey. Is that the one with all the mythology characters in it? I had to read a book that had a bunch of mythology characters in it in 9th grade, though I'm not certain of the title.
Yea that's probably the one. It's been so long ago I don't remember much about it. I really didn't understand it much when I was reading it. lol I know it was set during the Trojan War and was set in ancient Greece.

Fifty years since its first publication 'To Kill a Mockingbird (http://www.shmoop.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/)' has been on and off of lists of books you must read, and must not read. Harper Lee has written a classic telling us a story of the incidents in a small town in the South. It’s like Dullsville – nothing ever really happens. And then suddenly everything is changed. Atticus Finch defends Tom, a black man accused of raping a white woman. He stands tall with his integrity, and righteousness, and fairness. No wonder he is one of the best-loved Dads in all of literature! I learned a lot more about the characterization in this novel at Shmoop. You should try it too!