I recently saw a thread asking people what novels they hated and quite a few of them mentioned that the books they hated were the ones they were forced to read in school. I found this strange because I didn't hate any of the books I had to read. I even sort of liked Shakespeare (this poor guy seems to have a lot of haters XD) and didn't mind reading Romeo and Juliet or Merchant of Venice. In fact, after having to read those two, I've gotten interested in reading some of his other works as well. Sadly, I haven't gotten around to it :(

And now that I think about it, my favourite book, Spud by John van de Ruit, was a book we had to read for school and it's now my all time favourite novel. As soon as the other two books came out, I quickly went out and bought them.

So, what about all of you? What about your experiances with compulsery reading at school?

I had a very hard time liking most of the books I had to read in school. I'm a very advanced reader, and I always felt like they were beneath my level of comprehension. For me, it's hard to enjoy a story if it doesn't challenge my reading abilities a little. I've got a very opinionated view on things that I like to read. I absolutely can't stand when I know how the rest of the book is going to go just from reading the first few chapters, and that happened often in school.

There were occasions though where I got to pick which book I would read, and that was mostly enjoyable for me. I found some of my favorite titles and authors because of being allowed to choose.

I did also enjoy reading Shakespeare. I had to read Macbeth for something and I read Hamlet as well. It was all very exciting for me. I'm a huge Shakespeare fan. It's sad to admit, but I agree with you; he does seem to have a lot of haters. I think it's because the way he writes can be very misunderstood.

I can't remember any books that I had to read and disliked. -ponders-

One book we had to read is my favorite book, granted it was in elementary. :lol: The Phantom Tollbooth

We read quite a few things of Poe and Shakespeare and as long as they were broken down and explained (mostly Shakespeare) I didn't mind reading them. ["Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?"] :lol:
The main one I remember reading of Shakespeare's was "Romeo and Juliet" though I feel like there are others.

I really enjoyed reading the Odyssey (with explanations) because of their adventures and the odd creatures.

I had to read To Kill a Mockingbird twice because I switched schools, but I liked it so it wasn't bad for me.

I read about halfway through The Scarlet Letter because it was for extra credit. But since I had to read it on my own and it wasn't really my preferred type of reading, I didn't enjoy it that much. I'm glad I read what I did though.

Let's see... the book's I've read in school...

Brave New World
1984
Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Angela's Ashes
Catcher in the Rye
Rule of the Bone
12 Angry Men (well it wasn't really a full "book")
Truancy
Oedipus the King
Macbeth
Steppenwolf
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Anna Karenina
The Odyssey
Dante's Inferno
Candide
Pride and Prejudice
The Importance of Being Ernest
Dubliners
The Painted Bird
The Wasteland
A Farewell to Arms
As I Lay Dying
A Feast of Love
Angels in America
Their Eyes Were Watching God
...

I think there was more but I can't remember at the moment. ^^

I actually liked reading my books in school, although a few kind of droned on for my tiny child brain to stand. (Journey to the Center of the Earth's beginning? Duuuuuuullllllllll for me.) I also wanted to be challenged in my reading. Oh, and during grade school I had this Accelerated Reading program, where I got to pretty much read whatever I wanted.

I remember one time, our english teacher when I was a Sophomore gave us the choice for Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar to read it in modern day English, or "old" English. I think I was the only one who voted old. We ended up with a sheet divided in half with each version on one side. Best lessons ever.

Let's see here.... there was also from what I remember:

Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
Some of The Odyssey
The Outsiders
Romeo and Juliet


Obviously, I read quite a bit outside of school (mostly Poe's poems, Shakespeare, or Harry Potter at the time)... our reading programs weren't as great outside of what I've mentioned.

Ooh! I read Of Mice and Men (even watched a two-man act of the first scene in it) a while ago too! And I read The Outsiders on my own will (silly me, it made me cry).

That's kind of interesting because I read a lot of Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe when I was in high school and also a lot of national geographic.

Most of the books I had to read included:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies (very interesting)
Childhood's End (also very interesting, never finished it though)
Life of Pi (my favorite book that I was forced to read)

I was just naming off all these books to my boyfriend last night but I can't remember anymore! Maybe I just chose to forget the worst books, but most of the books I had to read in high school were actually very tolerable. I usually had good English teachers thankfully :)

My school's English classes are pretty much a joke; we do practically nothing in them and most people use them to get on Facebook on the school computers.

Last year the only things I remember reading that are really worth mentioning were To Kill A Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet. We also read Speak... I honestly don't know why, though; I thought the writing was terrible.

This year we read some of the Greek myths, Night by Elie Wiesel, and The Inferno. I was actually excited about finally getting to read Dante, until I realized that we were only going to read about three chapters of it... and they weren't even consecutive chapters.

What made it worse was that this is about ALL we did in my English classes, and the first one was a year-long class. I did enjoy most of the books we were assigned, but I feel like we don't really get a proper education at my school; we've read practically none of the books other people have listed so far. And when we do read any of the classics or anything like that, they only give us small pieces of them.

@Princess: By giving you pieces of them, do you read part of stories out of a textbook? Or do they only assign part of the book? That's pretty weird though. In college I had the read The Bluest Eye, which was a book about racism. Quite creepy to me, but it was still interesting. Maybe you should read some of the ones we listed, I thought the books we are supposed to read in high school weren't supposed to be that bad of books.

We get them out of the textbooks, or occasionally the teachers print out portions of them and give them to us. I've never understood why we can't just read the actual books, because we do so little in the classes in the first place that we easily have time to get them read in their entirety. I don't go to a very good school, though; our educational system is really pretty lacking here, apparently.

I have read several of the books normally assigned for high school classes on my own time, though. I keep meaning to read more of them but never get around to it; that's why I think it would be nice if we were actually assigned them like everyone else is. >.>

To Kill a Mockingbird was difficult for me to interpret but I enjoyed reading it. Though in the end I understood everything. xD Speak was nice but I had to read it three times in school and I swear I did not care, I was so tired that I read it on my own first time, then second time in High school and again in some other fricken grade. Ugh~ I personally enjoy reading classical such as Romeo and Juliet, Odyssey, Beowulf, and The Book of Mordred Now I am not so certain about this one. I know it was about Mordred and his own story line and quite frankly I loved this book, it's the best that I read in my class for 10th grade. I love every bit of it because it was in Mordred perspective. -sigh- I sort of want to re-read it, not as an assignment but for enjoyment pleasure. ><

I am generally okay with the books we read. They usually aren't what I would pick if I was at the library, but in the end I rarely actually hate a book. Some books I remember reading in the past couple years:
To Kill A Mockingbird (I guess I liked it in the end, but the process was a pain in the butt. Stupid, annoying, pointless study guides)
Parts of The Odyssey
Night by Elie Wiesel ( liked that one. Though most of my classmates didn't)
Romeo and Juliet (of course, who doesn't read that in high school?)
Until They Bring The Streetcars Back
Finding Laura Buggs
The Crucible (I loved it. Especially the intense (as intense as a generally disinterested class can get) discussion afterwards)
The Secret Life of Bees (didn't particularly like it, but didn't hate it)

That's all that I can remember for now. This year we also read a ton of poems. But since I don't particularly care for peoms much, I don't remember who the authors were.

Back when i was in school we read a lot of books. Most of the time i would be really against it tinking i would hate it, like the outsiders for example, but a few chapters in i would start getting in trouble for reading a head. Our junior high and high school library was the same one. By the time i was a freshman they assigned me to the libaray for our manditory study peroid. the reason being that i knew mre of the books studens came to look for than the librarian herself. In that time i spent in the library i dveloped a secrete love of Willam Blake.

I've had mixed experiences with assigned reading. I don't reading like Shakespeare at all. I can respect that his plot and characters are interesting, but his writing style...it's just too oldschool for me. If I have to pause after every sentence just to try and decipher what they're talking about, it's not a book for me. Romeo and Juliette would probably be my least favorite out of all of his works. Stupid kids. Macbeth I could -kind of- get into, mostly because the teacher explained what was going on.

Some other books I really disliked were All Quiet on the Western Front, Frankenstein (again, nice plot, but the writing got to me- who wants to read four pages in a row about how beautiful the trees are?), Johnny Tremain, and The Scarlet Letter.

Not all of them were terrible though. A Wrinkle in Time held my interest long enough to make me read the sequels. I also loved The Outsiders. Most of my class did, though. Night was good too, though a little disturbing.

To Kill a Mocking Bird, I completely loved. <3

Oh wow, to kill a mockingbird is a must read in H.S.

Hmm.

To kill a mockingbird.
Catcher in the Rye.
Lord of the Flies
Romeo and Juliet
Night
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Beowulf

Most of those were freshman year to sophomore.
Junior year, I wasn't required to read anything major
because of the exit level tests. :C

Originally Posted by Ottersaurus

I had a very hard time liking most of the books I had to read in school. I'm a very advanced reader, and I always felt like they were beneath my level of comprehension. For me, it's hard to enjoy a story if it doesn't challenge my reading abilities a little. I've got a very opinionated view on things that I like to read. I absolutely can't stand when I know how the rest of the book is going to go just from reading the first few chapters, and that happened often in school.

There were occasions though where I got to pick which book I would read, and that was mostly enjoyable for me. I found some of my favorite titles and authors because of being allowed to choose.

I did also enjoy reading Shakespeare. I had to read Macbeth for something and I read Hamlet as well. It was all very exciting for me. I'm a huge Shakespeare fan. It's sad to admit, but I agree with you; he does seem to have a lot of haters. I think it's because the way he writes can be very misunderstood.

this is true! i'm usually bored by the books my school makes us read. the ones for this year seem interesting though (nectar in a sieve, the good earth, to kill a mockingbird, etc)

Oh goodness there are some many ... but off the top of my head...

To Kill A Mockingbird
Romeo and Juliet
MacBeth
Hamlet
Of Mice and Men
Old Man of the Sea
The Scarlett Letter
Catcher in the Rye
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
1984
The Outsiders

and the list could go on...

We usually read out the textbook.But we did read:
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Giver
The Outsiders
Romeo and Juliet

and more.