Top Ten Required Reading I Actually Enjoyed.

Hello nerdlings! Today is Tuesday so I am here with another Top Ten Tuesday. Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s topic was anything school related.  I was one of those weird aliens in school who a) actually read what the teacher assigned and b) enjoyed most of it. Now my memory is pretty sketchy so it was hard to remember ten I loved. But I did my best. Here are ten books I actually enjoyed reading and learning about whilst in school. In no particular order.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Read this in 8th grade and it is now my all time favorite book.

2. Canturybury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer – Now this one might have to do with two things. 1) It’s hilarious but more than slightly vulgar. 2) Our class and the other honors class was split into groups and given a tale to learn and then present to the class. These presentations were hilarious. My own group made a video talk show that my friends and I spent a lot of time laughing over and reenacting.

3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – Just loved how the concept of love (not just romantic love) was discussed in this book.

4. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas – I read this the summer between 8th and 9th grade for my new high school. Surprisingly I loved it and couldn’t put it down.

5. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – All of 8th grade there was a possibility of my moving. So that summer I read the required reading for my current area’s high school and my new area’s high school. This was for the former of the two. I loved it and still talk about it to this day. Why is more fantasy and science fiction not taught in school. Kids would be so much happier.

 

6. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje – I read this in college for a world lit class and loved it. I gave my copy to my mom because she loved the book so much and didn’t have a copy. But I wouldn’t mind reading it again.

7. The Hound of the Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle – We read this story in 8th grade. My first taste of Sherlock Holmes that started a love of other Sherlock related media. I still need to read the rest of Doyle’s Sherlock works but one day I will.

8. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters – This is a collection of poems I read in 9th grade that is a series of fictional epitaphs. An epitaph is the writing on one’s tombstone. I don’t know what I found them so interesting except that it’s cool to see what people would say about you if you died. Well and also terrifying. But I remember loving this collection and still have my copy on my shelves.

9. Mythology by Edith Hamilton – This is another one that has more to do with presentations. While the stories are intriguing I preferred my teacher’s method of teaching this. In 10th grade our class was split into groups and given the task of presenting one of the stories to our peers. Ours was The House of Atreus. Which we did by dressing up my old barbies and then acting it out. Every time someone died (which was a lot) we would throw the barbie over our head so they hit the blackboard and fell onto the floor. It was quite the show and pretty funny.

10. The Crucible by Arthur Miller – We read this out loud in 9th grade. This is back when I was young and naive and basically lived the good two shoes life. I was reading for Elizabeth when she was supposed to say, “You bitch!” Well I’d never used so horrid language (LOL) so I whispered it. My teacher made me stop and re read it. So I quietly said the line. He finally goes, “Give it some UMPH De Guire.” To which I proudly exclaimed, “YOU BITCH!” And my best friend who was not stranger from cursing died laughing.

 

Well I hope you enjoyed this list. If you’re still in school don’t feel totally discouraged by required reading. You could find all time favorite book. Let me know in the comments what a book you loved in school was and if you’ve read any of these. I hope you guys are having a lovely day! TTFN.