William Golding is the author of "The Lord of the Flies".

Ah yes, thanks buddy, you're a peach.

Most of the books I had to read in school I hated but these ones I loved:

Lord of the Flies
The Giver
To Kill a Mockingbird
Pride and Prejudice

A Separate Peace by John Knowles, which to this day is one of the best books I can ever remember reading and this is from a die hard SF reader. I bought my own copy of it after I had to give the school theirs back. Everything else I Cliff's Noted. So sue me. At least I gradiated...er, graduated.

My kids and I were discussing this topic just yesterday. They were both agreed that the books read in school are almost universally horrible. These are kids who read for pleasure all the time, and yet between the two of them, could only come up with "To Kill a Mockingbird" as an example of a book read for school that they didn't just hate.
I think this has to do with the propensity of English teachers to choose books that have the elements that they want to teach (theme, symbolism, conflict...)fairly front and centre - easy to identify and talk about. The problem is, books that have these qualities are about as fun to read as being slapped in the face with a dead trout. Most of us prefer our symbolism a little more gracefully packaged.
It may also have something to do with the school experience taking all the pleasure out of the book. My son is 15, I just realized last week that he had never read "Lord of the Flies", so gave him a copy. It's one of those books that everybody should have read, but my personal opinon (I read it in school) is that it is deadly dreary -this is NOT a favorite book of mine. He just devoured it, loved it, "Why don't we read good stuff like this in school?" I wonder if he would have enjoyed it as much if he had had to read it in class?

'Cat's Eye' - Margaret Atwood. To do coursework about the book on the topic of friendship in Atwood's wrting, I also read 'The Robber Bride' and 'The Handmaid's Tale'. She's now one of my favourite authors. I also would never have read 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro if it hadn't been assigned, but I love it now.

I had a class in college where we covered James Joyce. I had read 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' and enjoyed it but absolutely dreaded 'Ulysses' (the sheer size!). I can't say that I've read it again, but I did enjoy it, and it influenced my writing for quite some time (luckily, the stream of consciousness is almost gone from my writing or so I like to think can you tell...).

For me, some of these turned out to be among the very best books, plays or stories I'd ever read...

-To Kill A Mockingbird
-The Pearl
-Sitting In the Catbird Seat
-Animal Farm
-Tortilla Flat
-Tale Of Two Cities
-David Copperfield
-A Mid Summer Night's Dream
-The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man- In- the Moon- Marigolds
-The American Political Tradition
-Call Of the Wild
[ which made me a hard core Jack London fan at 15!]

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

I've read everything by him and find it disheartening that not many bookish people I've met have read him.


This is really the only one I can remember being 'forced' to read. I've been 'forced' to reread books and even if I liked them the first time? The second read for classes just made me wish I'd never ever read them.

In highschool we had to read several books on the WWII and related events. We read the Diary of Anne Frank and on my own I read the second book of hers about her life after her life in the concentration camps. It is a very moving story.

I am probably still an ametuer reader compared to most of you; however, from what I have read I'd have to say I am glad I was forced to read:
-The Giver
-The Pearl
-The Diary of Anne Frank

"We read the Diary of Anne Frank and on my own I read the second book of hers about her life after her life in the concentration camps. It is a very moving story."

Charlee, Anne Frank died of typhus in March, 1945, in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, before the war ended. She didn't have "a life after her life in the concentrations camps".

She didn't have a second book either. Her diary spanned her life from June 1942 to August 1944. Her father was the only family member who survived the war. He was given her diary after the war ended and he eventually had it published.

It sounds like the book you read was a complete work of fiction by someone else.

But you are right - Anne's diary is a very moving book. I studied it at school too, and it has always fascinated me. When we were in Holland, I made a point of going to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. It is a "must see" if you ever go to Amsterdam.