...and did you like it? Start as far back as you like. I'm starting with high school (grade 9 for me) because before that we didn't have any required reading beyond "choose a book and write a report on it."

Grade 9:
To Kill a Mockingbird. Loved it!

Grade 10:
The Chrysalids. Loved it again. Of course, this was already a personal favourite of mine before we were told to read it.
Of Mice and Men. Some good parts, but pretty stupid overall. I hate unhappy endings.
Animal Farm. In my mind, this story proves that writing for a point doesn't necessarily make a good novel. It was boring.

Grade 11:
Romeo and Juliet. Amazing! I'd read it before but analysing it was so much fun!
Lord of the Flies. This book just sucked. There must have been a more readable way to get his point across.
The Razor's Edge. So boring that I didn't even bother to finish it.

Grade 12:
Macbeth. My least favourite of the Shakespeare works I've read so far, excluding The Taming of the Shrew. But then, the teacher I had for English this year didn't like Shakespeare very much and wasn't very good at teaching it.
Brave New World. I found parts of it worth reading and parts of it not. I didn't finish it that year, although unlike The Razor's Edge, I bought the book later and finished it.

OAC:
Hamlet. Possibly the best book in the entire world to study. Not at all boring and full of hidden meanings.
The Power of One. Also incredibly amazing. I've taken this out of the library several times to re-read it, and I'll buy it if I see it again in a used book store (I've seen it in one once, but my friend bought it before I could).
Death of a Salesman. Fun to analyse. Boring as hell to read.

I didn't take any English/literature courses last year, but next semester I've signed up for a course called "Popular Literature". The outline doesn't speicfy books, only that we'll be covering different genres as units. I'm hoping this means we'll be reading the works of Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, &c., but I wouldn't mind if it covers more modern literature instead. I'm dreading perhaps having to study Harry Potter, though, if that's the case!

I most definately read in school. I hated it!
In the begining it was fine, mostly short stories- a report bi-weekly. Then as we got older and older, it got worse an worse. In sixth grade it was the most difficult.
The school assigned required reading to everyone, as did our teacher, and then there was Pizza Hut (they gave us free pizzas for every non-required book we read).
The books the school assigned were easy. We were just supposed to read them, but my reading teacher wanted an in depth essay about them. In addition, my teacher made us pick two books, each with atleast 200- pages, to do reports on- they were due every two weeks. If you failed a report, you had to redo that one and do an extra report on a new book. The Pizza Hut reading was easy too, but our teacher wouldn't give us the sticker, which was your proof that you read the book, until you handed him a report. And then we sometimes had to read books for other subjects. It would had been easy to handle if I knew how to manage time, or had time to manage- but I didn't. That year ruined the enjoyment of reading for a long time.
I don't remember all the required readings I did in high school. I moved to a new school just before high school, and they didn't stress reading so much. Most of the books they required us to read, I had already read between fourth and sixth grade. Because we did very few reports in high school we read many books (or were supposed to read many), but there are very few books that I remember. I remember...

1984 (10th grade)- I liked it, but was very disappointed with the end.
Ethan From (11th grade)- It bored the daylights out of me, but I guess it is alright. Full of irony.
Night (10th grade)- That book really touched me- very sad.
All Quiet on the Western Front (10th grade)- I liked it, but the movie ruined it for me.
Raisin in the Sun (11th grade)- I saw a piece of myself in character. That book hot close to home. It remains one of my favorite plays.
Of Mice and Men (9th grade)- I didn't enjoy it too much, not until the second time I read it.
The Day the Pigs Died (or something close to that title) (9th grade)- Incredably dull.
Beowulf (12th grade)- I don't get it, still don't.
Death of a Salesman (10th grade)- It was fine. I enjoyed it while I read it, but it doesn't give the reader much to ponder about.
The Awakening (12th grade)- I love that book.

I know I read more, but I honestly can't remember.

I read Famouse five, and Mind camp in High school. Two most interesting pieces of literature.

4th grade The first book I recall reading was one called Dollar Horse
A couple of Hardy Boys books, as well as The 3 investigators (Kids series by Alfred Hitchcock)
5th grade, the rest of the Hardy boys, a few of the Encyclopedia brown books.
6th grade The Hobbit, (loved it must have reread it 5 times that year, several more in the time since) A young readers version of the Legends of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. Young readers version of the Iliad and Odyssey.
7th grade, The Lord of the Rings, All of the Conan books by Robert E Howard
8th grade, Treasure Island, several works of H.G. Wells, Other characters by Howard
Bran Mac Morn, Cormic MacArt. The Sackets by Louis Lamoure
9th grade, Tried the Silmarillion could not finish, Great Expectations, David Copperfield
Dragon Riders of Pern. Chronicles of Amber by Zelany. Several works by Ben Bova.
10th grade, Harry Harrison’s the Stainless Steel Rat, Romeo and Juliet (read aloud in classroom) Ivanhoe, 3 Musketeers, Mack Bolan the Enforcer, The Destroyer by Saphir and Murry. read a great deal of crap by Stephen R Donaldson, Thomas Covenant,
11th grade, finally got a car, started dating; reading went down hill from there. Read brave new world, 1984 for school.
12th grade future ex-wife got me hooked on The Deriny series by Katharine Kurtz,

Interspersed with all that’s listed were tons of Star Trek books and Marvel and DC comics.

lots of other stuff that escapes memory

like I remember!

Lord Andry, for that Sassy remark, you go stand in the corner and read 25 pages of the Canterbury Tales-in their Original English! I actually went to a school that was really into Classical Literature. If it was not a Struggle to understand, it was seen as Unbeneficial in developing our brains. In 9th grade we waded Great Expectations, in 10th we read The Scarlet Letter, and the airy Mr. Poe. He was really hung-up about being Buried Too Soon, wasn't he? In 11th grade we read Chaucer-in the Original Soote and Roote, and of course the light hearteded House Of Seven Gables. I actually loved the Bard, though there were times I thought memorizing half his works, or so it seemed, a little too much. In 12th grade, we read Moby Dick, but I liked that, too. And of course our Required Reading list was Something Else. One thing, though, I find after all that, I can breeze right through the modern authors like a whiz. Oh, Lord Andry, make detailed notes-in Old English, too, while you are at it. That will straightened you out.

I read Canterbury Tales in 12th grade. That's no punishment, that's a reward. The stories were great. We had to read it after we read Beowulf so there was not one complaint from the class about the language it was written in.

do I actually have to do that?

I read all kinds of stuff.
You can see the Shakespeare thread for my school days with the Ol' Bard.

Brave New World, Siddartha, poetry, Le Petit Prince, Camus (existentialism), Kafka ('Metamorphosis'), tons of stuff. I can't even remember half of it.

I did Beowulf, Antigones, etc.

Cantebury Tales, eh?

Chaucer? Geoffrey Chaucer? perhaps you've heard of me?
I'm trudging. All things lie within the artist's scope...except maybe you.

See what a little prodding did for your memory, Lord Andry? Why, you are very well-read, indeed Please accept this Virtual Gold Star, and please let me convey to you and your house a Very Happy Holidays and lots of good books in your New Year!

Farenheit 451, Vonnegut,
jeez...all this memory proding is bringing everything back.
I remember reading lots of short stories...just can't remember them...ah, Steinbeck, the Pearl and the Grapes of Wrath. Holden Caulfield, that's right Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. many Greek plays...Aristophanes I think? The entire Greek myth stuff...The Illiad and The Odyssey.
or Oddeseus? can't remember.

Grade 9:

Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies
The Miracle Worker
Rappucini's Daughter
The Scarlet Ibis
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Odessey
The lost boys
Catcher in the Rye

Grade 10:

Julius Caesar
Hamlet
The Great Gatsby
The Red Badge of Courage
The Blue Hotel
A Raisin in the Sun
Antigone
12 Angry Men
The Vichy

Grade 11:

Everything on the India Ban List including:
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Jonathon Livingston Seagull
Of Mice and Men
Cannery Row
The Scarlet Letter
The Grapes of Wrath
Flowers for Algernon
The Lottery
The Devil and Daniel Webster
Look Homeward Angel
The Crucible
A Thurber Carnival
Our Town
J.B.

Grade 12: was mostly reserach papers and things written by students.
We also read The Awakening in 12th Grade

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: malizma ]

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: malizma ]

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: malizma ]

I'd simply like to point out that I find it very disturbing that you folks can remember so vividly exactly what and when you read during your high school years...

I think I can remember some of the what, but certainly not the when. I also can't remember which books were class assignments and which ones were personal choices. Thus...I will not make an attempt here!

Among the many:
Lord of the Flies
To Kill a Mockingbird
Os Lusiadas
Hamlet
And just about anything else I could get my hands on.

I'm the same as Jazz, I'm trying to forget most of my schooldays!! But there were two books I remember, one was Tale of Two Cities and I couldn't read it. Don't get me wrong... I was a big reader... but this book just couldn't interest me. I got the lowest marks of my entire schooling because of that book.... it may have had something to do with the essay about "Why did Dickens write this book" the starting line was "Dickens wrote this to bore the hell out of school students hundreds of years later".

The other one I remember was called (I think) "The Problem and the Cure". A autobiography about a man who shot a well known politician and ended up in a mental institution. There was a big uproar about it because it mentioned heaps of sex and even *gasp* masturbation. I'm here to tell you, cause an uproar and try to ban it and it's a way to guarantee that kids will read a book.

Jill! You woke me up there!
I couldn't really get the list written up as at school in my sixties era California schooldaze, we didn't have to do much of anything! But fortunately I am one of those voracious readers who will read just about anything from the toothpaste tube to Flemish comics in the Greek hotel lobby where I had nothing else to read!

I do recall:
Some good Lewis Carroll in fifth grade, "Twas mimsy and the borogroves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.."
The best poetry I can still remember after over thirty years!
Frankly I can't recall much reading in school as they made us use these really boring manuals and I'd learned to read at four and it was so boring waiting for the other kids in the round robin method to finish, that I would read miles ahead...then find myself totally out of it when my turn came!
Charlotte's Web? Stuart Little? No, I read those on my own. I'd check them out from the library, and my mother would get me another ten books to keep me a week.

I am drawing a blank.
I do recall the Lord of the Flies, that was good. We had this wonderful junior hi teacher who had long hair and hippie clothes. We loved her. She wore enough fish tail eye makeup to impress all of us! I can recall Piggy as we had a classmate who looked like him.

In high school we read Richard Brautigan's poetry.
I then participated on the magazine staff and wrote plenty of stuff, but all the required things I read on my own, Grapes of Wrath etc.
I took a science fiction class and we did Brave New World and 1984 in depth. Great class. We wrote sf ourselves too.

Strange huh?

By the way, the best thing to do with the Tale of Two Cities was to read the comic version like me!

I might add that despite the things we didn't have to read, I probably read on the average of five books a week.

I remember now, it was "The Treatment and the Cure" But I can't find it on the net anywhere so perhaps it did eventually get banned.

The comic version of Tale of Two Cities, dang, wish I'd known about that why back when. Let me tell you, high school WAS the worst of times.

Well, considering I only left high school a year and a half ago, it's not that much of a stretch... yet!

Ahhh OAC.. how I remember it

Grade 9:
-Cue For Treason - All and all a pretty decent book.
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Not my favorite book ever, but it had it's intereesting moments.

Grade 10:
-Of Mice and Men - BOOOOOOOORING!
-A Midsummer Night's Dream - I liked this one, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.

Grade 11:
-The Crucible - Loved it! Every moment of it. I even took my vacation in Salem that year because of it.
-Romeo and Juliet - Was ok.. not my fave.
-The Hobbit - Words just don't describe how much I love this book.

Grade 12:
-Macbeth - I didn't like it.
-Bodily Harm (Margaret Atwood) - This book skipped around the timeline way too much and confused me.
-The Great Gatsby - If humanly possible, more boring than Of Mice and Men.
-The Glass Menagerie - Overall not a bad book.

OAC:
-Hamlet - LOVED IT!
-The Stone Angel - Loved it too! Although I can't remember who wrote it at the moment. It'll come to me.
-The Silmarillion - I love the book, but picking it apart for a report is hard. Too many names and places to remember.
-A Clockwork Orange - Just get yourself a Nadsat to English Dictionary and everything will be fine.

Actually, my class just recently started reading the Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Earlier this year we also read:
The Hobbit(pretty good)
Interstellar Pig(definitely not my favorite!)

Last year we read the Giver and Number the Stars. We'll probably do a couple of more books before the year is over.

The reason I remember so well is that for me it opened me up to great literature !!! When you are from small town Indiana, it is nice to escape to other places. the other thing is that the Indiana Churches of Christ came out with this ridiculous (ala Footloose) list of books that should be banned and actually expected schools to follow suit. My 11th grade English/literature teacher followed it all right, she made us read as many of the books on that list as possible !!! It was one of the few highlights in High School. I can understand trying to forget, but for me it helped me forget the realities of being a Wallflower, Square Peg, Band Geek.

Did nobody in America have to read poetry? In my schooldays we had the pleasure of the Metaphysical poets and War poets to contend with.

The terrible thing is I actually find myself quite liking some of the Metaphysicals now (I hated it then - dissecting poetry line-by-line somehow spoiled the poems for me). Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is now amongst my favourite poems and I also enjoy John Donne, but at the time it was like torture.

I vividly remember David Copperfield in Grade nine, because we had a wonderful teacher that year who would read to us out of it - something she did really well. When Dora died Karen Legassic just lost it completely. In Grade 10 we had The Cruel Sea, which was great and Babbit ('The Cruel B'), which was pretty dull. We had a Shakespeare play every year and other than that, the mind's a blank.

Ninth grade - Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey (there was more, but I can't remember)

Tenth grade - Macbeth, Enemy of the People, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies (also more, but can't remember)

Eleventh grade - Othello, Beowulf, Brave New World, Invisible Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Grapes of Wrath, The Catcher in the Rye, In Country, The Red Badge of Courage, The Scarlet Letter, Animal Farm, My Antonia, The Awakening, Death of a Salesman (also, more I can't remember)

Twelth grade - The Taming of the Shrew, Don Quixote, A Modest Proposal, Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, No Exit, A Tale of Two Cities, 1984, Catch 22, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, a whole lot of poetry, the Bible as literature (also, more)

[ 02-04-2002: Message edited by: pepperdrinks ]

[ 02-04-2002: Message edited by: pepperdrinks ]

When I was at school, a thousand years ago ,we read Shakespeare, Chaucer And Burns(Robert) so you can see which country I'm comimg from. Then one day our English Teacher,who also happened to be my mum's English Teacher, introduced us to the works of John Buchan,who also goes under the name of Lord Tweeedsmuir ,with the novel Prester John. I don't think I will ever forget 'The Man On The Kirkcaple Shore'
It made such an impact. Does anyone out there have any similar recollections?

We read a lot of novels in school but i cant really remember them

right now in grade 11 english were reading 'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.'