# Poll: What books were you required to read during High-school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611 "2003-07-01T17:23:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Second\_Star\_to\_the\_Right](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Second\_Star\_to\_the\_Right](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Star_to_the_Right)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/21 "2003-07-01T19:36:40Z")
Let’s see… - A Tale of Two Cities Things Fall Apart Their Eyes Were Watching God Heart of Darkness A Hero of our Time Romeo and Juliet Othello Macbeth Taming of the Shrew The Great Gatsby The Sun also Rises The Scarlet Letter Frankenstein Dracula Jane Eyre Lord of the Flies The Jungle The Crucible \* Probably more I’m forgetting, but that’s off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![ShadiRoxan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@ShadiRoxan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadiRoxan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/22 "2003-07-01T19:52:38Z")
What I can remember Freshman year: The Old Man and the Sea Romeo and Juliet Much Ado About Nothing Sophomore year: A Tale of Two Cities Great Expectations Julius Cesaer A Separate Peace To Kill a Mockingbird The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged version- read the full version a few years later on my own. I love that book.) Junior year: The Scarlet Letter (I hate this book. We spent an entire semester on it. My teacher was obsessed with Nathaniel Hawthorn. She even had a framed picture of him on her desk.) A Raisin in the Sun The Great Gatsby The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I skipped out on senior year English class. Instead I started freshman English in college rather than taking an AP class. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/23 "2003-07-01T19:58:33Z")
**On the Beach** by Nevil Shute **A Tale of Two Cities** by Charles Dickens **Animal Farm** by George Orwell **The Grapes of Wrath** by John Steinbeck **The Outsiders** by S. E. Hinton **The Illustrated Man** by Ray Bradbury **The Great Gatsby** by F. Fitzgerald ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/24 "2003-07-01T20:01:34Z")
I love the commonality here. I can add The Awakening and A Separate Peace (Junior year) and The Bluest Eye (Senior year, and may I add "yuck). ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/25 "2003-07-01T20:06:29Z")
What I can remember: _Brave New World Song of Solomon_ As I Lay Dying Rashomon The Once and Future King Henry the IV, part 1 Romeo and Juliet A Raisin in the Sun Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man\* The Great Gatsby Of Mice and Men To Kill a Mockingbird Canterbury Tales \*Parts of \*Huckleberry Finn _A little of_Moby Dick - Stars by the ones I wouldn’t recommend reading alone. The Advanced Placement English Literature reading list will probably give you a good starting point. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/26 "2003-07-01T20:48:00Z")
Let’s see what I can remember: _Hiroshima Catcher in the Rye Great Gatsby The Crucible Old Man and the Sea To Kill a Mockingbird Hamlet Macbeth The Scarlet Letter Red Badge of Courage Death of a Salesman_ I know there were more, but these are the ones I remember. I know that I read _Alice in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking Glass_ for my 10th grade paper, several Kurt Vonnegut novels (including _Slaughterhouse Five_ and _Breakfast of Champions_)for my 11th grade paper, and several Bertolt Brecht plays for my 12th grade paper. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/27 "2003-07-01T21:00:08Z")
Hm. I always thought our Lit teacher was a manic depressive because of the crap she gave us to read. Such as: _The Bell Jar_ _Go Ask Alice_ _On The Beach_ _Lord of the Flies_ (to this day, I get the creeps just looking at the cover) _1984 & Brave New World_ at the same time. Then compare & discuss. :rolleyes: _The Red Badge of Courage_ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/28 "2003-07-01T21:20:29Z")
Wuthering Heights. OMFG, Wuthering F\*\*king Heights. I would cheerfully open a vein rather than ever have to read that godawful thing again. With so many fascinating books to read, why would someone inflict this depressing dreck on a bunch of hormonal teenagers? Okay, faves: Stranger In A Strange Land, Grapes of Wrath ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/29 "2003-07-01T21:30:50Z")
High School: Treasure Island Kidnapped Silas Marner Red Badge of Courage Tale of Two Cities Moby Dick Animal Farm Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/30 "2003-07-01T21:44:56Z")
Freshman year: The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Flies, by William Golding To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee The Odyssey, by Homer Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare Beowulf Sophomore: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Billy Budd (AAAAAAAAAARGH!) by Herman Melville You Can’t Take It With You, by Kaufman & Hart Macbeth, by Shakespeare Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut Junior: Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh The Dead, by James Joyce A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by Shakespeare Othello, by Shakespeare Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde Senior: Well, senior year, we had a host of electives… but within my electives, I remember reading: Ulysses, by James Joyce Diary of a Country Priest, by Georges Bernanos Polonaise, by Piers Paul Read Viper’s Tangle, by Francois Mauriac The Cherry Orchard, by Chekhov - Mind you, I’m leaving out a lot of poetry and a lot of short stories we had to read. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/31 "2003-07-01T22:18:56Z")
I went to a Christian school which strongly dissaproved of “secular” literature, so we had to read such literary gems as \* In His Steps \* and \* Martyr of the Catacombs. There were many others, the titles of which I have successfully blocked from my memory-- stories of Christians standing up to persecution and whatnot. All were terrible. Half of the reading list was books by one woman who seemed to have a bitter anti-Catholic bias. In eleventh grade, they considered us indocrinated enough to risk reading one “secular” novel: \* Heidi. \* Even this was a bit too risque to pass without a disclaimer lable pasted in the front cover which said the ideas expressed therein were not necessarily those of the administration. I kid you not. ---
**Author:** ![chestnutmare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@chestnutmare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chestnutmare)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/32 "2003-07-01T23:25:22Z")
In no particular order: \*Rebecca Romeo & Juliet Hamlet (I couldn’t have hated this more) 12th Night Midsummer Night’s Dream Grapes of Wrath Dubliners Wuthering Heights (12 girls discussing Heathcliff is an invitation for suicide) Return of the Native (Class discussion started with "Eustacia Vye is a BITCH) Pride & Prejudice ( I had already read it several times…) Scarlet Letter Cat’s Cradle Importance of Being Earnest Things Fall Apart Kaffir Boy Great Gatsby The Awakening A Brave New World I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings[/i[ There were more that have escaped my memory. In addition to all of this reading, we had to memorize one poem a month as freshman and sophomores and present them to the class… Invictus will remain with me until the day I die ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/33 "2003-07-01T23:45:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Invictus will remain with me until the day I die I take it you mean this in a negative way? (Just curious.) ---
**Author:** ![chestnutmare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@chestnutmare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chestnutmare)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/34 "2003-07-02T00:01:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\*I take it you mean this in a negative way? (Just curious.) \*\* Actually not. As it is every year at my school, Invictus was the very first poem that we were assigned to memorize and we were all paranoid that we wouldn’t be able to do it. So we started early and practiced often to make sure we had it. On the day it was due, the freshman class would be walking the halls muttering “Out of the night that covers me” At which point, the rest of the school would join in and finish the poem. Imagine 150 girls wandering the halls of school chanting “under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloodied but unbowed” Side note: When I got to college and was discussing this with a friend of mine who then chimed in and recited the poem with me. It turns out that the Omega Psi Phi fraternity (at least at my school) required their pledges to memorize it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/35 "2003-07-02T00:17:20Z")
Here’s an incomplete list off the top of my head: -To Kill a Mockingbird -Antigone -Romeo and Juliet -A Tale of Two Cities -The Awakening (Wow, I hated that book. I actually cheered out loud when she drowned herself. Finally, something happened in that book.) -The Scarlet Letter -Billy Budd (Ick.) -The Heart of Darkness -Crime and Punishment (In retrospect, a good book, but it was a summer read and I got confused easily.) -Potrait of an Artist as a Young Man (It was June of senior year. I read the first part and blew the rest off. I have no regrets.) -As I Lay Dying -Antigone (Anwee’s[sic] version) -The Ballad of the Sad Cafe -The Sun Also Rises -Hamlet -The Sign and the Seal (I had a very cool, very liberal world cultures teacher senior year.) ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/36 "2003-07-02T00:45:23Z")
Mem’ries…INPO: _Of Mice and Men Brave New World Catcher in the Rye Hamlet Macbeth Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar The Old Man and the Sea A Separate Peace Oedipus Antigone Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Huckleberry Finn Tale of Two Cities The Metamorphosis A Christmas Carol Pride and Prejudice The Crucible Death of a Salesman The Scarlet Letter To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Gatsby All My Sons The Glass Menagerie_ Jesus I hope that was it! That list turned out to be longer than I thought it would, but I kept scrolling back and seeing other titles I’d forgotten about. ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/37 "2003-07-02T01:08:41Z")
From what I can remember: Freshman year: _Romeo & Juliet_ certainly some other works, but they obviously didn’t stick with me at all Sophomore year: _Cold Mountain_ by Charles Frazier _Death of a Salesman_ _The Crucible_ a great deal of Nathaniel Hawthorne short stories Junior year: _Hamlet_ _Macbeth_ _Lord of the Flies_ _Pride and Prejudice_ _Beowulf_ excerpts from _The Canterbury Tales_ the book of Genesis from the Bible excerpts from _Paradise Lost_ _Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass_ (not an assignment, exactly, but we had to do a term paper that year and I picked that book off the list) Senior year: (this teacher was more into modern works than any of the rest, so we read a big variety to work everything in that we needed for the AP test, especially those of us who were in English and then her survey of western lit class…I think I did more reading for those two classes than my whole time in high school prior) _Mama Day_ by Gloria Naylor _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ by Ken Kesey _The Things They Carried_ by Tim O’Brien _A Doll’s House_ by Henrik Ibsen _Oedipus Rex_ _Othello_ (after we read/watched this, she showed us Branagh’s version of _Much Ado About Nothing_ since we never read anything by Shakespeare but his tragedies) _Henry V_ (actually, we read excerpts and watched Branagh’s version thanks to her whole “plays are meant to be watched” mentality) _Billy Budd_ (gahhh…I hate Melville’s style. My class had a ritual “bonfire” with our copies once we finished reading) _Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_ (I liked this book so much, I decided to try _Ulysses_ on my own. Definitely not the best idea I ever had.) selections from _Dubliners_ _The Cherry Orchard_ some Tolstoy & Chekhov “short stories” that would qualify as novels if written by anyone else _A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ by Alexander Solzhenitsyn _The Importance of Being Earnest_ _Waiting for Godot_ Looking at this list, I wonder if there’s not some weird gap in my knowledge of American literature. I’ve not read all that much, considering. 10th grade was the American lit class, but my teacher was rather incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/38 "2003-07-02T02:25:34Z")
I can’t remember all of them, but here’s a list of what I can think of offhand: Animal Farm Great Expectations Silas Marner The Glass Menagerie The Telltale Heart Wuthering Heights Henry IV Part I Brideshead Revisited Grendel Catcher in the Rye My Name is Asher Lev MacBeth Romeo & Juliet Hamlet To Kill A Mockingbird The Great Gatsby The Portrait of Dorian Grey A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/39 "2003-07-02T02:34:26Z")
King Lear Macbeth Animal Farm Romeo and Juliet To Kill A Mockingbird The Great Gatsby and some some autobiography about One Woman’s Struggle Against the Kamh Rouge (forgotten the name) Short Stories: - Those from Rod Dahl’s ‘Kiss Kiss’ completation - ‘The Whale Rider’ and other Whiti Ihimaera short stories in my years junior. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611/40 "2003-07-02T02:36:22Z")
“my years junior” = My junior years :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-books-were-you-required-to-read-during-high-school/185611.md?page=3)