The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Junior high English. First assigned reading.
Took my breath away at how good it was.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
Heart of Darkness
High school English.
Loathed. Collectively.
We all hated it.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Bad
Don Quixote
High school English.
Taught by a teacher who loved it more than any other book.
We ended up feeling the same about it.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
High school Western Thought class.
One of the most mysterious books I've ever read.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
Walden
High school English.
During the early 70's.
I wanted to go live in a little house in the country.
Sometimes I still do.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
Animal Farm
High school English.
First time I realized how difficult it is to change things.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
The Odyssey
College English.
What a ride!
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
The Canterbury Tales
High school English.
I had to memorize the Prologue.
How is it that I still know the Prologue some forty years later?!
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
The Glass Bead Game
High school Western Thought class.
Assigned for Western Thought,
but this book is about as Un-Western Thought as it gets.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
College Educational Philosophy class.
The only book assigned in the class.
The class didn't make,
but I'd already read the first chapter and I was hooked.
I often tell people this is my favorite book.
Pretty good for assigned reading
for a class that didn't even make.
EXPECTATION: Bad END RESULT: Good
What are some assigned reading books that you won't forget?
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I loved The Odyssey as a teen and I ended up helping out at a community theatre adaptation of it. It literally had it all in terms of romance, action, adventure, comedy etc. I couldn't get into the Virgil rip-off The Aeneid though.
ReplyDeleteThe Odyssey has it all. I agree. And it had these first.
ReplyDeleteOh, I haven't read any of these books but I have heard of some of them.
ReplyDeletehere's our TTT
Janhvi @ The Readdicts
Heart of Darkness was a horrible school read for me too. Such bad memories and then I had to watch Apocolypse Now as well and hated that too. Blech.
ReplyDeleteI ended up reading Animal Farm on my own, which was a treat because at that point I was specialising in Russian history and could see the analogies and parallels to it.
ReplyDeleteBeen meaning to read The Canterbury Tales; maybe I should've taken a course on it in uni...
My TTT
Oh, the Odyssey was fun, and Animal Farm was chilling.
ReplyDeleteYou read some good books in high school then. There are some on your list that I haven't read but would like to: Tom Sawyer, Don Quixote, Metamorphosis, Walden, and Canterbury Tales... Especially Canterbury Tales.
I was also assigned Heart of Darkness but don't remember much of it, except for where it's similar to Apocalypse Now. xD
Oh man, I truly, truly hated Heart of Darkness! The only book I think I hated more was Thomas Beckett's play, Waiting For Godot. BIGGEST WASTE OF MY LIFE EVER.
ReplyDeleteAssigned, but enjoyed, books--high school, college, other titles too far back to remember anymore :)
ReplyDeleteTo Kill A Mockingbird
Animal Farm
1984
The Handmaids Tale
A Tale of Two Cities
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Doll House by Ibsen (Doll's?)
Great Expectations
etc.
The book I've never forgot is I am a Star, which I guess is good but boy was that hard going as a 10 year old.
ReplyDeleteHahaha Heart of Darkness. We all hated it too. I haven't met anyone that highly recommends it. I'm sure those people exist, but I haven't met one yet.
ReplyDeleteAly @ My Heart Hearts Books
My TTT
Ugh. Metamorphosis was not a school book I enjoyed reading. *shudders* I really liked The Odyssey and Canterbury Tales, though. Great list!
ReplyDeleteMary @ Mary Had a Little Book Blog
My TTT
I've never gotten all the way through Walden, but I adored Fahrenheit 451 in freshman English!
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone in my class liked Heart of Darkness. Not even our teacher!
ReplyDeleteI was crazy about Animal Farm. It was a book I encouraged (forced?) both my sons to read.
ReplyDeleteI loved Tom Sawyer from the get-go. Tom seemed clever and I liked that.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elizabeth, for your thoughts on Godot. I will cross it off my Maybe Someday list right now.
ReplyDeleteI don't know I Am a Star. Off to see what I can find out about it.
ReplyDeleteOh dear. I am a Star is a Holocaust story. Yes, very difficult for a ten-year-old, I think.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I'm teaching Heart of Darkness is a few months to my seniors. I already know I'm going to have a battle, but I'm up for the challenge.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Christine! And when you finish battling with them, come and convert me!
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine did Classics at university, and had to read The Odyssey in Greek and do her own translation of it. Oy...
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining how much one would learn dorm doing that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post.
ReplyDeleteIf not exactly forced we were encouraged to read Jekyll and Hyde by our drama teacher who thought it was the best book ever written. Not able to live up to all his hype I found the book very disappointing.
Julius Caesar I was forced to read in that it was one of the books we studied for O'level English lit. A dreadful book, it put me off Shakespeare for more years than I care to remember.
The Canterbury Tales was tough! Anne Frank was pretty good assigned reading.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thecuecard.com/
I am so with you on Heart of Darkness. Smarty friends of my husband always like to recommend books to me because I read and one of them raved about this one. I ended up being confused and not even caring.
ReplyDelete