Books I Was Assigned to Read in School

I was in junior high and high school during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I had wonderful English teachers who used a combination of assigning books to be read and assigning a list of books to choose from to be read. By the time I finished high school, I had read all of these classics. 

I loved all of them, though I admit that Lord Jim was a struggle to get through. Looking back at these books from the lens of 2024, I would note that these are not very diverse but it did start me on a path of reading that I continue today.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

The Odyssey by Homer

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.