Not going to lie, this is really going to be more of a "What I did and did not like reading in high school" lists versus an actual favorite.
High school is, of course, filled with classics.
A few I even loved- The Scarlett Letter, The Crucible, The Poisonwood Bible for starters (what is it with books starting with "The?").
Brave New World was probably my first dystopian novel, and while I never expected to I actually found it really interesting and still have my first copy.
I also remember liking
Along with "The" books, I was also touched by books like Night and Speak.
Now, on to the books I really did not like.
I friggin' despise Lord of the Flies. Maybe it's just that I read it at a bad time in my life- my now-husband/then-boyfriend had just left for basic, there was some family drama, I was a high school senior desperately trying to get into college so I could escape my hometown. And the story of these psychotic boys literally made me sick. I remember watching the movie in class and literally laying my head down like a child so I wouldn't have to watch it. I felt like I was going to throw up- this is still my reaction to any mention of the book today. I don't think any other book has ever had such a visceral impact on my being.
I also read The Great Gatsby, and found it way overrated. The recent craze has made me wonder if I should go back to it...but again, ugh. I also disliked The Awakening by Kate Chopin...it's supposedly this big feminist story and so inspiring...but I found it pathetic and annoying and lame. Man, I really couldn't escape The's back then.
What books did you love or hate while you were in high school?
I didn't actually care much one way or the other about The Crucible but then my sister loved it and that impacted my opinion quite a bit. The Scarlet Letter I thought was eerie and fascinating, and The Great Gatsby has some weird sense of grandeur and meaning, even though I can't actually spout forth any conclusion or moral to the story. There's a lot to discuss, I guess, regardless of how you feel about it. My least favorite high school reads were Edgar Allen Poe (everything other than The Raven), and John Steinbeck. I remember Moby Dick being incredibly dull, and not liking Jane Eyre, The Bell Jar, or that weird one by Emily Dickinson (I think) about the woman who goes crazy alone in a room, peeling wall paper or something. Oh! And Flannery O'Connor's The Life You Save May Be Your Own. We read a TON of short stories that seemed to have no real point to them other than people are bad, or life is hopeless.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also popped up to say I finished the Divergent series and, while I got a bit disenchanted in the middle, overall I liked it much, much better than the movie, and I especially liked the ending. Glad you convinced me to read it!