Classics from (almost) everyone s high school reading list

Actually, back in the dark ages when I was in 6th grade, we were given a reading list by our AP English teacher that had over 800 titles on it arranged into American, British and World literature categories. We were to choose 9 books from the list and read one book a week. I would love to have that list today – I’d love to try to plow my way through it as sort of a "bucket reading list," if you will.

Classic books that you read in high school

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” seen here in the film version starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, was just one of a plethora of classic American books that many read in high school. From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” to Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” these books take us straight back to our high school English and American literature classes and to nostalgic memories of those books forever sitting in our backpacks.

September 6 is National Read A Book Day. We’ve compiled a list of 21 classic books that you probably had to read in high school with research from BuzzFeed, Publisher’s Weekly, Time Entertainment, the American Library Association and BannedBooksWeek.org.

Classics from (almost) everyone’s high school reading list

Read First

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I’m a Junior and so far throughout high school, I’ve read .. parts of The Odyssey, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, 1984, Night, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lord of the Flies and The Crucible. Not all of the classic books are bad. They are classics for a reason .. Some might be a little slow & boring, but a lot have a good message. I just hate being forced to read at a certain pace.

You have to read all these books in high school or do teachers choose some of them? It seems quite a lot.
I’m from Slovenia and I want to study drama at a university in London so I think it’s important for me to know a lot of English literature. I would appreciate it if someone answered me if I have to read them all and if not, which are the most important.

40 Books You Hated in High School That You’ll Love Now

Reading is rarely fun when it’s being forced upon you. That’s why so many high school kids are so resistant and resentful about the books they’ve been assigned to read by their teachers. Even though a teen’s job—and high school is essentially that: a job—involves reading some of the greatest works in the history of literature, teens gripe and moan like they’re child laborers in a coal mine. They get such a chip on their shoulder about these literary chores that many of them grow up and still recoil at the mere mention of the classic books they once pretended to read carefully.

It’s time to reclaim your education from the young version of you that didn’t know any better. Here are 40 books that you probably ignored or, at best, skimmed just to get a passing grade in English class. You might not have connected with these iconic tomes as a teenager, but there’s definitely something there that will resonate with you as an adult.

A bunch of American expats party too hard in Paris cause they’re so disillusioned and bored and then travel to Spain to watch bullfighting and then drink some more. Was it the Lost Generation wandering aimlessly, or the best vacation ever? (Also, trying to figure out Jake’s mystery "war wound" that left him impotent is way more fun as a anatomically informed adult.)

In mid-19th century England, a poor orphan boy named Pip is convinced that, somehow, someway, he’ll escape his miserable, impoverished life and become a gentleman of means, and finally convince the woman of his dreams, Estella, to fall in love with him and get married. Then an anonymous benefactor makes him rich, and to the surprise of nobody, it doesn’t make him happy, and he eventually loses everything. It’s like a 500-page reminder of why you shouldn’t bother playing the lottery.

The Call of the Wild

Buck, part St. Bernard part Scotch Shepherd, is abducted from his comfortable life in California and forced to endure the arctic cold of the Yukon territory as a sled dog. Set in the midst of the Alaskan gold rush, ​"The Call of the Wild" by Jack London is the story of one dog’s survival of beatings, starvation, and frigid temperatures.

Big Brother is watching. This classic, written in 1948 by George Orwell, is about a dystopian society ruled by a controlling government. When Winston Smith attempts to retain his humanity and secretly thwart the government, he discovers who is a friend and who is an enemy. The novel ​"​1984" is a fascinating and disturbing look at society and government.​

References:

https://www.deseret.com/2015/2/12/20477499/high-school-reading-list-classic-literature-english-middle-school-required
https://stacker.com/stories/2218/50-classics-almost-everyones-high-school-reading-list
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/478.Required_Reading_in_High_School
https://bestlifeonline.com/classic-books/
https://www.thoughtco.com/classic-novels-for-teens-626712