As a high school English teacher I'm sensitive about the idea of "forcing" someone to read books. The connotation is so negative- you force people to pay their taxes, register their vehicles, and got to jury duty. "Forcing" someone to read something just doesn't work for me. Nonetheless, the Broke and the Bookish ask us for the top ten books we've been "forced" to read:
1. House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (high school)
2. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (high school)
3. Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoyevsky (high school)
4. The Selected Works of TS Spivet by Reif Larsen (husband "highly suggested it")
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (made myself read it in order teach it)
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (high school)
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (high school)
8. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Literature of the West course in college)
9. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (some sort of contemporary lit course in college)
10. Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita (Asian Lit course in college)
Shameless self-promotion plug- Stop by on Thursday to participate in Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts, a new meme that provides book bloggers to share their thoughts on both books and anything else they please.
Shameless self-promotion plug- Stop by on Thursday to participate in Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts, a new meme that provides book bloggers to share their thoughts on both books and anything else they please.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird outside of school as well and really loved it. I've revisited it several times since.
ReplyDeleteI hated being forced to read books. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it backfired.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your new meme!
Here's my Top Ten Most Memorable Books I Was Forced to Read.
You did a lot of awesome lit courses in college - jealous!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had read Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale in high school, strange that my school didn't opt it as one of our required books (especially as an all-girls school).
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could ever read a Russian lit novel in school. I have to be in a particular mood to read them xD
Loved House of the Spirits, read it a few years ago on my own :)
My TTT
Haha I love your post's name! Totally agree and great list
ReplyDeletehttp://spicedlatte.blogspot.com/
I loved To Kill a Mockingbird :) it's my favorite book!
ReplyDeleteAnd totally unrelated but I thought you'd enjoy it: http://badlitmakestheworldgoround.tumblr.com
I'm not down with forced reading. I know it has a time and a place and a purpose, I just never could get behind it. I will say, however, that I never would have read Brave New World unless it was for school. I ended up loving (and still love) that book. One of my all time favorites. The Scarlett Pimpernel, on the other hand, whoever decided middle schoolers should read that probably has never met a middle schooler. Terrible!
ReplyDeleteI have shockingly only read a single book on your list: To Kill a Mockingbird. But I'm not sure if that even counts because I read it so long ago I can't remember a thing about it. I love Atwood and Handmaid's Tale will definitely be my next read of hers.
ReplyDeleteBonnie @ For the Love of Words