Just curious. This includes poems, short stories, novellas, novels, plays, essays. By best, I actually mean favorite. Only name a few.
The ones that I remember really liking (this was a long time ago) were Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies. I really need to re-read Lord of the Flies, though, since I don't remember it very well.
I liked Lord of the Flies, A Tale of Two Cities, and two of Shakespeare's plays: Julius Caesar and Macbeth. I also loved Earle Birney's poem "David." (I went to school in Canada and we had to read some Canadian poetry, at least!)
Not exactly what you are asking, but we were once forced to read a book in English, could be any book. I chose Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. That was pretty good compared to most of what we had to read during my school years.
I can't remember a lot of the stuff I read in high school (which is sad considering I graduated from high school only 5 years ago). Of the stuff I can remember, I would have to say Hamlet. I also really liked All Quiet on the Western Front.
If I'd known about Ulysses before I entered university, I might have majored in English instead of engineering. I would have loved to have taken a course in Ulysses. Alas, back then I wasn't quite as in love with the art of prose as I am today. Maybe it would have been wasted on me.
I can't remember everything I read back then, but I think that Romeo and Juliet was in there somewhere. I'm very sure of what I didn't like. If I'd had a time machine, I would have gone back and strangled Nathaniel Hawthorne before he had a chance to write The Scarlet Letter.
I'd have to say The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock alongside Captain Corelli's Mandolin and A Clockwork Orange were the best pieces of literature I had to read.
Hamlet is fantastic. Such great characters, and story. Also studied Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard which is brilliant, and very funny, but only if you have read Hamlet first.
I have two, one, Alex Haley's Roots, I chose myself only to get the Accelerated Reader points and be done with it, but realized I actually liked it after giving it a try. Why in the world would a senior Literature teacher require us to obtain Accelerated Reader points like the elementary does? I'm sure she was trying to non-reading students to read, but it put all kinds of unnecessary pressure on me, who read vehemently. The other was a part of a reading list that we had to choose and then write a book report on, in which case I chose "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin, because it was a true story. It did not disappoint
Little Things by Raymond Carver This Room and Everything in it by Lee Young Li The lady and the dog by anton chekhov Araby by James Joyce
I'm in a creative writing class in high school. A lot of what my teacher does is have us read poems,short stories,etc so we can learn from example by authors. I enjoyed what he picked as good examples. I recommend them.
The Aeneid by Virgil. I'm a bit of a Robert Fagles fanboy, his translation of Virgil's masterwork started all that. I had to read it as part of my dissertation research, about The Divine Comedy. While I wasn't exactly 'forced' into reading it, it was was all but forced on me. Either that or Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Did it in high school, and it was the first hint I would end up liking Shakespeare the writer and the man.
Hey! I'm a Fagles guy, too! I have the boxed set of his translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. I used to play that trivia game they had in bars back in the 90s. I would tell my team, "Each man look well to his chariot's running order. Nerve himself for battle now, so all day long we can last out the grueling duels of Ares." That's from Fagles' Iliad. We won a lot, as I recall...
Glad to see two people who respect the work of a great translator. I think I have all of his output. At least all of his translations anyway.
From what I understand, the Lattimore translation is the one preferred in academia, though it's one of the harder translations to read. I read the Fitzgerald translations, and while he doesn't even attempt to stay true to the original meter, it's an extremely readable translation.
Kafka's "The Castle". We were reading Sartre and Rousseau for Logic in high school, and Kafka was next. I was terrified because I love to read and I was so sure I'll hate that, I mean how can an unfinished metaphor for alienation and bureaucracy (modern society, really), in a barren landscape and surreal environment, be anything but absolutely awful? It turned out to be one of the most amazing books I ever read.
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury in the 5th grade. The Fellowship of the Rings, by Tolkien in the 6th grade And...Dune, by Frank Herbert in the 7th grade. (I also read Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein on my own then as well).
I loved Wuthering Heights, but I was planning to read that anyway, and it has thus become my favourite book. My favourite poet is Sylvia Plath, who was the first I studied at A level - Ariel, though it made no sense at first, just completely enraptured me once I'd uncovered the meaning. White Godiva, I unpeel - Dead hands, dead stringencies ...Oh it was beautiful.
Two books come to mind from high school: Anna Karenina. I would've never picked it up if we hadn't been forced to read it to pass Higher Level Finnish (even though it's originally Russian, yeah, the logic). It was a trudge, a fight, but I made it through, and I was so happy I did because it turned out to be an amazing story that sort of sneakily just pulls you in. However, if you put it down, it's difficult to get back to it... Jazz by Toni Morrison. I was 16, my English wasn't very good yet, and this novel just baffled the hell out of me. I had to read it side-by-side with the Finnish translation ('cause I knew I wouldn't get away by reading just the translation), but man was I happy the teacher made us read it! I just fell in love with Morrison's style and stories, and she's still one of my favorite authors. Though The Bluest Eye is my favorite of her works.
@ladyphilosophy: I love Sylvia Plath! My favourite is "The Applicant", it blew me away the from the genius opening.
