Best piece of literature you were forced to read in high school?

The Mayor of Casterbridge - Hardy.
Lyrical Ballads - Wordsworth & Coleridge.
The Merchant of Venice - You-know-who

Stellar stuff.

 

The only book I've ever actually liked that I was made to read for a Lit. class - and by like I mean didn't return the copy that was lent to me - was the Catcher in the Rye.

I liked Macbeth as well. I'm always amused by idea that Shakespeare is high culture.

As for poems...eh, maybe a few, but not enough to actually remember. Good old AQA anthology.

 

Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz

Stands head and shoulders above anything else we had to read in high school.

 

I am in my freshman year in high school, and I have to say, we have a great selection of books that we're reading. Of course, I am in an advanced English class. Anyway, I just finished Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, which is fantastic. Over the summer we were assigned to read The Illustrated Man, which is a collection of awesome short stories. Last year, in 8th grade, our class read A Telltale Heart, which I liked as well.

 

To kill a mockingbird

Have just bought a copy to try and see if my son will appreciate it.

 

Depends on his age and interests. I know it's great, but at the time I read it, I did not appreciate it.... I didn't mind reading it, but I didn't think much of it. Then again, that may have been a side effect from the continuous analysis we had to do, which kind of devalued it in my experience--or rather limited my enjoyment of it. Now I think it's great, and even enjoy it a bit, but it's still not quite in my list of books to read time and again. >_<

 

I'm assuming your son is not in high school yet because this book is required reading (I want to say either 9th or 10th grade is when most students read it). So he'll read it sooner or later. Of course, it doesn't hurt to get an early start.

 

It wasn't on his syllabus his 11-16 schooling, which I think is criminal.

EDIT he is 17 now.

 

What? That is crazy! He should have been read it. Good luck! 17 year olds don't always receive books well.

 

By the way, do you live in the US? I don't think very many students outside the US are required to read To Kill a Mockingbird in school.

 

The Great Gatsby
Huckleberry Finn
Catcher in the Rye

 

No. In the UK.
BTW it turned up today and he has started giving it a read. See how it goes.

 

Wow, most of you guys got to read much better books than I did in high school.

I read a lot of the titles you mention on my own, but even though I loved to read even then, most of the books assigned to us were a chore to get through- My Antonia, Lord of the Flies, Canterbury Tales, The Great Gatsby (which I hate to this day and is the only assigned book I never could finish.) Maybe now that I'm older I should go back and give them another shot, but I still feel pretty burned out on them.

Of the ones I loved reading, To Kill a Mockingbird is easily on top. Beowulf is probably second; even though only the first part was required, I finished on my own because I enjoyed it so much. Macbeth was also pretty good, though I think I would have enjoyed it more if my teacher didn't keep making us read parts of it out loud in class. Don't ask me why he did, but listening to freshmen trying to stumble through Ye Olde English aloud was pretty painful.