Required Reading

[cucca77]

Now that Summer is here I can't help but feel a little nostalgic. Every bookstore I visit have that one table with the required summer reading books for the local high school.

What was the one required reading book that you really liked? :Y:

Which was your least favorite? :N:

[cucca77]

What was the one required reading book that you really liked?
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Which was your least favorite?
The Perfect Storm

[5kcandlesinthewind]

What was the one required reading book that you really liked?
I think Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was the only summer reading book I ever actually liked.

Which was your least favorite?
Sticking with only summer reading, The Old Man in the Sea. I read this book almost 25 years ago, and I still hate it with every fiber of my being.

[mrshandy]

Catch-22 is one of my favorite books

Great Expectations...ugh

[msmerymac]

Jul 10, 2012 13:52:32 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

Catch-22 is one of my favorite books

Great Expectations...ugh

Me too!

Favorite summer reading book: probably As I Lay Dying.

Least favorite? Maybe A Tale of Two Cities. I can't remember all of them (I had 4 per year in high school), which means most were probably just okay.

[charminglife]

Even after 11/12+ years I still remember how I felt when I finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison for summer reading. It's still one of my favorites.

[dorothyinAus]

What was the one required reading book that you really liked? -- A Separate Peace

Which was your least favorite? -- either A Tale of Two Cities or Les Miserables; I read them concurrently for two different classes and still can't keep the stories/characters/plots straight.

[imoan]

I just read The Portable Dorothy Parker and it's life changing!

[duckduck]

Jul 10, 2012 21:07:21 GMT -5 imoan said:

I just read The Portable Dorothy Parker and it's life changing!

I grabbed this from the library on your recommendation! Can't wait to start it.

I never had summer reading assignments or many assigned in high school (homeschooled and Mom basically let me pick my own books because I read stuff like Jane Austen on my own). I majored in English, though, and I can't even remember all of the books that I adored. It was four years of reading incredible books. I miss that so much.

I did, however, LOATHE The Old Man and the Sea.

[writingwithheld]

I only had required reading the summer before I took AP English, but I remember really liking Things Fall Apart. I think it is one of the things that really sparked my interest in post-colonial/world literature. I read Bless Me, Ultima for that class and enjoyed it, too. Other than that the class was pretty terrible/did not prepare me for college literature classes at all.

[Nonny]

I don't really remember any specific summer required reading, just chose your own reading. Like the PP, before AP English we had to read something from some set list of books and for some reason I chose David Copperfield. Big mistake. Dickens has great plots, but the writing is so hard! I'm pretty sure this is one of the few books where I got the Cliffs Notes.

[imoan]

Jul 11, 2012 8:58:23 GMT -5 duckduck said:

I grabbed this from the library on your recommendation! Can't wait to start it.

I'm so glad to hear this! You wont be sorry!

[Deleted]

Do high schools really have required summer reading? My high school never did anything like that.

[PinkSquirrel]

I don't remember much of my summer reading books from high school, but I did read an amazing non fiction book about the 60's (can't remember the name for the life of me) for AP US History that I adored. I loved that class and the 5 pages of books we got to choose from

As for most hated, don't remember, but my most hated book from high school was hands down Old Man and the Sea.

[pooh8402]

loved: To Kill A Mockingbird and Alas, Babylon

hated: The Great Gatsby and The Pearl and Old Man And The Sea

my HS had required summer reading for the AP classes, but it was only one or two books, since we'd be jumping into those during the first 6 week grading period.

[aurora]

Jul 11, 2012 19:41:18 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Do high schools really have required summer reading? My high school never did anything like that.

We had required reading for at least 3 of my AP classes (that I can remember). For AP English we actually had written assignments from the 5 assigned books due the first day of school.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard stands out as the best from my summer reading lists. I still have very vivid memories of where I was sitting when I read the chapter on seeing (which included some fascinating stories of people recovering sight after being blind). I read it 17 years ago.

[apelila]

Jul 11, 2012 19:41:18 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Do high schools really have required summer reading? My high school never did anything like that.

I don't remember any required summer reading either, but I didn't take any AP classes, so maybe that's the difference? I was browsing today at the bookstore and thought of this thread as I perused the summer required reading tables.

[whitepicketfence]

I had required summer reading all 4 years of high school and I can't recall a single book that I read

[charlatti]

I definitely had summer reading but I can't completely remember which books were summer and which were in class. I know The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was assigned for incoming 9th grade, and I really wanted to like it but didn't. I think Beloved was the book for senior year; I really did love that one.