Required Reading for School

I recently saw Alexis from The Reading Addict do a post (which you can find here) discussing some books they had to read in school and if they enjoyed them or not. I really liked the idea behind this, so I thought it would be fun to share some of my required reading and some thoughts on them.

What I Liked

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

These aren’t in order of how well I liked them, but all of these books actually interested me, and I could see myself reading them again. Of these, I think I liked Of Mice and Men and The Things They Carried the most. There doesn’t seem to be a recurring theme that pops up in all of these (at least none that I can think of), so I can’t pinpoint one exact reason that I liked all of these over the others, but I think the writing style played a big part in my enjoyment of them.

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What I Didn’t Like

The Clan of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

Out of The Dust by Karen Hesse

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Lord of The Flies by William Golding

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck*

Animal Farm by George Orwell

These were the books I liked least of all my required reading and for the majority of them, it was out of pure boredom. For many, I had to turn to the audiobook because I just wanted to finish them as fast as possible.

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And Somewhere in Between

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Macbeth by William Shakespeare*

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

These are the books that I didn’t necessarily love, but I wouldn’t say I completely disliked them. For Great Expectations, I enjoyed many scenes, but I felt that overall, the book could have been much shorter. (Though Charles Dickens was paid by the word so I don’t blame him for adding as many as possible.) With the others, I think I would need to read them again to fully decide if I actually like them or not.

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*Both of these books were ones that I read on my own but will be reading in school this year. My opinion might change on my second reading of them, and if they do, I’ll update their positions on this list.*

And that’s my list! There were definitely a bunch of books that I missed, but these were the most memorable of them and the one’s I’ve read most recently in school.

Did you have to read any of these in school, and if so, what did you think of them? If not, what are some books you had to read that you liked or disliked? I’d love to hear about them. And don’t forget to check out Alexis from The Reading Addict who I got this idea from!