Best and Worst Books You Had to Read in School

[FrostRanger]

While in the music that makes your skin crawls thread, Shakespeare and other things we had to read in high school came up. I figured why not start a thread about this since I'm sure that I'm not the only one who had required reading in high school and even though I was a bookworm in high school most of what I had to read was either meh or outright terrible

I'll go first,

Best book was one I had read by mistake when I looked at the summer reading list for the wrong school, Agatha Christie's and then there were none, I love horror and I love mystery and that was a good horror mystery novel that had me guessing what was going on. It reminds me of horror games I've played especially danganronpa and zero escape, I would recommend the book to anyone who likes that kind of thing

I also enjoyed lord of the flies which was from the same list

Favorite book that was actually required reading was Walden, I found the book very chill and very fascinating, yes the guy was a bit of a nutter but I enjoyed reading about his time by the lake and his simple yet satisfying lifestyle. Interestingly my 11th grade English teacher outright admitted that she thought the book was incredibly boring

As for the worst books,

I don't remember the name of it but there was one autobiography we had to read in 10th grade 'cause it was supposed to be relatable to us 'cause the author is from our state. The book was rambly nonsense with a mix of stories of the author's life and some stories of.... Trees? All the stuff we were supposed to relate to had me saying "what in the world is she on about? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about". Absolutely horrible

I also hated the great Gatsby. It's just about people going to parties who can't stay faithful to their spouse, absolutely everyone was awful in that book, not a single good character

I also didn't like Shakespeare, especially Romeo and Juliet, I hate romance and that romance was especially bad, it's just about a pair of families fighting 'cause who knows why and 2 teens with raging hormones and abysmal impulse control even for teenagers

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Worst book was Grapes of Wrath. So boring. Second worst was The Sound and The Fury.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Best book: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

Worst book: (there were SO many): The Red Pony. Or maybe Of Mice and Men. Or maybe The Pearl. (Bear in mind, I'm bipolar. These all hit me really hard and made me viscerally ill and left me seriously traumatized and gave me nightmares.)

 

[FrostRanger]

Best book: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

Worst book: (there were SO many): The Red Pony. Or maybe Of Mice and Men. Or maybe The Pearl. (Bear in mind, I'm bipolar. These all hit me really hard and made me viscerally ill and left me seriously traumatized and gave me nightmares.)

Multiple bests and worsts are allowed, I certainly had multiple
Sorry to hear those books affected you that badly, hopefully the other books you had to read were much better

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Best book: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

Worst book: (there were SO many): The Red Pony. Or maybe Of Mice and Men. Or maybe The Pearl. (Bear in mind, I'm bipolar. These all hit me really hard and made me viscerally ill and left me seriously traumatized and gave me nightmares.)

Oh I completely forgot I read The Pearl. Still better than the Grapes of Wrath though.

 

[nuthatched]

I don't remember any requirements for reading at all, so they must have been boring

 

[Buckeye Amy]

The Grapes of Wrath. Ugh!

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Hands Down for me, "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, got an "F" on my paper, I can't believe I remember the author., Junior English, 1967, Vietnam era, best read was "The Ugly American", same yr same teacher, only A+ in the class. The ol' if I'm interested I'll engage, if not, C Ya.!

 

[Sally PB]

Best: To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best books I've ever read. I've read it several times, and it is different every time, due to different amounts of life experience.

Worst: My early American History textbook.

Yes, I agree, The Grapes of Wrath was long and tedious.

My mom and I both read Condominium one summer. We both hated it. Why? Neither of us gave a damn about any of the characters. I felt the same way about Gone Girl. I disliked both the main characters. Now if anything is compared to it ("It's the next Gone Girl"!), I don't even give it a glance.