Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Assigned to Read in School

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s prompt is: Books I Was Assigned to Read in School

This is a fun look back at high school and college!

The Jungle and Animal Farm were both assigned in high school and they both were pretty mind-blowing to my 16 year old self. The Jungle actually turned me into a vegetarian, from like 18 until recently. So it is safe to say it made a huge impact on me!

Frankenstein was a college read, and probably one of my favorites. I absolutely loved it, and found it so very sad as well, the loneliness of the monster.

The Great Gatsby took me to wild parties, the glitz and glam of the roaring twenties, dancing, and what looks like freedom and happiness. But the reader begins to see through this to the classism and lack of compassion and caring. It is still a favorite classic of mine. I am going to stop saying this because I feel like I will just keep repeating myself.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is an amazing book where we watch the main character learn to find herself and her voice. And the book that made me terrified of rabies. Plus there is a character named Tea Cake which I loved when I first read it in college. His character was not the greatest but his name was.

Beloved is a story that haunts you, and I am not trying to make a joke. I think this book and story is one that stays with you, the trauma and fear of the characters in a world of slavery that drives people to do things they would not do under normal circumstances.

Annie on My Mind is a book I read way back when in college, in my children’s lit class. It stands out as the very first LGTBQ book I have ever read, and also because it introduced the Cloisters to me.

The Metamorphosis by Kafka is one I feel like I read in high school and in college, and I liked it both times. It was so crazy but it is possibly the only existential book I really understood in school.

In high school I was introduced to The Canterbury Tales, and I just loved them. I loved discovering all the characters stories. Another one I should go back and reread.

I had to take sooo many Shakespeare classes in school, and of all the plays that I read, Hamlet was my favorite.

And that wraps it up for me today! What were you assigned in school that stood out to you?

45 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Assigned to Read in School”

  7. Joanne's avatar Joanne

    Weirdly I don’t remember any college reading assignments; though I did have a few Early Childhood classes where we read children’s and picture books that I remember fondly. It probably didn’t hurt that the professor brought munchkins into class for us to pass around while she read aloud to us.

    I remember reading Animal Farm in 8th grade and HATING it so much. I remembered enough about Watership Down from 9th grade that when my son started running out of books in the Warriors Series and other animal society type books I suggested that one to him. I remember reading The Scarlet Letter, Silas Mariner, and The Old Man and the Sea too though I can’t say I loved any of them.

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    1. Awww I love that!! I loved all of my chidlren’s lit classes. I only took two but they were really fun.

      I did not like The Scarlet Letter or The Old Man and the Sea either. I haven’t read Silas Marner though! It has been a really long time since I read a classic. I think I burned out on them in college. Lol.

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  8. I fell absolutely in love with Beowulf, thanks to a college course.

    My World Lit survey class in college was memorable for mostly the wrong reasons, LOL! But I did keep my copy of Haroun and the Sea of Stories from that semester, and it introduced me to Murakami, who I still read on occasion {but he writes some weird stuff, lol}.

    One of the most fun college lit classes I took was a special topics on Sci-Fi. I’d never read any before that, and was one of only two girls in the class, but it was with my favorite prof so ❤ It was a good time.

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      1. The (endearingly absent minded) prof had some very strange picks, including one that was very very icky (I actually refused to read it/but could fake it so good in class discussions he never knew 🤣). This is making me want to reread Haroun now 🙃

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  14. Frankenstein is one of my favorite books, and I really liked Animal Farm too. I didn’t like The Great Gatsby, though I think I maybe read it too young and didn’t have the understanding I needed. I think I’ll try rereading it soon. I also really want to read Beloved, I hear so much praise for it!

    Haze
    https://thebookhaze.com/

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  17. I’ve read most of these but only Hamlet, Gatsby, and Their Eyes Were Watching God were assigned reading for me! I wish I’d read The Jungle in high school, I think it would have been illuminating!

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  19. marsha57's avatar marsha57

    You read some heavy books, Erin! I think the only ones I read in high school were Animal Farm and The Great Gatsby. I never could bring myself to read The Jungle. In college, with the exception of the required Children’s Literature class, every lit class I took was British lit. Somehow, I never had to read any Shakespeare. I have read most of these books, but I read them because I wanted to read them. Beloved was beautiful as was Their Eyes Were Watching God.

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    1. My minor was literature and I had to take so many different classes. It was really cool. I had to take two Shakespeare classes though and I hated them. I liked my other “studies in drama” class better. We read Tennessee Williams and Ibsen and I loved them. Children’s Lit was one of my favorite classes!

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  20. Your list makes me think I should’ve included my college courses for my list (would’ve been slightly easier to remember) since I was an English major (before I dropped out). Although when I was reading The Canterbury Tales, we were reading them in their original form, and like English has changed a lot since Chaucer was writing.

    I hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks for visiting my blog earlier.

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  21. I loved Hamlet by Macbeth is my favorite. This is a great mix of books for assigned reading. I read Gatsby in high school and then went on to find more books from him and really loved everything I read.

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  24. RS's avatar RS

    Wow, I’ve read almost all of these too, mostly assigned. Everything except Kafka and Annie (I knew of the latter book, I just wasn’t interested in it). Frankenstein was my first assigned book in college and made me feel so much better about college-level work when it proved to be a genuinely engaging, entertaining read.

    The Jungle, if I recall, wasn’t exactly assigned, but I had a history project about this topic so it was interesting supplemental reading. Can definitely see it inspiring vegetarianism…

    I’m glad you liked The Great Gatsby off the bat too; that was one of my fonder memories of assigned high school lit.

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