What do you remember reading in High School because it was assigned?

[ajblakejr]

This past weekend, I was tossed back into High School English.

I pondered, what everyone remembered "having to read" for class.
Please post those memories or nightmares.

Then, I wondered, what do high school teachers assign now?
If you know the answer, and it is not Harry Potter, please post.

And if you participate, please keep College Lit for another thread.
The inspiration for this thread:
This past weekend, To Kill a Mockingbird, celebrated 50 yrs.

Atticus Finch: I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Jem :Why?

Atticus Finch: Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.

This book started my hobby of collecting quotes and pulled me away from Judy Blume books.

What do you recall reading?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

I remember this one as I had to read and do a book report on it. Well, I waited until the last minute and decided to use the Cliff Notes to do my report. Little did I know that the teacher had recently read it and started to ask questions that were not in the Cliff Notes.

She signed my yearbook "Sorry I gave you a Hard Time in my class".

 

[bbsam]

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. And I'm wondering if or when it too will be considered a classic in the realm of Dickens.

 

[moreluck]

We had to read the plays of Shakespeare which is why I hate them to this day!

I also collected quotes. One of the nuns always had a new quote every day written on the board and I would copy it in my notebook.

 

[bbsam]

We had to read the plays of Shakespeare which is why I hate them to this day!

I also collected quotes. One of the nuns always had a new quote every day written on the board and I would copy it in my notebook.

I can factually state that your hatred of Shakespeare had nothing to do with the author and everything to do with the teacher. His plays are really full of wicked fun when presented correctly.

 

[moreluck]

OH, and I'm gonna tell Sister Mary Bullhorn that she's not presenting it correctly ??? Not if I wanted to live.

 

[bbsam]

OH, and I'm gonna tell Sister Mary Bullhorn that she's not presenting it correctly ??? Not if I wanted to live.

She can't still be alive can she?

 

[klein]

George Orwell 1984, that was a subject in our class. - back in the mid to late 70's

 

[Jones]

Read both Billy Budd and Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, and for some reason the gist of those stories has always stayed with me. To this day I think about both of them fairly often. And I agree with bbsam about Shakespeare, his plays really are timeless.

 

[CaliforniaPaul]

"The Conquest Of Mexico By Cortez" in history class, circa 1955!!!

 

[moreluck]

"She can't still be alive can she?"

I meant nothing could be said back then.
No, she can't possibly be alive, she was way old back then!

 

[dilligaf]

Where the Red Fern Grows. I still have the book.

 

[bigbrownhen]

Edgar Allen Poe's the Tell-Tale Heart. I dont care for anything of the "horror" type. Movies or books, but I found the story interesting.

 

[UPSSOCKS]

George Orwell 1984, that was a subject in our class. - back in the mid to late 70's

I didn't think they taught Canadian kids to read?? Did you guys have books on tape?

 

[bbsam]

It wasn't for class, but I remember Judy Blume's "Wifey" making the circuit around the schools with certain pages being so clearly searced out that one did not need to go looking for the racy sections, just let the book fall open.

 

[moreluck]

BBH,

I liked the Poe stuff because I was always a fan of horror. Remember Vincent Price & Peter Lorre (sometimes) in the movies adapted from Poe's writings?

 

[dilligaf]

Another one - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It was written in 1960. What a powerful story.

 

[fethrs]

Loved to read in high school. Classics, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, Poe. Science fiction, Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury. Loads of Steven King. The Hobbit, so much more I just can't remember it all.

 

[moreluck]

I had read Stephen King until he got to that western stuff.....don't like anything cowboy. I started back a couple years ago. Love Grisham, Dan Brown & Brad Meltzer.

The last cowboy thing I enjoyed was Blazing Saddles....too much Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy growing up.

 

[bbsam]

Re: What do you remember reading in High School because it was asinine?

reprobate