Classic Books in School

(Inspired by a Tumblr post)

We've (probably) all had to read classic books in schools. Tell me, YWSers, which books did you enjoy? Which ones did you not enjoy?
I'll go first:

It's not exactly a classic, but the only book I've enjoyed reading in school is Percy Jackson in 4th grade. I've never read past the first book but it seems interesting so I might read it.

Now, I feel indifferent to most books we have to read, but I cannot stand The Joy Luck Club. I don't even know where I would start with this book to be honest.

I LOVED to Kill a Mockingbird with my whole heart. I actually bought myself my own copy I loved it that much. Same with the Outsiders. I can't really go into why I love them so much, but I just can't get over them. Probably the family dynamics. I'm a sucker for those.

Now... Books I hated? Lord of the Flies. I don't exactly believe in any of it's messages, I think it's really boring, and just so... ugh. It's a chore to get through and I hate how much it thinks it's right. Not technically a novel, but I hate Harrison Bergeron. It just feels so... dumb? Not dumb, I think the idea of it is really frightening, but like... I dunno. How it's portrayed is just super weird. Especially the ending? Not a fan.

@KocoCoko I totally forgot about the outsiders! That book was cool too!

I think the best classic I've ever read is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde! I think it was one of the first books to actually get me out of a reading dry spell. Looking back now that I'm older reading it again, I see a lot of things I didn't before. That's cool! I've grown and the story has grown with me! =D

A book I hated is really tough because I don't hate books. I don't even really dislike books! I just sort of... read them and then forget they exist? That happened with Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. It was a well-written novella, don't get me wrong! The language made it hard for me to finish though.

I actually quite like Lord of the Flies! It wasn't assigned reading for me, though one of my teachers mentioned it in passing. I think the message about the 'dark side' of human behaviour appealed to me personally, but also I appreciated that for its time, the set-up of how Golding tried to convey the message was unique. (No one would have expected a bunch of choir boys from a fancy school to do what they did in that novel, as my lit teacher said!) I also appreciated the narrative structure so to speak. It never felt like a scene was just there for the sake of it. The Picture of Dorian Gray is really great as well -- a suspenseful read.

I think the assigned reading I enjoyed the most in school was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and that was in . . . Year 4 of secondary school? (So that might be 10th grade in the US system.) I liked it thematically, and I also liked the grim atmospheric descriptions. I might have liked it even better if there had been less monologue in some parts, but hey, it was the fashion of the times.

I don't really hate books either, but one reading I didn't really *get* was Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. It felt like there were a lot of historical allusions there that just flew over my head, and the narrative didn't always focus on the same set of characters, so I was left wondering 'hey, what happened to this guy' or 'wait, I thought the other guy was the main character here'. I also can't really remember 'first-hand' what happens in Great Expectations, though that might be because I sped-read that one in one night. I just know Great Expectations and The Picture of Dorian Gray are books my grandmother also read in college and she's mentioned them too before c:

As for liking classic books in classes . . . I can say I was probably the only one in my class who enjoyed reading them ^^' People were quite befuddled by my behaviour, but eh, to each their own.