Books you HAD to read at school
Discussion
I did English Literature (O level, so a while ago!) at school and read a number of books.
I hated most of them, everything by Thomas Hardy especially, but I did recall enjoying 'Cider With Rosie', by Laurie Lee enough to get 'As I walked out one midsummer morning' (the follow up) from the library.
About a year ago, I bought all 4 of his autobiographical books.
To be honest, I found 'Rosie' a bit of a slog, but 'As I walked Out' was very enjoyable and I'm just about to start 'A Moment of War' about his time in the Spanish Civil war, which is listed some places as the end of his Autobiographical Trilogy, although I also have "I can't stay long', so I don't know what that is about!
So, were there books you were forced to read at school that left a last impression, good or bad?
M
I hated most of them, everything by Thomas Hardy especially, but I did recall enjoying 'Cider With Rosie', by Laurie Lee enough to get 'As I walked out one midsummer morning' (the follow up) from the library.
About a year ago, I bought all 4 of his autobiographical books.
To be honest, I found 'Rosie' a bit of a slog, but 'As I walked Out' was very enjoyable and I'm just about to start 'A Moment of War' about his time in the Spanish Civil war, which is listed some places as the end of his Autobiographical Trilogy, although I also have "I can't stay long', so I don't know what that is about!
So, were there books you were forced to read at school that left a last impression, good or bad?
M
GCSE Lit:
In Spectacles (An Inspector Calls)
Of Mice & Men
Romeo & Juliet
Lord of the Files (Lord of the Flies)
To Kill a Mockingbird (but we used to insert names of different animals for fun.
To Kill a Mockingmole stuck so well the teacher started using it)
Solid books all which I actually enjoyed.
In Spectacles (An Inspector Calls)
Of Mice & Men
Romeo & Juliet
Lord of the Files (Lord of the Flies)
To Kill a Mockingbird (but we used to insert names of different animals for fun.
To Kill a Mockingmole stuck so well the teacher started using it)
Solid books all which I actually enjoyed.
Bloody hell - this is going back (and I have GCSE and A Lever English - and should have read it at university).
Can’t think about before secondary school. Can’t think much about that either..! Here are a few:
Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
1984
Brave New World
Middlemarch
Oscar and Lucinda
Hamlet
Anthony & Cleopatra
Macbeth
Poetry: Seamus Heaney, John Donne, Andrew Marvel
For French A Level the literature included:
L’Étranger
La Symphonie Pastorale
Les Mains Sales
I loved reading and read a huge amount more outside this (and there must have been more in 5 years of education). At my prep school we had to read a lot and we’re tested for comprehension. But we could choose from a range of books - I don’t recall anything being compulsory as such.
I have to say that the study of Shakespeare has given me a life-long love of his plays, especially Hamlet.
Can’t think about before secondary school. Can’t think much about that either..! Here are a few:
Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
1984
Brave New World
Middlemarch
Oscar and Lucinda
Hamlet
Anthony & Cleopatra
Macbeth
Poetry: Seamus Heaney, John Donne, Andrew Marvel
For French A Level the literature included:
L’Étranger
La Symphonie Pastorale
Les Mains Sales
I loved reading and read a huge amount more outside this (and there must have been more in 5 years of education). At my prep school we had to read a lot and we’re tested for comprehension. But we could choose from a range of books - I don’t recall anything being compulsory as such.
I have to say that the study of Shakespeare has given me a life-long love of his plays, especially Hamlet.
Macbeth at gcse. I have never got shakesphere. Never understood it. And he invented something like 10% of the words he used. Imagine getting away with that tgese days...
...for our own reading, I used to read Spike Milligan. Got sent to the headmasters office for laughing too much wnilst reading Puckoon...
...for our own reading, I used to read Spike Milligan. Got sent to the headmasters office for laughing too much wnilst reading Puckoon...
I thought our class did quite well on our book selection. We had:
I keep meaning to get a copy of Four Modern Storytellers as 'The Lotus Eater' by Somerset Maugham was very good. It concerned a British bank manager who retired early to Capri for an idyllic of leisure whilst living off a fixed term endowment. His intention being to kill himself himself when the money runs out.
- My Family & Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
- Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Four Modern Story Tellers - Short stories by Scott Fitzgerald, W Somerset Maugham, William Sansom & Doris Lessing
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
I keep meaning to get a copy of Four Modern Storytellers as 'The Lotus Eater' by Somerset Maugham was very good. It concerned a British bank manager who retired early to Capri for an idyllic of leisure whilst living off a fixed term endowment. His intention being to kill himself himself when the money runs out.
Edited by GliderRider on Wednesday 26th January 00:50
I took an Open University History degree when I retired, one of the early modules was a multi-disciplinary humanities module with English, History, Art History and Music. As part of the English group work component we had a week to read Dicken’s Hard Times and write an piece on it. Never was a novel so aptly named.
The play was Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Not particularly grabbing me as a 16 year old.
The novel was Wlkie Collins' The Woman In White. A book so dreary I never finished it. I couldn't even force myself to read it (and I loved reading as a kid and ALWAYS had my head in a book). School managed to turn me off reading at that time. Quite some feat.
The novel was Wlkie Collins' The Woman In White. A book so dreary I never finished it. I couldn't even force myself to read it (and I loved reading as a kid and ALWAYS had my head in a book). School managed to turn me off reading at that time. Quite some feat.
O level Eng Lt and A level English here.
Can remember Hamlet, Henry V ( including a trip to the cinema to see the Olivier version)
Hardy, Austen, Lawrence.
A lot of poetry, from Marvell via Hopkin, Auden and Eliot, to Hughes and Heaney.
Also wrote 2000 word essay on Arnold Bennett for O level.
Can remember Hamlet, Henry V ( including a trip to the cinema to see the Olivier version)
Hardy, Austen, Lawrence.
A lot of poetry, from Marvell via Hopkin, Auden and Eliot, to Hughes and Heaney.
Also wrote 2000 word essay on Arnold Bennett for O level.
I only did a few (didn't do A-levels):
- Macbeth I absolutely hated
- Much Ado About Nothing was actually pretty good
- 1984 was fantastic. Almost feels like a cliche to talk about how good that book is now, but to a teenager that was already interested in that genre and the ideas and themes it represented, it felt revolutionary.
For me, the works that sunk into my soul were:
Catcher in the Rye
Hamlet
Macbeth
These are the best I've read at school or university.
And also when I was given the task of writing annotated bibliography on one of these books I realized I needed help annotated bibliography writing service like this. Of course, the help came in handy and became indispensable during many years of study.
Catcher in the Rye
Hamlet
Macbeth
These are the best I've read at school or university.
And also when I was given the task of writing annotated bibliography on one of these books I realized I needed help annotated bibliography writing service like this. Of course, the help came in handy and became indispensable during many years of study.
Edited by Rtyannam on Monday 28th February 14:57
Gassing Station | Books and Literature | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff