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Books you were forced to read at school

NoahVale [Edit] [Delete] 38 replies 10:59 December 4th, 2012

I did English Lit for O-Level (GCSE to you lot) and had to read various books, plays, poetry. I didn't like much of it at the time, still don't care for some of it now... but some of it has stuck with me.

Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton - S African apartheid-era novel. Better than I remember (7 out of 10)
Lord Of The Flies by William Golding - Genuine classic. Probably my favourite of the ones I read at school (9/10)
Merchant Of Venice / Henry IV / Othello - still struggle to like Shakey. Far to melodramatic for my taste. Othello was probably my least worst (6/10)
Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy - Interesting. The Darkling Thrush is my all-time favourite poem now (8/10)
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene - another I grew to love (9/10)

Tell me yours

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Anthony Trollope

:(

guntrip | 4 Dec '12, 11:01 | X | ^ This | Reply
- Don't pigeonhole me, dude. Barchester Chronicles. Ecclesiastical politics when you're high. These guys really knew how to do a fucking number on each other
  
  I remember liking almost all the books I read at school. Apart from Strange Meeting by Susan Hill. That was a weird one to be included.
  
  johnwiddop @guntrip | 4 Dec '12, 11:05 | X | ^ This | Reply
  - :D
    
    oojimaflop @johnwiddop | 4 Dec '12, 11:07 | X | ^ This | Reply
I'd like to take this opportunity to say Spot the Dog can get to fuck.

Thank you and goodnight

icouldwinarabbit | 4 Dec '12, 11:04 | X | ^ This | Reply
i remember reading this book (or maybe it was a play)

called unman, wittering and zigo. nobody else i went to school with seemed to rememeber it, barely anyone at all in fact. then in little britain they referenced it in that classroom sketch where the teacher is door roll call and the last name is zigo and nobody answers. did anyone else read that?

cat_race | 4 Dec '12, 11:05 | X | ^ This | Reply
- we also watched the film of it and there's a bit where the teach gets out of bed and he has a little piss circle on the front of his pants
  
  cat_race @cat_race | 4 Dec '12, 11:05 | X | ^ This | Reply
- so that's a no then,
  
  it was only me?
  
  cat_race @cat_race | 4 Dec '12, 11:13 | X | ^ This | Reply
A-Level:

THE FUCKING HANDMAID'S TALE: hated it at the beginning, however just before the exam it clicked and I really liked it
William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience (9/10)
Othello (6/10, not a big shakespeare fan)
Carol-Ann Duffy's Mean Time poems (7/10)
Loads of WWi literature, like the Regeneration trilogy, Birdsong. Didn't really care for any of the novels, but the poems, oui (mixed/10)

GCSE:
Lord of the bloody Flies (did anyone NOT read this?)
I don't remember much else. Maybe Macbeth?

plasticniki | 4 Dec '12, 11:05 | X | ^ This | Reply
- oh, Dr Faustus for A-Level too (8/10)
  
  and An Inspector Calls for GCSE (1000000/10)
  
  plasticniki @plasticniki | 4 Dec '12, 11:06 | X | ^ This | Reply
- I did Wilfred Owen poems
  
  Anthem For Doomed Youth and particularly Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori had a lasting effect
  
  NoahVale @plasticniki | 4 Dec '12, 11:39 | X | ^ This | Reply
  
  plasticniki this'd this
To Kill A Mockingbird ofc

wretched book.

Parsefone | 4 Dec '12, 11:07 | X | ^ This | Reply
- really? wow
  
  cat_race @Parsefone | 4 Dec '12, 11:09 | X | ^ This | Reply
  
  joeymahone and thewarn this'd this
  - with cat race on this one
    
    brilliant book
    
    hibster @cat_race | 4 Dec '12, 13:46 | X | ^ This | Reply
Of Mice and Men.

Animal Farm
Treasure Island
Macbeth

I didn't read Lord of the Flies, it's on my to-read list though.

Ichor | 4 Dec '12, 11:11 | X | ^ This | Reply
Of Mice and Men / John Steinbeck (although I changed sets before I actually had to study it)

The Crow Road /Iain Banks (surprisingly macabre and suspenseful, really enjoyed it)
Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen
Macbeth / William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet / William Shakespeare

wewerewerewolvesonce | 4 Dec '12, 11:12 | X | ^ This | Reply
GCSE:

All I remember is The Taming of the Shrew and Lord of The Flies. Hated Taming of the Shrew (3/10), loved Lord of the Flies (9/10).

A-level:

Othello- 6/10 enjoyed it more than previous Shakespeare

Wise Children- 3/10 then but 8/10 now. Hated it at first, but as I began to appreciate how clever it was I grew to love it- it all clicked in time for the exam.

Larkin's High Windows- 9/10 Brilliant

Byron's Don Juan- Loved learning about Byron, but found it hard work 7.5/10

oojimaflop | 4 Dec '12, 11:13 | X | ^ This | Reply
Can't remember in what order these came, all secondary school:

The Handmaid's Tale - heady-handed satyr (4/10)
Of Mice and Men - resonant tone-poem (9/10)
Macbeth - stark brutality (8/10)
Merchant of Venice - complex humanity (7/10)
Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy - leaden misandry (3/10)
Nineteen Eighty-Four - bleak politicking (8/10)
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - Christian allegorising (6/10)
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - can't remember it at all (7/10)

hip_young_gunslinger | 4 Dec '12, 11:23 | X | ^ This | Reply
- man if all the stuff I can't remember gets 7/10 i've read loads of pretty gr8 books
  
  There's a definite thread of bleakness through secondary school books innit. Didn't think about that before. I just read Brighton Rock again recently and it's definitely very grim. Then you have your grim war poems and your Lord of The Flies. GRIM
  
  mug_mug_mug @hip_young_gunslinger | 4 Dec '12, 11:28 | X | ^ This | Reply
  - The thing that sticks with me most about Brighton Rock is the ending
    
    She walked rapidly in the thin June sunshine towards the worst horror of all.
    
    NoahVale @mug_mug_mug | 4 Dec '12, 11:33 | X | ^ This | Reply
    - I like to think that kids finished reading that in a lesson, the teacher slapped the book shut then they went to maths or some other horrible lesson
      
      but yes it is a great last sentence
      
      mug_mug_mug @NoahVale | 4 Dec '12, 11:38 | X | ^ This | Reply
  - Well I gave it a 7 because I looked it up and I'm sure it is good and worthy and I probably thought very highly of it at the time.
    
    It also prompted my teacher to do a dreadful deep south accent which I have to give it credit for.
    
    hip_young_gunslinger @mug_mug_mug | 4 Dec '12, 11:38 | X | ^ This | Reply
    - I will always read Shakespeare/Chaucer in my head the way my English teacher used to read it
      
      totally over the top & ridiculous and awesome
      
      mug_mug_mug @hip_young_gunslinger | 4 Dec '12, 11:44 | X | ^ This | Reply
the magic key

biff chip and kipper, fuck yes.

fappable | 4 Dec '12, 11:36 | X | ^ This | Reply

SarahIsPi, pichaelmarker, and kilgore-trout this'd this
- I've read all of these with my lad over the past year or two
  
  Did you used to play 'spot the spectacles'?
  
  NoahVale @fappable | 4 Dec '12, 11:41 | X | ^ This | Reply
  - probably ive repressed most memories through laziness i think
    
    at the moment im doing reading programmes with these kids and its no way as near as fun or interesting as the magic key.
    
    the books are called THE TALISMAN, and its about this shape shifting muslim who gets himself in to a load of adventurous mishaps.
    
    fappable @NoahVale | 4 Dec '12, 11:44 | X | ^ This | Reply
    - they are actually quite cool
      
      i just read one and he turned into a turtle
      
      fappable @fappable | 4 Dec '12, 11:45 | X | ^ This | Reply
    - A shape-shifting Muslim?
      
      Nice
      
      NoahVale @fappable | 4 Dec '12, 11:51 | X | ^ This | Reply
      - Do you think it's an Obama metaphor?
        
        DaddyorChips @NoahVale | 4 Dec '12, 14:00 | X | ^ This | Reply
fuck you school.

julius ceasar (kill me please)
woman in black (thanks for making it impossible for me to sleep at night)
to kill a mockingbird (OK fair enough, i'll give you that one)

meths | 4 Dec '12, 11:38 | X | ^ This | Reply
Had to read The Bloody Chamber at A-Level

Fuck off, Angela Carter. Absurdly easy book to write about but reading it was a fucking chore.

Steved | 4 Dec '12, 11:41 | X | ^ This | Reply
Jane Bastard Eyre

stormcrow | 4 Dec '12, 11:42 | X | ^ This | Reply

licky_kicky this'd this
- I didn't enjoy this one at all
  
  The next year we did Wuthering Heights, which I expected to hate similarly, but was actually brilliant.
  
  lyserge @stormcrow | 4 Dec '12, 13:42 | X | ^ This | Reply
ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY.

anyone else?

fappable | 4 Dec '12, 11:45 | X | ^ This | Reply
- Is that as shit as I imagine it is?
  
  DaddyorChips @fappable | 4 Dec '12, 13:48 | X | ^ This | Reply
GCSE:

The Crucible
Lord of The Flies

A Level

Sylvia Plath-Ariel
Alan Bennett-Talking Heads
The Taming of the the Shrew
The Changeling
The Duchess of Malfi

In retrospect,could've been worse but I found Lord of the Flies overrated.

DaddyorChips | 4 Dec '12, 13:52 | X | ^ This | Reply
Heaps. Way too many to remember.

Some of the good ones, though:

Playing Beatie Bow
Z for Zachariah
Bridge to Terabithia
The Outsiders
Shakespeare (MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet)
Wuthering Heights (though I only read the first half)
Merry-Go-Round in the Sea

robluvsnic | 4 Dec '12, 13:59 | X | ^ This | Reply
- Poetry:
  
  Bruce Dawe
  Wordsworth
  
  robluvsnic @robluvsnic | 4 Dec '12, 14:00 | X | ^ This | Reply
Hmm. Including plays, I guess

The outsiders (7/10)
Handmaids tale (4/10)
The Color Purple (6/10)
Winters Tale (6/10)
Othello (9/10)
Death of a salesman (7/10)
Lord of the flies (8/10)
To Kill a Mockingbird (8/10)
Songs of innocence and experience (6/10)
Prologue to the canterbury tales (7/10)
The Way of the World (6/10)
A kestrel for a knave (8/10)
Huckleberry Finn (9/10)

thewarn | 4 Dec '12, 14:11 | X | ^ This | Reply

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