What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particular liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favourites?
Here are a few of the books we read at school. I’m sure there must have been lots of others, but these are the only ones I can remember at the moment!
Beowulf – I remember reading this at school when we were 11 or 12 – it would have been an abridged version, though, and definitely not in the original Old English!
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – I’ve had a copy of this on my shelf for years but have never read it since I was at school. Maybe I should try reading it again sometime.
Frankenstein’s Aunt by Allan Rune Pettersson – I didn’t enjoy reading this at all. I suppose the teacher chose it thinking it would appeal to 12/13 year olds – but it didn’t appeal to me.
Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard – We read this in Year 10 (age 14/15). Considering this would have been in the 1990s when Northern Ireland was often in the news, it was quite an appropriate book to read – the story took place in Belfast and the two main characters were Kevin, a Catholic boy, and Sadie, his Protestant girlfriend. I can’t remember much about the story, though.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor – This was one of the best books we read at school. It reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird (another teacher had recommended TKAM to me the previous year and I loved it).
Shakespeare – Like most English classes, we also read some Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth.
I also read Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Animal Farm and Silas Marner, but these were books that my English teacher told me I should read, rather than books I had to read.
I won’t list everything I read outside of school, as there would be far too many books to mention here!
She Reads Novels 
You lucked out with Shakespeare. Our class read Julius Caesar instead of Romeo and Juliet, and we never even read Macbeth at all!
I got to do Hamlet twice, though (once in grade 12 and then again in my first year of university). 😛
Many of the books I loved to hate in school have become favorites. I wonder if I would like The Pearl now.
I find that I can remember the books I didn’t like a lot more easily than I remember the ones that I did like. I remember reading Call of the Wild in 8th grade and hating it because we dissected it to such a point that it wasn’t fun to read anymore. Same with Great Expectations in 9th grade and A Separate Peace in 11th. I do remember reading and enjoying structured reading assignments a lot more in college though. I did a lot of skimming in high school.
Thanks for the comments. 🙂
Emily – I agree that sometimes if you dissect a book too much it can spoil your enjoyment of it.