Books you HAD to read at school

[clive_candy]

vindaloo79 said:

Brooksay said:

One book my English teacher 'suggested' we read was 'The Machine Gunners' by Robert Westall..outstanding stuff.

I’ve just spotted this thread, and it’s coincidental I just purchased this for my soon to be 8 year old. This was one of my most memorable books from childhood. Not sure if he’s old enough yet, I’ll prob read myself first.

Z for Zachariah was one from GCSE English that I enjoyed. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Z-Zachariah-Robert-C-OBri...

That is next on his list when he matures enough.

Two great reads. So much better than any of the stuff schools teach kids nowadays.

[snuffy]

First year of O Level English Lit were 3 books and then the second year were the 2 we were examined on ( I think that was right, it was a very long time ago !)

Romeo and Juliet (sure that was year 2)

The Merchant of Venice (year 1)

Far from the Madding Crowd (year 2)

Brave New World (year 1)

I'm the King of the Castle - Susan Hill (year 1)

[Riley Blue]

A history of one of my secondary schools has recently been published and during his research the author unearthed some of my English literature notes:
'Part Three of ''The Clerk's Tale' rendered into good (!) modern English'
'Characters of 'To The Lighthouse''
'A Summary of Acts 4 and 5 of 'Othello''

After all this time I can't be sure which were for 'O' and which for 'A' Level but after a school trip to Stratford upon Avon to watch the whole of the Shakespeare season (David Warner played Hamlet as a petulant student) I've had a love/hate relationship with WS ever since.

I quite liked Virginia Woolf's narrative style though found it difficult to take Chaucer seriously. I don't think I've read anything by any of them in the last 60 years.

[Cloudy147]

We had to read Of Mice and Men. I hated it, and remains the worst book I've ever read. A horrible story.

That's the only one I remember from secondary school. I read a lot for pleasure at home but I don't recall reading anything enjoyable in school at all. Of all the books in all the world, they didn't half choose some crap.

[dudleybloke]

Roll of thunder hear my cry.
The importance of being Earnest.
Macbeth.
Children of the dust.
Great Expectations.
Plus more that I can't remember.

[richwain24]

Lord of the flies! Quite a lot of Shakesperian literature and Skellig!

[Slow.Patrol]

Twelfth Night
Samuel Pepys diary
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

The only bit I can remember is Samuel Pepys putting "his main in her cunny". Oh and we got to go on a school trip to Stratford on Avon to see Judy Dench in Twelfth Night.

This was in 1974/75

[Slow.Patrol]

snuffy said:

Brave New World (year 1)

(year 1)

Brilliant book. I read this for pleasure when I was about 14.

I loved reading as a kid and would get through 2/3 books a week. Oddly enough I hardly read at all now I am retired. I guess I regard it as an indulgence.