you ever re-read books first assigned to you in high school?

[vash]

i am trying. for the most part, i think i cheated myself out of some good reads in high school. i blame some girl named Diana C.

what are some of your favorite books from high school? did you have to revisit them or did you get it the first time?

heck, you can put college book assignments here too.

i have:

Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men

i think i am gonna read:
Diary of Anne Frank
Catcher in the Rye.

NOT GONNA REREAD:
great expectations..i remember enough to avoid this one.

what books sucked just as much the second time?

[McLovin]

The only one I can think of is Wuthering Heights.

That was 11th grade. I spent many hours in the library explaining it to a very, very attractive girl, and teaching her how to properly write an essay. These studies were later moved from the library to her living room, and then to her bedroom, where she ended up teaching me some things.

So Wuthering Heights brings back many fine memories, and I've read it several times over the years.

[futurefun]

I did read all of the same. Lord Of The Rings trilogy I have re-read several times gleaning more richness & meaning than the first reading in high school. There are so many elements of choice, adventure. friendship & loyalty, acting despite fear etc that are timeless. They are among my favorite novels & movies.

[Seahawk]

I graduated from a Catholic Prep School (last two years) so my list may be skewed a bit. I have made it a point to re-read a lot of the assignment reading I had in HS and University.

In no particular order by author not specific novel:

Steinbeck: If you ignore Travels With Charlie, which I loathed, hard to beat: Grapes of Wrath, Mice and Men, Cannery Row, etc. My favorite is East of Eden. It help that my family history is tied up in that part of the world.

Hemingway. I liked his novels more when I was young than I do now. I re-read most of them and found, The Short Stories of EH the most enjoyable. A semester in one book

Willa Cather. Death Comes for the Archbishop is great. It concerns the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in New Mexico Territory.

O Pioneers! as well.

Sinclair Lewis remains a favorite. I just re-read Main Street and Babbitt. Elmer Gantry is next.

William Faulkner would scare you to death.

Herman Melville's Moby Dick is worth another glance.

Hesse

D.H. Lawrence

Huxley

Fyodor D.

so many others.

Start with the American's and then expand.

[nynor]

anne frank sucked worse the second time. just saying.

[stinkindiesel]

I've almost always found some redeeming value in everything I've read, both assigned stuff and stuff I've read for fun. At the beginning of my junior year of high school I vividly remember being handed a reading list of some 20 "classics" we had to read throughout the year. I thought this was the end of the world, but looking back now I'm glad I read every one of them. There were a lot of things on the list I would have never read otherwise (my diet at the time consisting almost exclusively of science fiction), and now I can see why they deserved to be labeled as classics. I would gladly read all of them again, but there's too much new stuff to read and too little time to read it :^)

One big exception that comes to mind was Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." Waste of the paper it was printed on.

Gary

Full disclosure: I married an English major that now works in a library, my oldest daughter is a school librarian and her fiance is a school teacher. Not sure how a hard core nerd ended up literary...

[gordner]

Steinbeck is definitely a winner, and east of eden is my favourite from him as well.
My contribution would be On the Beach, Nevil Shute

[McLovin]

I'm glad to see others like East of Eden. It seems like it's not considered by most to be Steinbeck's best, although I think it is. I've read it 4-5 times, at least.

[nynor]

+1 for steinbeck.

[GH85Carrera]

I don't have a problem sleeping.
If I ever develop insomnia I will get the book Ivanhoe.
That book put me to sleep in minutes.

I loved reading in high school. I read over 100 books on my own outside of HS. I had just finished one of my books and the teacher assigned The Red Badge of Courage. I read it that day in school. Several weeks later when we had the oral book report coming up the next day the teacher reminded all the students tomorrow was the day. I had to read it a second time to get it fresh in my memory.

[Tervuren]

I think it highly unlikely, that the Penrod series was required reading in your highschool, but I find it highly amusing, and very well written.

If you go with Penrod - His Complete Story, its all three books, minus a entertaining chapter that I guess was considered too controversial for re-printing.

The Hobbit, I like this book better than the LOTR. I'm afraid the new movies based on the book, will not be about the simple story of the Hobbit.

I know that these two books, are ones I have re-read a lot.

[vash]

i groaned outloud when i was assigned the book, "the color purple".

once i started i couldnt put it down. it was GREAT!!

Sinclair's book, the Jungle was the same.

you guys are building me a great book list!!

[M.D. Holloway]

Nope, none. Between the Cliff Notes, the Monarch Notes and the books and my Mom's opionions (she read everything we read just becasue she was a reading freak!) I am not sure additonal insight would be gained...

My 10 year old is reading Little Women - she thinks its boring, my 13 year old is reading Breakfast of Champians and thinks the author is insane...

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by vash

i groaned outloud when i was assigned the book, "the color purple".

I groaned when I had to read Beowulf and I still am.

Some other clinkers I tried to read from HS yet again but was rebuffed:

Aristotle Ethics

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (shoot me)

Proust

I can add E.M. Forster to the positive list, especially Howards End.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by McLovin

The only one I can think of is Wuthering Heights.

That was 11th grade. I spent many hours in the library explaining it to a very, very attractive girl, and teaching her how to properly write an essay. These studies were later moved from the library to her living room, and then to her bedroom, where she ended up teaching me some things.

So Wuthering Heights brings back many fine memories, and I've read it several times over the years.

I did the exact same thing in college with a Fluids course. I ended up with a wife who repeated this same scenario with others...

[jyl]

A lot of the books assigned to me in school were great books, but - pretty heavy stuff. Serious literature. The Red And The Black, Death Of A Salesman, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, Of Mice And Men, The Odyssey, stuff like that. I don't sit down and do calculus problems for fun today either.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, found it to be a much better story when you are older. First half was typical Hardy, took two weeks to get through, so much to absorb. Last half, started at 9PM and finished at 7AM next morning. And the story still resonates in modern day culture today. Only book that made me angry reading it. Lasted several days.

[Hoots]

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by red-beard

I did the exact same thing in college with a Fluids course. I ended up with a wife who repeated this same scenario with others...

funny, for me it was Physics and she was a skater (now a doc) and yes the ideas of friction, inertia, acceleration and momentum were completely investigated. I never thought that science class could get you laid so well...

[azasadny]

All Quiet on the Western Front
Catch 22
The Stranger

- it was a class called Existential Literature in my high school...