Sort of in the same spirit as yesterday’s summer reading post, another book-related question:
What’s the best book you were ever forced to read for school? What’s the worst?
The best, for me, is probably The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a sort of metafictional Vietnam novel in stories. I had a loaner copy of this when I took a class on Vietnam in my junior year of college, and after I returned it to the lending library, I went out and bought myself a copy to keep, because it was that good.
The worst book I was ever forced to read for a class has to be Beneath the Wheel by Herman Hesse, which is about a young man from a small town who is an exceptionally good student, and gets sent off to college, where he gets utterly crushed by the pressure placed on him. This was assigned for 12th grade honors English when I was in high school, and it was excruciating. I have absolutely no idea why the teacher thought it was a good idea to assign this book to a bunch of really bright high-school students in a small town. I loathed this book even more than I hated The Scarlet Letter, and that’s really saying something.
So, what are your best and worst required readings?