Reading assignments you actually liked

Everybody had to read books in middle school, high school and college. Most people bought cliff notes, I actually read though these terrible books (which I will not name). Out of my Schooling experience there were only two books I was ASSIGNED to read, that I liked. A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens and Dante’s Inferno .

What books were you forced to read, only to end up enjoying them? Why did you like the book? Now choosing a book for a “book report” does not qualify. Neither do text books.

toni morrison's "song of solomon". vonnegut's "cat's cradle". a huge amount of 20th century american short stories, which introduced me to twain, hemingway, joyce carol oates, and o. henry.

the princess bride.

Well, there have been a variety of Mark Twain stories that I liked. Then there was Lord of the Flies and Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It seems to me that there are probably others, but I can't recall what they are.

Quite a bit of poetry such as Paradise Lost by Milton and a lot of Blake and Coleridge.
Novel wise - A Picture Of Dorian Gray, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Good choices.

What exactly does a reading assignment entail?

Originally posted by Victor Von Doom
Good choices.

What exactly does a reading assignment entail?

I described the criteria above. Basically a book, or any piece of literature you HAD to read for a class. But obviously it cant be a text book.

Originally posted by Gregory
Well, there have been a variety of Mark Twain stories that I liked. Then there was Lord of the Flies and Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It seems to me that there are probably others, but I can't recall what they are.

Ha, I loved Lord of the flies .

Originally posted by 2D_MASTER
I described the criteria above. Basically a book, or any piece of literature you HAD to read for a class. But obviously it cant be a text book.

Well, on English courses many texts are on a syllabus, and thus need to be read. I always thought a reading assignment was a random thing.

Then again, the US system is odd.

So I suppose it just means a text you had to read for a course.

Originally posted by Victor Von Doom
Well, on English courses many texts are on a syllabus, and thus need to be read. I always thought a reading assignment was a random thing.

Then again, the US system is odd.

So I suppose it just means a text you had to read for a course.

Yeah, you got it. I did'nt want to confuse anybody.

Meh... This makes me feel real dorky. I really enjoyed Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, The Third Policeman, Catcher in the Rye (no matter how overrated people think it is), and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. All of these books (except for maybe The Third Policeman) dealt with struggling to have power over something or someone, and the theme of power in novels or films has always interested me. Even in Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist/narrator Holden Caulfield is wanting to have control over young children's innocence.

Lord of the Flies and Great Gatsby

A Tale of Two Cities by far. It was an awesome book and I'm probably going to read it again since the last time I did was in Middle School.

Ordinary People and The Stranger were the only two assigned books I really enjoyed in high school.