So, for many MANY classes throughout my school life since Year 9 (8th Grade), I have HAD to read books as part of the course as coursework or just to read a book really. It's basically the normal classical books (Shakespeare, Austen) that most people will read at maybe at some point in their lives and that so much has been written about them, so it's easy to revise with many study books available (most of the time anyway).
Some of these books will always stay a favourite - or always stay in my mind for how much I hated them.
YEAR 9 (8TH GRADE):
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Can I just say that this is the reason I hate To Kill a Mockingbird. We spent 5 whole months reading it and I still didn't understand a word - to be honest, I had to watch the film to realise what was actually happening. So I have a bias view of this book but 5 months studying it?!
YEAR 10 (9TH GRADE):
An Inspector Calls - J.B.Priestley
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
An Inspector Calls is a very good play and it was the first piece of coursework I ever did. Of Mice and Men I had to learn completely about for the end of year exam which meant knowing every single little theme/movement/description and of course, this is full of it. Really enjoyed the book though and I got top marks in that exam!
YEAR 11 (10TH GRADE):
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
Both of these were for coursework in my English Literature and Language GCSE's. We only did a section from Romeo and Juliet but I still barely understood the plot especially with the language. Here, we discovered the first adaptation of it with a Romeo who looks like he could be related to Zac Efron - I am not kidding. Some shouting 'Oh my god, it's Zac Efron' when we first watched it. Check it out.
I had read Pride and Prejudice a few years before and didn't really understand it. But then I watched the movie and sort of fell in love with the story and the ideas of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. So I was quite pleased to be doing the novel over Frankenstein like some other classes. This did fuel my Austen adaptation addiction...
YEAR 12 (11TH GRADE) - NOW!
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
Othello - William Shakespeare
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Odyssey - Homer
This is what books I'm studying at the moment. Enduring Love is awful - I would not recommend it to anyone. Joe, the main character, is in the middle of a scene and then, okay, start rambling about science things WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. My hate for this book does not even have words.
The Great Gatsby however, I love. It's a beautiful book and I love reading it. Gladly, this is the book we have to know in depth.
The Odyssey - it is good and interesting more so than Enduring Love. But we are halfway through. We started 3 months ago. We have our exam in 5 weeks. You see my dislike right there.
I hope you found that interesting. Let me know what books you did at secondary school or college/high school. I am quite interested to see if they were similar!
