Hello friends and happy Tuesday! I hope everyone’s had a good day so far. I think our Top Five list is going to be a pretty interesting one. If you’ve taken English in high school or university, you’re required to read certain books and it doesn’t matter if you like the book or not; you have to read it. Or, if you were like me, you tried the first few chapters, got bored, and Sparknoted the book instead and still managed to get B’s. “But you’re such a bookwarm!” you say, eh? You’re not wrong, but if I’m forced to read something chances are I won’t. I read what I want, not what I’m forced. But I digress. While I’ve hated most of what I’ve been forced to read in high school and university, there have been some decent ones here and there. So those that are in our list today are the ones I either liked and actually read or they’re ones I relatively tolerated but still Sparknoted nonetheless and I’m not ashamed.
Here is today’s Top Five Tuesday: Required School Readings!
1. HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS BY J.K. ROWLINGOh yes, you read that right. In my Third year, I took an English course called Gothic Horror and it dealt with the time period, not the black and white emo look and aesthetic. And as our final reading, which was for children’s gothic horror, we got to read Harry Potter and I almost cried. I think this was also the only time in my entire academic career that I read a book for class in its entirety. And it was fantastic. It was like “finally, I can use my extensive knowledge of Harry Potter for a grade!!” I’m pretty sure that’s why I got a B in that course.
2. KINDRED BY OCTAVIA E. BUTLERSo this is one of those “I started reading it but ended up Sparknoting it anyways” books, but I actually liked the overall story. This book was for my Science Fiction course, which I also took in Third year, and I think I had some kind of essay or project for a history course that made me not read this book. Not only is it a story about time travel with a black protagonist but it’s also written by a black woman and that’s what makes this book so important. I hope to actually read this book in its entirety one day because I really enjoyed what I had read of it and the plot is really exciting.
3. THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE BY C.S. LEWISI’m pretty sure I hated every single book I read in elementary school, plus we read a lot of weird ones, but this was the one that I absolutely loved. It’s funny because my brother, who’s a year older than me, warned me about this book when I reached grade 6 and he told me how much he hated it, but when we started reading it I fell in love immediately. This is probably my only good memory about grade 6 and I’d like to keep it that way. The only thing I don’t remember is how I ended up seeing the movie adaptation; I know it had to be after I finished the book but was it in class? Was it in my own home? I literally could not tell you.
4. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSONAnother book for my Gothic Horror class, this was a book that I enjoyed but only ended up reading half of it. Again, I’m pretty sure I had a giant history essay or project I was doing instead of reading this book. But I read half of it and that’s an accomplishment for me. These were just elective courses, it was fine. But I was slightly excited for this book because prior to this course, the extent of my Jekyll and Hyde knowledge was in that episode of Arthur where The Brain sang that song about reading this book and having nightmares. Remember? “He was Jekyll Jekyll Hyde, Jekyll Hyde, Hyde, Jekyll.” Just me? Ok. Anyways, I enjoyed the story and that’s what matters here, not the fact that I Sparknoted it.
5. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREListen, we all had to read Shakespeare in high school. It’s unavoidable. Grade 9 you read Romeo and Juliet, grade 10 you either read A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Julius Caesar, grade 11 you read Macbeth, and grade 12 you read Hamlet. Out of all of those, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the only one I truly enjoyed, probably because it’s one of Shakespeare’s only comedies. Plus, it had magic and elves and fairies and that’s the kind of stuff I live for.
Well, those are my top required school readings! I wish I could do a counter-list for this, like I did with the book covers list, but there are so many books from school that I hated and a top 5 just wouldn’t be enough.
Until next time,
What were you required to read for school? Leave a comment below!
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