Books I Was Supposed To Read In High School

Location: Couch
Listening to: The fan in my bathroom humming
Days til College: 5


I just made the executive decision to start writing about more than just my life. That's what a diary is for, right? I mean, I'm still going to talk about stuff that happens to me, but probably on more of an in-depth level. I don't even know. I'm just kind of confusing myself right now. I'm going to make a list now. Of...um....books I was supposed to read in high school. These are all books that were assigned to me from grades 9-12 that I never actually read (and I've never gotten anything less than an A in an English class, thankyouverymuch). I may have glanced at a few pages/chapters here and there, but I never genuinely read the book. Here we go.

Books I Was Supposed To Read In High School (A Chronological List):

Freshman Year - Advanced English 9:

Lord of the Flies - I hated every moment of this book, and I didn't even read it. I think I might have attempted it. But listening to my class discuss the insane cruelty of these boys made me loathe the story. Plus, I was 15 and it was a total boy book.

Great Expectations - I've just never been able to get into Dickens. I'm not really sure why.

Animal Farm - I think I might have read most of this one. And if I didn't, I feel like I did. I actually liked it. Never have the words, "You communist pig," been so accurate!

Sophomore Year - Advanced English 10:

The Scarlet Letter - I read the 30 page introduction. I liked that part. And then I gave up. I couldn't get into the "My baby daddy is a psychopath and...whoa...so is my baby." plot. Plus, I hate Romanticism. Worst. Era. Ever.

Junior Year - British Literature:

We didn't really read any books besides MacBeth that I can remember. And I read that one.

Senior Year - AP Literature and Composition:

Heart of Darkness - I tried. I really did. I made true efforts to read this book. It seems like a decent story. But our teacher told us we'd do all of the reading in class and he analyzed the crap out of it and I have a hard time reading books when I have to stop after every sentence to deconstruct it. According to my English teacher, this is one of the best/hardest/most insightful books we would ever read. And then he said, "Of course, there is always that one kid who doesn't bother to read it." That was me. (And about half of my class).

Frankenstein - Actually, I think I read this one. Or, most of it at least. I read enough of it to write my AP essay on it and get a passing grade. Good book.
Mayor of Casterbridge - Don't even get me started. I didn't even have to read it to hate it. Michael Henchard is the ultimate douchebag.

Tartuffe - We were assigned to read the whole play in two nights, during which I also had tech week for a show I was in. Obviously, the show took priority.

The Metamorphosis - Hate. Hatehatehate. Franz Kafka, I hope you are happy with the insane torture you are inflicting on poor students everywhere. "I'm a bug. And I'm really unhappy about it. Wahwahwahwah." I would have stepped on Gregor. Hah!

Looking back, I'm pretty sure almost all of the assigned literature I read in High School English classes was Shakespeare. Yay!

Any High School kids out there reading this, let this be a lesson to you: You do not need to read every single book for class (even AP Lit) as long as you pay close enough attention to in-class discussion. I promise, you'll thank me later.