Let's Talk: Required Reading

Let's Talk is a weekly meme hosted by Melissa at i swim for oceans. Each week, there's a new topic to discuss. 

I just discovered this meme only yesterday, and I thought I'd give it a go. I've been thinking about doing discussion type posts on here for a while now, but I'm terrible at coming up with ideas, so this serves as a great prompt!

This week, let's talk about Required Reading.

Which books from your required reading days (high school/middle school) made the biggest impact on you?

I remember that in high school, there was always one book that you actually enjoyed reading, and the rest you absolutely loathed. I don't know how much of an impact these books have had on me, and considering I'm struggling to remember some of them, let's talk about the ones I do remember - that one book each year that I was actually happy to read. 

In Year 7, it was Exodus by Julie Bertagna. This was one of the first dystopians I ever read - little did I know how much I would come to enjoy dystopians in the future. And, just now researching this book to find the author's name, I've discovered that it's part of a trilogy - and now I'm actually considering going back, re-reading the first novel (which I never do), and then getting into this series. Whether that actually happens is fairly unlikely, but just the fact that I'm even thinking about it should convey that I did really enjoy this book, way back when I was 12 years old. 

I honesty don't remember any of the books we had to read in Year 8, so lets skip forward to Year 9. That year, I was content to read Skin by Adrienne Maria Vrettos. I say content because at the time, I wasn't into reading deep and emotional books that tackled the feelings and emotions related to eating disorders, but for that year, that was the best book. 

In Year 10, it was To King a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This one's a given, although I do think the play Oedipus came a close second, just because it was so messed up. To King a Mockingbird is such an iconic novel, pretty much anyone who's read it loves it, or enjoyed it at least. 

In Year 11, it was The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Now, I didn't actually finish this book, but I did like the bits I read...I guess that speaks volumes for the books we had to read in Year 11. Actually, we spent the majority of our time studying a movie called Jindabyne. I think that movie's stuck with me the most, not because it's any great movie masterpiece, but rather, because it's the complete opposite. 

In Year 12, it was Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. Even though this novel is full of the technical devices that English teachers love (which isn't surprising, since Guterson was a teacher before becoming a novelist), I really enjoyed it. It's a great murder mystery with some racial prejudice in there to spice it up and make it quite interesting to read. 

So there you go, a look into some of the novels that have stuck with me from my school days. Was this interesting at all? I realise I didn't actually say much about each novel I mentioned, simply because I find it hard to remember what they were about. Required reading for me just wasn't all that memorable; most of the novels I just read because I had to, and then as we began to dissect them, I found I liked them less and less, until I positively hated them. What about you? Did you have any required reading that really struck a cord with you? Or were you like me, and hated almost anything you studied in class?

Posted on Let's Discuss hosted by The Fiction Conniption and Oh, Chrys!