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Book Wyrms have something distinctly uncommon from most people during their high-school years: they actually read 2 to 8 high school books that were assigned each year instead of just skimming the SparkNotes. Furthermore, true book wyrms have very strong opinions on the books they were required to read in high school and can’t understand how one-third of their high school peers have not read a book for pleasure in an entire year.
Love them or hate them, below are the most popularly assigned high school books.* Check them off to see if you’ve just read the bare requirements, or if you’ve continued your reading assignment well past your high-school days.
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- 1984 by George Orwell
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- The Odyssey by Homer
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
- Antigone by Jean Anouilh
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman
- A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
- Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- Antigone by Sophocles
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
- The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
- 1776 by David McCullough
How’d you do? Tell us in the comments below along with your most and least favorite high school books. And don’t forget to challenge your friends!
Happy reading!
*Books in the list were gathered with the help of Goodreads.
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I found Brave New World online by searching “dystopias similar to The Giver” and Animal Farm was given to me by my 16-year-old sister.
I’m in middle school, so I haven’t gotten these reading assignments yet, but I can definitely say I read the heck out of these books and they were great.
Well, we did read an excerpt from Grapes of Wrath recently (it was one chapter, I think).
17+/- 1. I have to say, some of my least favorite experiences I’ve had in highschool are derived from my english teachers. It’s a shame that teachers are more focused on what they feel is important to teach students than letting students choose for themselves. I did enjoy a few books that weren’t on the list only because they were up to me to choose to read.
38/58 plus one I’m not sure about, and a couple I tried and discarded. Some of these were assigned, but many more I read on my own initiative.
I’ve read 15 and parts of a couple more. Even as a dedicated book wyrm (average of 4-5 books a week) there have been a few that I couldn’t stick with even as an adult, most notably Grapes of Wrath and The Catcher in the Rye. In Mr. Holland’s Opus he said he’d use any genre if it would teach kids to love music. It’s a shame more English teachers don’t or can’t take the same approach.
There are 52 I have read, only 7 that I have not read. I think I will put them on my list to read now. (granted I am as old as dirt).
Absolutely love The Little Prince (unfortunately misspelled in this list) and have enjoyed sharing it with family and friends.
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were at the bottom of my list in high school, although I grew to appreciate them later in life.
Madame Bovary was banned when I was in school, and Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) was haunting.
We memorized much of Shakespeare too.
Thanks for posting this interesting list of books!
I’ve read most of the list— but THE LITTLE PRICE by Antoine de Saint-Exupery? You’ve cheapened the book.
I’ve read 35.
I have read 21. Jane Eyre would be my favorite. The Metamorphosis my least.
I have read 24 of the books.