Book meme- Day 23

[scripsi]

23. Made to read at school.

I’ve been made to read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies twice, and t stands out because I hated the book the first time, and I hated it on the re-read too. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was also a school required read I didn’t enjoy at all. Classic or not.

On the other hand, I was also required to read Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way and loved every word of it. I really wish I could read it in French.

Comments

[evelyn_b]

Yeah - I think it gets a little more hate than it deserves because it's required reading and kids are contratians - but I understand the hate to some extent; I just don't share it. I find Holden's limitations sympathetic instead of annoying.

[scripsi]

I never really understood why this is required reading in so many schools, and also countries. Because the protagonist is a teenager? It still doesn't mean it's a book for teenagers, or one they would enjoy. I liked about half of my school-required reading, but, clearly, not this one. :)

[evelyn_b]

It wasn't "for" teenagers, but it was popular with American teenagers when it came out in 1951! (Though of course that doesn't mean all American teenagers loved it even then; see also Twilight and The Fault in Our Stars). Plus it's short and may seem like a relatively easy read due to Holden's "lousy vocabulary".

The only stories that everyone in my high school English classes liked were "The Lottery" and "The Yellow Wallpaper."

[scripsi]

Hmm, I wonder if that is why it's such a popular book in schools. Teachers who read it in the '50s and remember the impact, and not realising what teenagers like change decade to decade. And now it's part of the curriculum out of habit. :)