CPL's Book a Week Challenge discussion

This is more a general question than one about the specific book you chose, but how did you all feel about required school reading? Were you excited to see what books were chosen? Did you dread it? Did your attitude change the older you got?

I will admit, required reading felt like a chore to me for the longest time. I dreaded the list of books and always crossed my fingers that there would be at least one that wouldn't be awful. Because I was homeschooled, I generally got a list I could chose from as opposed to only having one book option. My attitude adjusted a bit when my mom forced me to read Pride and Prejudice. I wasn't pleased but after 30 pages, I was hooked. It's now one of my all time favorites.

That story is an exception, though. For the most part, my required reading for school (both high school and college) was tolerable to unpleasant and almost none are on my list to reread.

I remember having to read Great Expectations at some point during high school. It was quite long, detailed, and I had trouble following along with the plot due to the page length. After reading it, however, I was glad it was assigned. It made me actually appreciate the time I put into it because of its questioning nature.

I loved required reading. I read a lot growing up, and I felt like if it was chosen for school then it must be good. This was obviously not always the case, but it exposed me to books I wouldn’t have chosen on my own and expanded my preferences. The chief reason I was an English major in college (basically four years of required reading) was to have an excuse to read and talk about books.

I remember my freshman English class, Expository Writing, and being so disappointed my class had to read Antigone and my friend's class got to read Tess of the D'Urbervilles! Taking 20th Century Literature introduced me to John Steinbeck and Theodore Dreiser. I met Frankenstein's monster and Dracula in Literature of Terror. Of course there were books I could not get into, but I am glad I read what I did in college because I may not h ave read them on my own.

I second Jodie's Steinbeck... reading him in high school was the first required reading I enjoyed. Most importantly and eye opening, I took a Women's Literature class early on in college and that exposed me to Toni Morrison, Kate Chopin, Margaret Atwood and more. I also took a class on short stories, and that required reading Raymond Carver and John Cheever, two of my favorites still today.

In my last semester as an undergrad, I took a Detective Fiction Class. We started with The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and surveyed the best of the genre. Some of those authors are still on my favorites list.